Note 283 — Chapter II · HUNTERS AND FISHERS.

3º. Fixed habitations, large groups, preserving of food. Though the Eskimos move about much for the purpose of obtaining food, they are not quite nomadic. In winter-time they live in solidly constructed dwellings283. Rink states that they have their winter-houses on the same place during several generations284. Boas remarks: “There is no need of any new buildings, as the Eskimo always locate in the old settlements and the old buildings are quite sufficient to satisfy all their wants”285. And Crantz tells us that a Greenlander is not generally much inclined to leave the place where he was born and bred and settle somewhere else; for in nearly every place there is a peculiar method of fishing and seal-hunting, which the newcomer has to learn; and in the meantime, often for several years, he is poorly off286. An Eskimo village most often consists of a single house287, but Eskimo houses accommodate several (in Greenland from 4 to 10) families288. Among the Western Eskimos, however, there are larger villages289. Food is preserved for winter use by the Eskimos, though not in such large quantities as on the Pacific Coast. “The Esquimaux” says a writer on British North America “possess a quality which I may say is almost unknown among Indians, namely, providence; thus, in the season, when the animals are plentiful on the shores of the Arctic Sea, they make “caches” of large quantities of meat for winter use”290. The Greenlanders, though laying up some provision for the winter, are rather improvident. As long as they have abundance of food, they feast and gorge themselves with it; but in the winter they often live in the greatest misery291. Boas, speaking of Central Eskimo store-houses, remarks: “In winter, blubber and meat are put away upon these pillars, which are sufficiently high to keep them from the dogs.” Yet “the house presents a sad and gloomy appearance if stormy weather prevents the men from hunting. The stores are quickly consumed, one lamp after another is extinguished, and everybody sits motionless in the dark hut”292. Among the Eskimos of Alaska “meats are kept in seal-skin bags for over a year.… Their winter store of oil they secure in seal-skin bags, which are buried in the frozen ground”293.