With few exceptions, all dances take place in the village kasgi or
dance hall. This is the public meeting place where the old men gather
to sit and smoke while they discuss the village welfare, where the
married men bring their work and take their sweat baths, and where
the bachelors and young men, termed kasgimiut, have their sleeping
quarters. The kasgi is built and maintained at public expense, each
villager considering it an honor to contribute something. Any tools or
furnishings brought into the kasgi are considered public property, and
used as such.
When a kasgi is to be built, announcement is made through messengers
to neighboring villages, and all gather to assist in the building and
to help celebrate the event. First a trench several feet deep is dug
in which to plant the timbers forming the sides. These are usually of
driftwood, which is brought by the ocean currents from the Yukon. The
ice breaks up first at the head of that great stream, and the debris
dams up the river, which overflows its banks, tearing down trees,
buildings and whatever borders its course as it breaks its way out to
the sea. The wreckage is scattered along the coast for over a hundred
miles, and the islands of Bering Sea get a small share. The islanders
are constantly on the lookout for the drifting timber, and put out to
sea in the stormiest weather for a distant piece, be it large or
small. They also patrol the coast after a high tide for stray bits of
wood. When one considers the toil and pain with which material is
gathered, the building of a kasgi becomes an important matter.
After the timbers have been rough hewn with the adze (ulimon) they are
set upright in the trench to a height of seven to eight feet and
firmly bedded with rock. This is to prevent the fierce Polar winds
which prevail in midwinter from tearing the houses to pieces. In the
older buildings a protecting stone wall was built on the sides. Most
of the houses are set in a side hill, or partly underground, for
additional security, as well as for warmth. The roof is laid on top of
the uprights, the logs being drawn in gradually in pyramid shape to a
flat top. In the middle of the top is the [.r]alok or smoke hole, an
opening about two feet square. In a kasgi thirty feet square the ralok
is twenty feet above the floor. It is covered with a translucent
curtain of walrus gut. The dead are always taken out through this
opening, and never by the entrance. The most important feature of the
room is the in['g]lak, a wide shelf supported by posts at intervals.
It stands about five feet high extending around the room. This serves
the double purpose of a seat and bed for the inmates of the kasgi. The
rear, the kaan, is the most desirable position, being the warmest, and
is given to headmen and honored guests.[5] The side portions, kaaklim,
are given to the lesser lights and the women and children; and the
front, the oaklim, being nearest the entrance and therefore cold and
uncomfortable is left for the orphans and worthless men.
[5] The order of the seating on the in['g]lak of invited guests is a
matter of great concern to the Eskimo, as it is an indication of
worth.
Children purchase their right to a seat in the kasgi by making
presents, through their parents, to all the inmates, kasgimiut.
Until they do so they have no right to enter. For the same reason
strangers on entering the kasgi offer a small present to the headman,
who divides it among the people.
The floor of the kasgi is made of rough planking, and the boards in
the center are left loose so that they may be easily removed. These
cover the k[=e]nethluk or fireplace, an excavation four feet square,
and four feet deep, used in the sweat baths. It is thought to be
the place where the spirits sit, when they visit the kasgi, during
festivals held in their honor. Offerings are poured to them through
the cracks in the planks. In the center of the floor is a round hole
about two feet in diameter, called the entrance hole or pugyarok. This
connects with a long tunnel, the a['g]veak, which leads outside. The
tunnel is usually so low that it is necessary to enter in a stooping
position, which the Eskimo does by placing both hands on the sides of
the pugyarok, and drawing himself through. Some dance-houses have
another entrance directly into the room on a level with the ground,
the underground passage being used only in winter. The diagram (Plate
XI) gives an idea of this arrangement.