Each one is rolled up into a little ball,
or else arms, legs and bodies are so inextricably interwoven, that it
would be impossible for any but the owners to unravel them. And these
bodies are like so many little ovens, so that, no matter how cold it
be, when once within the igloo, the snow-block door put up and chinked,
and all stowed away in bed, Jack Frost can be successfully defied.
As probably many people know, an igloo is usually built of snow. The
word, however, means house, and as their houses consist of a single
room, it also means room. Sometimes at points that are regularly
occupied during the winter months igloos are built of stones, and moss
piled up around and over them, so that when covered by the winter snows
they make very comfortable dwellings. This is the case at Igloolik,
which means the place of igloos, and also near Tulloch Point, on King
William Land, where the ruins of these underground houses were quite
numerous. They had been built a great many years ago by the Ookjooliks,
when they occupied the land before the Netchillik invasion. A long, low
passage-way leads into each dwelling, so constructed as to exclude the
wind from the interior, though ventilation is permitted by leaving open
the door. This, by the way, is an Inuit custom. Even in the coldest
weather the door is open, except when the occupants are asleep, and it
is only closed then to keep the dogs from making a raid on the igloo.
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