Fig. 531. Diagram showing interior of qaggi or singing house among eastern tribes.
The plan of the house which is used by the eastern tribes is represented in Fig. 531. It is a large snow dome about fifteen feet in height and twenty feet in diameter, without any lining. In the center there is a snow pillar five feet high, on which the lamps stand. When the inhabitants of a village assemble in this building for singing and dancing the married women stand in a row next the wall. The unmarried women form a circle inside the former, while the men sit in the innermost row. The children stand in two groups, one at each side of the door. When the feast begins, a man takes up the drum (kilaut), which will be described presently, steps into the open space next the door, and begins singing and dancing. Among the stone foundations of Niutang, in Kingnait (Cumberland Sound), there is a qaggi built on the same plan as the snow structure. Probably it was covered with a snow roof when in use.
Fig. 532. Plan of Hudson Bay qaggi or singing house. (From Hall II, p. 220.)
Hall gives the plan of the Hudson Bay qaggi (Fig. 532), a copy of which is here introduced, as well as his description of the drum (Fig. 533), which I have never seen made (Hall II, p. 96):
