These folk lived in low wooden huts, with clay smeared between the logs to block the drafts coming through the chinks, which would happen if you live in house made of split spruce tree trunks. They had no windows in the sides but they did have a big hole in the roof, which was made of bundles of rushes, to allow the smoke out. In the winter the snow came up, and up, and up and blocked the door. The only way in and out was through the hole in the roof. It wasn't really a door and it wasn't chimney, it was something in between; perhaps a doomney or chimnor but it worked as both, badly perhaps, but still a practical way of getting in and out for humans, dogs, rats and mice and a host of other animals, so long as they didn't fall in the embers of the fire or didn't become so fat that they couldn't fit through the hole. This was unlikely to happen as food was very scarce in the winter and so people went round becoming thinner and thinner and had to tighten their belts to stop their trousers falling down.
YOU ARE READING
The origin of Father Christmas
Historical FictionA girl in my granddaughter's class at primary school was upset to be told that Father Christmas did not really exist and so I wrote this (mostly) authentic historical fable to explain the real origin of this fabulous character. Possibly not for the...
