I was once present, when the chief of Oonalashka made his dinner of the raw head of a large halibut, just caught.  Before any was given to the chief, two of his servants eat the gills, without any other dressing, besides squeezing out the slime.  This done, one of them cut off the head of the fish, took it to the sea and washed it, then came with it, and sat down by the chief, first pulling up some grass, upon a part of which the head was laid, and the rest was strewed before the chief.  He then cut large pieces of the cheeks, and laid these within the reach of the great man, who swallowed them with as much satisfaction as we should do raw oysters.  When he had done, the remains of the head were cut in pieces, and given to the attendants, who tore off the meat with their teeth, and gnawed the bones like so many dogs.

As these people use no paint, they are not so dirty in their persons as the savages who thus besmear themselves; but they are full as lousy and filthy in their houses.  Their method of building is as follows:  They dig in the ground an oblong square pit, the length of which seldom exceeds fifty feet, and the breadth twenty; but in general the dimensions are smaller.  Over this excavation they form the roof of wood which the sea throws ashore.  This roof is covered first with grass, and then with earth, so that the outward appearance is like a dunghill.  In the middle of the roof, toward each end, is left a square opening, by which the light is admitted; one of these openings being for this purpose only, and the other being also used to go in and out by, with the help of a ladder, or rather a post, with steps cut in it.[17] In some houses there is another entrance below; but this is not common.  Round the sides and ends of the huts, the families, (for several are lodged together) have their separate apartments, where they sleep, and sit at work, not upon benches, but in a kind of concave trench, which is dug all round the inside of the house, and covered with mats; so that this part is kept tolerably decent.  But the middle of the house, which is common to all the families, is far otherwise.  For, although it be covered with dry grass, it is a receptacle for dirt of every kind, and the place for the urine trough; the stench of which is not mended by raw hides, or leather being almost continually steeped in it.  Behind and over the trench, are placed the few effects they are possessed of, such as their cloathing, mats, and skins.

[Footnote 17:  Mr Coxe’s description of the habitations of the natives of Oonalashka, and the other Fox Islands, in general, agrees with Captain Cook’s.  See Russian Discoveries, p. 149.  See also Histoire des differents Peuples soumis a la Domination des Russes, par M. Levesque, tom. i. p. 40, 41.—­D.]