rather than enter a tent where cooking was in progress.
[Illustration: KORIAK YOURT.] The Koriaks build their summer dwellings of light poles covered with skin, or bark.

Their winter habitations are of logs covered with earth and partly sunk into the ground, the crevices being filled with moss.
The summer dwellings are called _balagans_, and the winter ones _yourts_, but the latter name is generally applied to both.

A winter yourt has a hole in the top, which serves for both chimney and door.
The ladder for the descent is a hewn stick, with holes for one's feet, and leans directly over the fire.

Whatever the outside temperature, the yourt is suffocatingly hot within, and no fresh air can enter except through the top.

When a large fire is burning and a thick volume of smoke pours out, the descent is very disagreeable.