DWELLINGS. 525 



The huts or wigwams of the North American Indians are 

 of two kinds, one for summer, and the other for winter The 

 winter wigwam of the Dacotahs is thus described by School- 

 craft : " To erect one of them it is only necessary to cut a few 

 saplings about fifteen feet in length, place the large ends on 

 the ground in a circle, letting the tops meet, thus forming a 

 cone. The buffalo-skins, sewed together in the form of a cap, 

 are then thrown over them and fastened together with a few 

 splints. The fire is made on the ground in the centre of the 

 wigwam, and the smoke escapes through an aperture at the 

 top. These wigwams are warm and comfortable. The other 

 kind of hut is made of bark, usually that of the elm."* The 

 huts of the Mandans,-f- Minatarees, etc., were circular in form, 

 and from forty to sixty feet in diameter. The earth was 

 removed to a depth of about two feet. The framework was 

 of timber, covered with willow boughs, but leaving a space in 

 the middle to serve both as chimney and window. Over the 

 woodwork was placed a thick layer of earth, and at the top of 

 all some tough clay, which was impervious to water, and in 

 time became quite hard, as in fine weather the tops of the 

 huts were the common lounging -place for the whole tribe. 

 Though these dwellings were sometimes kept very clean and 

 tidy,J this was not always the case. Speaking of the Nootka 

 Sound Indians, Captain Cook says: "The nastiness and 

 stench of their houses are, however, at least equal to the con- 

 fusion. For, as they dry their fish within doors, they also gut 

 them there, which, with their bones and fragments thrown 

 down at meals, and the addition of other sorts of filth, lie 

 everywhere in heaps, and are, I believe, never carried away 

 till it becomes troublesome, from their size, to walk over them. 



* 1. c. vol. ii. p. 191. | Catlin's American Indians, 



t This tribe, one of the most in- vol. i. p. 82. 



teresting, has been entirely swept Third Voyage, vol. ii. p. 316. 

 away by the small-pox. 



