INDIAN DWELLINGS WATERMAN 



467 



wood set upon them, joyning close together at the toppe like a spire 

 steeple. * * * Their bed is the ground * * * and lying 

 about the house, they have the fire in the middest." ^ 



The method of building these houses, as described by modern ob- 

 servers, may be outlined as follows. The earth is dug up and re- 

 moved from a circular depression until a deep pit is formed. The 

 sides of this pit are lined with timbers or slabs. Posts or supports 

 are set up in the center, and beams extend from these center supports 



Eskimo pil-houses 



Conical earth-covered houses, 

 of poles semi-subterranean 



|::;::::| Rectangular gabled plank-houses 



lar shed-roofed 

 houses 



Earth-lodges of the Plains, 

 usually containing pit 



Fig. 1. — Miip showing the distribution of pit structures in western North America. 

 (From T. T. Waterman and collaborators : Native Houses of Western North America, 

 Indian Notes and Monographs.) Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, 

 1921 



to the side walls, forming the framework of the roof. This roof i^^ 

 later covered in with poles, or split logs, thatched with grass, and 

 heaped over with earth. The entrance to the dwelling is through a 

 hole at the top, which serves also as a chimney for the escape of 

 smoke. Descent is effected by a ladder consisting of a half log, split 



1 The Course Which Sir Francis Drake Held from the Haven of Guatuleo in the South 

 Sea on the Backe Side of Nueva Espanna, to tlie Nortliwest of California, etc. Reprinted 

 in Richard Hakluyt : The Principal Navigations. Voyages, Trafflques, and Discoveries 

 of Uie English Nation (12 vols., Glasgow and New York, 1903-1905), Vol. 9, pp. 319-326; 

 reference on p. 321. 



