76 PAPERS, ETC. 
ground, and resting against the bank, a barrier or wall of 
timbers, some eight or nine inches in diameter, of equal 
height (about six feet), placed on end, and resting against 
each other, supported by an embankment of earth raised 
against them outside; then, resting against the tops of 
these timbers or piles, are others of equal size and equal 
numbers, of twenty or twenty-five feet in length, resting 
firmly against each other, and sending their upper, or 
smaller ends, towards the centre and top of the lodge, 
rising at an angle of forty-five degrees to the apex or 
skylight, which is three or four feet in diameter, answering 
as a chimney or skylight at the same time. The roof of 
the lodge being thus formed, is supported by beams passing 
around the inner part of the lodge, about the middle of 
these poles or timbers, and themselves upheld by four 
or five large posts, passing down to the floor of the 
lodge. On the top of and over the poles forming the roof, 
is placed a complete mat of willow boughs, of half a foot 
or more in thickness, which protects the timbers from the 
dampness of the earth with which the lodge is covered 
from bottom to top, to the depth of two or three feet, 
and then with a hard and tough clay, which is impervious 
to water, and which with long use becomes quite hard.” 
Now whether the Mandans be of Celtie origin or not, it is 
interesting to observe the similarity of customs among 
two nations in a state of nearly primitive simplieity; the 
one living on the banks of the Missouri in the nineteenth 
century ; the other on the coast of the British Channel, 
perhaps some centuries before the commencement of the 
Christian Era; for with the exception of the covering of 
earth, which on the top of Worle Hill it would have been 
no easy matter to procure in sufficient quantities for the 
purpose, the construction of the British hut must have 
