BUSHNELL] NATIVE VILLAGES AND VILLAGE SITES (al 
in depth. The piquet 1s composed of timbers of a foot or more in. 
diameter, and eighteen feet high, set firmly in the ground at sufficient 
distance from each other to admit of guns and other missils to be fired 
between them.”’ 
The structures within the protected area were very close together— 
“They all have a circular form, and are from forty to sixty feet in 
diameter. Their foundations are prepared by digging some two feet 
in the ground, and forming the floor of earth, by leveling the requisite 
size for the lodge. The floors or foundation are all perfectly circu- 
lar . . . The superstructure is then produced, by arranging, inside 
of this circular excavation, firmly fixed in the 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 a formidable embankment 
of earth raised against them outside; then, resting upon the tops of 
these timbers or piles, are others of equal size and equal in numbers, 
of twenty-five feet in length, resting firmly against each other and 
sending their upper or smaller ends towards the center and top of the 
lodge; rising at an angle of forty-five degrees to the apex or sky-light, 
which is about three or four feet in diameter, answering as a chimney 
and a sky-light 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 the poles or timbers, and themselves up- 
held 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 pro- 
tects 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 or tough clay which is impervious to water, and 
which with long use becomes quite hard.’’ (Catlin, (1), I, pp. 81-82.) 
A circular excavation some 4 or 5 feet in diameter, a foot or more 
in depth and curbed with stones, made in the center of the floor of 
the structure, served as the fireplace. Beds were formed by stretch- 
ing buffalo skins over frames of poles lashed securely together. 
These extended around the inside wall and each was curtained by 
skins, some of which were elaborately painted, others being decorated 
with quillwork. These beds are quite suggestive of the “‘cabins”’ 
seen by Dickenson in the great round houses which stood in the vil- 
lages on the coast north of St. Augustine during the autumn of 1699, 
and which are described on another page. 
The earth lodge was erected by many of the plains tribes, including 
the Pawnee, and in plate 12 is reproduced a very remarkable photo- 
graph of a Pawnee village made about 50 years ago. ‘The great town 
houses of the southern tribes undoubtedly resembled these struc- 
tures, although some seem to have had a thatch of grass outside the 
