516 



HABITATIONS 



[b. a. e. 



form, 14 by 60 ft. had the sides and roof 

 made of rushes and chestnut l)ark, with 

 an opening along the top of the roof from 

 end to end. The Mandan circular com- 

 munity house was usually about 40 ft in 

 diameter; it was supported by two series 

 of posts and cross-beams, and the wide 

 roof and sloj^ing sides were covered 

 with willow or brush matting and earth. 

 The tireplace was in the center. Morgan 

 thinks that the oblong, round-roof houses 

 of the Virginia and North Carolina tribes, 

 seen and described by Capt. John Smith 

 and drawn by John White, were of the 

 community order. That some of them 

 housed a number of families is distinctly 

 stated. Morgan includes also in the com- 

 munity class the circular, dome-shaped 

 earth lodges of Sacramento valley and the 

 L-form, tent-shaped, thatched lodges of 

 the higher areas of California; but the 

 leading examples of community houses 

 are the large, sometimes massive, many- 

 celled clusters of stone or adobe in New 

 Mexico and Arizona known as pueblos 

 (q. v.). These dwellings vary in form, 

 some of those built in prehistoric times 

 being semicircular, others oblong, around 

 orinclosing a court or plaza. These build- 

 ings were constructed usually in terrace 

 form, the lower having a one-story tier 

 of apartments, the next two stories, and 

 so on to theuppern^ost tier, which some- 

 times constituted a seventh story. The 

 masonry consisted usually of small, fiat 

 stones laid in adobe mortar and chinked 

 with spalls; but sometimes large balls 

 of adobe were used as building stones, or 

 a double row of wattling was erected and 

 filled in with grout, solidly tamped. By 

 the latter method, known as pise con- 

 struction, walls 5 to 7 ft thick were some- 

 times built (see Adobe, Casa Grande). 

 The outer walls of tlie lowest story were 

 pierced only l)y small openings, access to 

 the interior being gained by means of 

 ladders, which could be drawn up, if nec- 

 essary, and of a hatchway in the roof. It is 

 possible that some of the elaborate struc- 

 tures of Mexico were developed from 

 such hive-like buildings as those of the 

 typical pueblos, the cells increasing in size 

 toward the S., as suggested by Bandelier. 

 Chimneys appear to h?,ve been unknown 

 in North America until after contact of 

 the natives with Iiluropeans, the hatch- 

 way in the roof serving the double pur- 

 pose of entrance and flue. 



Other forms, some community and oth- 

 ers not, are the following: Among the 

 Eskimo, the karmak, or winter residence, 

 for which a pit of the re<]uired diameter is 

 dug 5 or 6 ft deep, with a fiame of wood 

 or whalebone constructed A\ithin 2 or 3 

 ft above the surface of the ground and 

 covered with a dome-shaped I'oof of poles 

 or whale ribs, turfed and earthed over. 



Entrance is gained by an underground pas- 

 sageway. The temporary hunting lodge of 

 the Laljrador Eskimo was sometimes ( on- 

 structed entirely of the ril)s and vertebrie 

 of the whale. Another form of Eskimo 

 dwellingisthehemispherical snow house, 

 or iglii, huilt of blocks of snow laid in spiral 

 courses. The Kaniagmiut build large 

 permanent houses, called haraUmi by the 

 Russians, which accommodates or 4 fami- 



ESKIMO HOUSE, EAST CAPE, SIBERIA. (nELSOn) 



lies; these are constructed by digging a 

 sijuare pit 2 ft deep, the sides of which 

 are lined with planks that are carried to 

 the required height above the surface and 

 roofed with boards, poles, or whale ribs, 

 thickly covered with grass; in the roof is a 

 smoke hole, and on the eastern side a door. 

 The Tlingit, Haida, and some other tribes 

 build substantial rectangular houses with 

 sides and ends formed of planks and with 

 the fronts elaborately carved and painted 

 withsymbolic 

 figures. Di- 

 rectly in front 

 of the house 

 a totem pole 

 ^ is placed, and 

 near by a me- 

 morial pole 

 is erected. 



SNOW HOUSE OF CENTRAL ESKIMO. a, FRONT VIEW; h, GROUND 



plan; e, section, (boas) 



These houses are sometimes 40 by 100 ft in 

 the NootkaandSalish region, and are occu- 

 pied by a numljer of families. Formerly 

 some of the Haida houses are said to 

 have been built on platforms supported 

 by posts; some of these seen by such early 

 navigators as Vancouver were 25 or 30 ft 

 aboveground, access being had by notched 

 logs serving as ladders. Among the N. W. 

 inland tribes, as the Nez Perces, the dwell- 



i 



