MORGAN. INTERIOR OF MANDAN HOUSE. WAC 
same inclination, and resting against the stringers, which when completed 
surrounded the lodge with a wooden wall. Four round posts, each six or 
eight inches in diameter, are set in the ground near.the center of the floor, 
in the angles of a square, ten feet apart, and rising from ten to fifteen feet 
above the ground floor. These again are connected by. stringers resting in 
forks at their tops, upon which and the external wall the rafters rest. 
The engraving exhibits a cross-section, as described. Poles three or 
four inches in diameter are placed as rafters from the external wall to the 
string-pieces above 
the central parts, 
and near enough to- 
gether to give the 
requisite strength 
to support the earth 
covering placed 
upon the roo ifs Fic. 18.—Cross-section of House. 
These poles were first covered over with willow matting, upon which prairie 
grass was overspread, and over all a deep covering of earth. An opening 
was left in the center, about four feet in diameter, for the exit of the smoke 
and for the admission of light. The interior was spacious and tolerably well 
lighted, although the opening in the roof and a single doorway were the 
only apertures through which light could penetrate. There was but one 
entrance, protected by what has been called the Eskimo doorway; that is, 
by a passage some five feet wide, ten or twelve feet long, and about six feet 
high, constructed with split timbers, roofed with poles, and covered with 
earth. Buffalo-robes suspended at the outer and inner entrances supplied 
the place of doors. Each house was comparted by screens of willow mat- 
ting or unhaired skins suspended from the rafters, with spaces between for 
storage. ‘These slightly-constructed apartments opened towards the central 
fire like stalls, thus defining an open central area around the fire-pit, which 
was the gathering place of the inmates of the lodge. This fire-pit was about 
five feet in diameter, a foot deep, and encircled with flat stones set up edge- 
wise. A hard, smooth, earthen floor completed the interior. Such a lodge 
would accommodate five or six families, embracing thirty or forty persons. 
