38 INDIANS OF T1IK PLAIN-. 



recall that the tipi was not the only type of shelter used 

 by these Indians. The Mandan, Hidatsa, and Ankara 

 lived in more or less permanent villages of curious 

 earth-covered lodges. The following description of a 

 Hidatsa house may serve as a type: — 



" On the site of a proposed lodge, they often dig down a foot or more 

 in order to find earth compact enough to form a good floor; so, in some 

 lodges, the floors are lower than the general surface of the ground on 

 which the village stands. The floor is of earth, and has in its center a 

 circular depression, for a fire-place, about a foot deep, and three or four 

 feel wide, with an edging of flat rocks. These dwellings, being from 

 thirty to forty feet in diameter, from ten to fifteen feet high in the 

 center, and from five to seven feet high at the eaves, are quite com- 

 modious. 



" The frame of a lodge is thus made: — A number of stout posts, from 

 ten to fifteen, according to the size of the lodge, and rising to the height 

 of about five feet above the surface of the earth, are set about ten feet 

 apart in a circle. On the tops of these posts, solid beams are laid, ex- 

 tending from one to another. Then, toward the center of the lodge, 

 four more posts are erected, of much greater diameter than the outer 

 posts, and rising to the height of ten or more feet above the ground. 

 These four posts stand in the corners of a square of about fifteen feet, 

 and their tops are connected with four heavy logs or beams laid hori- 

 zontally. From the four central beams to the smaller external beams, 

 long poles, as rafters, are stretched at an angle of about 30° with the 

 horizon; and from the outer beams to the earth a number of shorter 

 poles are laid at an angle of about 45°. Finally a number of saplings 

 or rails are laid horizontally to cover the space between the four central 

 beams, leaving only a hole for the combined skylight and chimney. 

 This frame is then covered with willows, hay. and earth, as before men- 

 tioned; the covering being of equal depth over all parts of the frame. 

 (Matthews, 4-5). 



Houses of approximately the same type were used 

 by the Pawnee, Omaha, Ponca, Kansas. Missouri, and 

 Oto. The Osage, on the other hand, are credited with 

 the use of dome-shaped houses covered with mats and 



