y developed
type may be illustrated by the circular frame-houses of the
Mandans.[85] These houses were from forty to sixty feet in diameter. A
dozen or more posts, each about eight inches in diameter, were set in
the ground, "at equal distances in the circumference of a circle, and
rising about six feet above the level of the floor." The tops of the
posts were connected by horizontal stringers; and outside each post a
slanting wooden brace sunk in the ground about four feet distant served
as a firm support to the structure. The spaces between these braces were
filled by tall wooden slabs, set with the same slant and resting against
the stringers. Thus the framework of the outer wall was completed. To
support the roof four posts were set in the ground about ten feet apart
in the form of a square, near the centre of the building. They were from
twelve to fifteen feet in height, and were connected at the top by four
stringers forming a square. The rafters rested upon these stringers and
upon the top of the circular wall below. The rafters were covered with
willow matting, and upon this was spread a layer of prairie grass. Then
both wall and roof, from the ground up to the summit, were covered with
earth, solid and hard, to a thickness of at least two feet. The rafters
projected above the square framework at the summit, so as to leave a
circular opening in the centre about four feet in diameter. This hole
let in a little light, and let out some of the smoke from the fire which
blazed underneath in a fire-pit lined with stone slabs set on edge.
The only other aperture for light was the doorway, which was a kind of
vestibule or passage some ten feet in length. Curtains of buffalo robes
did duty instead of doors. The family compartments were triangles with
base at the outer wall, and apex opening upon the central hearth; and
the partitions were hanging mats or skins, which were tastefully fringed
and ornamented with quill-work and pictographs.[86] In the lower Mandan
village, visited by Catlin, there were about fifty such houses, each
able to accommodate from thirty to forty persons. The village, situated
upon a bold bluff at a bend of the Missouri river, and surrounded by a
palisade of stout timbers more than ten feet in height, was very strong
for defensive purposes. Indeed, it was virtually impregnable to Indian
methods of attack, for the earth-covered houses could not be set on fire
by blazing arrows, and just within the pal