This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

THE INDIAN VILLAGE

ings. Unless destroyed by fire, these houses would stand for ages, as the cedar was almost indestructible. Each house was fitted to accommodate several families. Along the sides, which might be six or eight feet high, and along the rear wall were built beds like steamer bunks, one above the other. From the lowest of these bunks the floor of earth extended out like a platform four or five feet to a depression of a foot or two along the center of the lodge, which was reserved for the fire place.

Fully inhabited by Indian men, women, children and dogs, lighted up by the smoky fires, the lodge interior looked like a witches' cave. Men and women in all conditions as to toilet lay sprawled on the earth platform about the fire. In the bunks amid dilapidated furs were numberless half-naked children and coyote-

9