EARTH LODGE. A domieile of earth. or within the earth. The middle-latitude _ktnerind tribes made typical earth lodges for winter use. The Cathloan, Siouan, and Athapascan domicile for the winter was constructed by making an excavation from two to four feet deep, within which a framework of poles was erected. This was covered with grass or shrubbery and the ex cavated earth was heaped over all. The entrance was a long covered way. Among the California tribes there was a corresponding type, though placed deeper in the earth and with ft propor tionatel• longer covered entrance. Tick building wag used as a 'medicine' lodge, i.e. a temple, or place for sacred veremonies. In southern Cali fornia and throughout the arid region generally a single domicile usually served both fur winter and summer use. This was commonly built of grass or cones or wattled shrubbery supported by a framework of poles, but a traee of the more primitive form survived in a roof-covering of earth and sometimes in a plastering, of mud with imbedded pebbles. This latter type is of much interest as a precursor of the pis•". type in which American aboriginal architecture may be said to have culminated. The pebble-set plaster ing was thickened, then the pebbly imul was rammed between two wattled walls. As a furtictsr development the wattling, was reduced to movable sereens between which ledges of rammed earth were built up and permittdd to set by drying,: while the earthen roof gradu ally became a resting-place, then a refuge as the walls developed into parapet:. and eventually an upper floor when the parapet had become a full story. This perfect type of earth lodge co
exists with the essentially primitive neighbor .
ing type Earth lodges abound also in the mid dle latitudes of south America, as well as in many parts of Asia and Europe. Tacitus NAi.l speaks of earth lodges among the Subterranean galleries exist in those parts of Scotland, Ireland. and Englaihl where is prevalent. Hence these prehis toric remains are thought to have been of Celtic origin. They consist of a principal chamber, often with rooms on the sides and reaching the depth of fifty feet or more. The walls art- said to be of stones laid up dry and the roofs of slabs are often not more than a foot beneath the surface. Relics of Roman origin are found in some, and it cannot be positively affirmed who built them. Whole cities in IZussia are under the ground.
In dapan, especially in the north, and in Korea. earth lodp.s were formerly in use. (Me of the most interesting phases of this type of habita tion culminates in the dome-shaped snow hut of those Eskimo who live away from any timber supply. Across the northern portion of the earth the tribes live under sod a part of the year. These subterranean abodes are built of wood and covered with earth. In Arctic America, where driftwood abounds. the Eskimo make a strong framework of logs over which earth is heaped. The chanthered tomb or dolmen is mere ly the earth lodge for the dead; the snow dome. prototype and forerunner of the most imposing architectural feature. is the climax of the earth lodge for the living.