| 282 THE COMING OF THE EUROPEANS.
ble trade has sprung up, it is true, between the
natives and the-whites, by which, in exchange for
skins and furs which they obtain by trapping and
the chase, the former procure a great many com-
modities that are produced by the arts and manu-
factures of civilized life. But the introduction of
these commodities among them does not have the
effect of changing their habits or modes of life in
any appreciable degree, but rather, by facilitating
the supply of their wants and the, satisfaction of
their desires, to fix and establish these habits more
firmly than ever. They obtain from white men
horses and guns and blankets, and gaudy trappings
and decorations of all kinds. But they use all
these things only as means to enable them the
better to act their parts as huntsmen and warriors.
THE MANDAN LODGES.
Some of the western tribes avail themselves of
their commerce with the whites to procure the
means of adding very materially to their domestic
comfort, while still not essentially changing the
system of life handed down to them from their
forefathers. They built lodges of great size, some-
times fifty feet in diameter. The sides are formed,
for four or five feet above the ground, of a bank of
earth. Above this the walls are continued upward
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