A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF SOME INDIAN HOMES. 803 



their ends molded upon each other by the aid of an axe, or an adz. 

 The Choctaws have long built such houses, and the more intelli- 

 gent tribes of the Indians on our frontier will undoubtedly follow 

 their example, as they become completely surrounded by our ad- 

 vancing line of civilization. 



From this point, did the scope of my article admit of it, I 

 should like to show how, from such houses as have thus far 

 been described, we pass through easy transitional stages to the 

 higher types of architecture, or the communal homes of the 

 Indians of the pueblos of New Mexico and Arizona. Such a 

 treatise, however, would form quite a volume, and far exceed 

 my limits. 



In those transitional stages to which I refer, it can be shown 

 that a great many interesting forms of homes are built, or 



Fig. 3. Wolpai. a Moqui Indian Village. 



used to be built, by the Indians. These present every imagin- 

 able form : in some the thatching is very well done, and very 

 ingenious ; in some the door is at the side, while in others it is 

 on the roof ; they contain single rooms, as well as rooms en 

 suite ; and finally they gradually pass from the use of brush, 

 poles, hides, and mud -plaster to the employment of adobe- 

 plaster, rubble-stone, and adobes. Mr. Lewis H. Morgan has said 

 that " a comparison will show that they belong to a common 

 indigenous system of architecture. There is a common princi- 

 ple running through all this architecture, from the hut of the 

 savage to the commodious joint-tenement house of the village 

 Indians of Mexico and Central America, which will contribute 



