INDIANS OF MANHATTAN ISLAND 



globular houses of poles arched over 

 and set in the ground, covered with 

 bark, mats made of rushes, with corn 

 husks, or sedge grass. Such houses 

 looked very much like wooden bowls 

 turned upside down. In the center of 

 each wigwam a hole was dug in the 

 earthen floor to hold the fire so that 

 the sparks might not fly up and ignite 

 the dry walls of the lodge. 



In such fire holes, marking the sites 

 of abandoned Indian houses, archae- 

 ologists may still find fire-cracked 

 stones, wood ashes, the split bones of 

 deer and other animals broken open 

 to extract the marrow, oyster shells, 

 fragments of earthen kettles, stone 

 and bone implements, and all the dis- 

 carded debris of the household utensils 

 which were thrown away by their 

 extinct owners. Sometimes in such a 

 place whole articles are to be had, 

 hidden there perhaps during a sudden 

 attack, and never recovered by the 

 owner. There too, in winter, when the 

 frozen ground outside made digging 

 impossible, the bodies of the dead 

 were sometimes buried in the useful 

 fireplace, and the lodge either 

 destroyed, or set up elsewhere. In 

 proof of this skeletons have often been 

 found in these forgotten fireplaces. 



The interior furnishing of a round 

 lodge was simple enough. A bench 

 ran all around the inside of the wall, 

 and on this the inhabitants sat and 

 slept. Poles swung horizontally from 

 the roof, supported strings of braided 

 corn, and baskets or bags of food, and 

 other paraphernalia. A hole was left 

 in the roof, directly over the hearth, 

 for the smoke to escape. 



Another kind of house, and one that 

 was probably used most frequently 

 in the summer, was a square lodge, 



made of poles and bark, with a pointed 

 or rounded roof in which a long slot 

 was left at the ridge for the escape of 

 smoke. Such a house was commonly 

 occupied by a number of related fam- 

 ilies, and corresponded in many ways, 

 with the long tenements of the Iroquois. 

 None of the houses, and few of the 

 villages of the local Indians were ever 

 defended by palisades or trenches. 



We are told by the old writers, and 

 archaeological investigation confirms 

 them, that the household utensils of 

 the Indians were pottery vessels, 

 nearly always, curiously enough, made 

 with a pointed bottom, so that they 

 had to be propped up with stones when 

 in use, calabashes or gourds for water, 

 spoons of shell and wood, wooden bowls 

 laboriously made by burning and 

 scraping knots or burls of trees, and 

 bone awls and other tools. 



The Indians derived their live- 

 lihood by farming a little, for they 

 raised corn, beans, pumpkins, 

 squashes, melons, and tobacco; but 

 mostly by fishing, oystering, and clam 

 gathering. They also were good 

 hunters, as the bones of various ani- 

 mals, so common on their old kitchen 

 refuse heaps, abundantly prove. How- 

 ever, from the vast heaps of oyster, 

 clam, mussel, and other marine shells, 

 that may be found scattered about the 

 old Indian camping grounds, it is obvious 

 that the sea furnished most of their food. 



They caught fish in seines and gill 

 nets, by harpooning, and by shooting 

 with the bow and arrow; they killed 

 deer and other game with the bow and 

 arrow, often hunting in large com- 

 panies. This was, with the waging 

 of war, the duty of the men; the women 

 tended the fields and probably built 

 and owned the lodges. 



