316 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



rough state in which nature afforded them. The walls 

 were constructed of the smaller boughs of the cotton- 

 tree, with Spanish moss stuffed into the interstices. 

 Instead of the clapboards, wherewith, to the west of 

 the Alleghany range, the dwellings of the poorer class 

 of country people are usually roofed, the palmetto 

 reed had been made use of, a selection that gave the 

 hamlet a peculiar air of rustic simplicity. The houses 

 were for the most part without windows, and their 

 interior received light through the chimney or door, 

 which latter, instead of being of wood, consisted of a 

 buffalo hide suspended in front of the doorway, and 

 thrown back during the day upon the low roof. The 

 principal ch^rm of the village, however, lay not in its 

 style of building, but in the manner in which the 

 humble dwellings seemed to nestle under the numer- 

 ous clusters of trees. The universal cleanliness and 

 absence of all offal formed another remarkable feature, 

 and went far to increase the favourable impression 

 made by the delightful situation of the hamlet. It 

 was truly a lovely spot, as its ruins still show. The 

 broad Natchez flowing majestically by, on its way to 

 the sea ; the dark framework of cypresses and man- 

 groves fringing its shores, their tall shadows reflected 

 in the clear waters ; the innumerable groups of trees, 

 with huts peeping out of their shade like so many 

 hermitages ; and, finally, the spacious clearing itself, 

 enclosed at either end by the waving palmettos, and 

 bounded on the third side by a wall of gigantic and 



