BUSIINELL] NATIVE VILLAGES AND VILLAGE SITES 23 
Mats served to cover the small entrance, and others were used to 
close the opening left in the top for the smoke to pass out, the fire 
being kindled on the ground within the lodge. Many pits (caches) 
filled with corn and other supplies were discovered in the vicinity of 
the dwellings, and a large quantity of the corn was taken by the 
English—a food new to them. 
This appears to have been the most usual form of habitation of 
the Indians of New England, although in the extreme northern part, 
among the lakes of Maine, where the birch attained a large size and 
erew in great plenty, the lodge covered with strips of birch bark was 
known and used. About the close of the year 1689 Pére Sébastien 
Rasles went from Quebec and settled among the Abnaki, in a village 
not far distant, which he thus described: 
“This village was inhabitated by two hundred Savages, nearly all 
of whom were Christians. Their cabins were ranged almost like 
houses in cities; an enclosure of high and closely-set stakes formed a 
sort of wall, which protected them from incursions of their enemies. 
Their cabins are very quickly set up; they plant their poles, which 
are joined at the top, and cover them with large sheets _of bark. 
The fire is made in the middle of the cabin; they spread all around it 
mats of rushes, upon which they sit during the day and take their 
rest during the night.’”’ (Rasles, (1), p. 135.) 
This clearly refers to a palisaded village, the dwellings of conical 
form covered with bark which, although not so mentioned, was 
undoubtedly taken from the birch. Thus in New England, among 
the eastern Algonquian tribes, as among the related tribes of the 
upper Mississippi Valley, the kind of material available for the con- 
struction of a habitation usually determined the type of structure 
erected, and while the conical birch bark covered wigwam was used 
in the northern part of their country, only the dome-shaped mat- 
covered dwelling was encountered farther south. (Pl. 2.) 
Pére Rasles (op. cit., p. 217) later referred to the manner in which 
the Abnaki would sleep when on a journey away from their villages. 
He wrote: 
“The Savages sleep uncovered in the open fields, if it do not rain; 
if it ram or snow, they cover themselves with sheets of bark, which 
they carry with them, and which are rolled up like cloth.” . 
Quite similar to this, as will be shown on a subsequent page, was 
Bartram’s description of the shelter provided for him by his Indian 
guides during the journey to Onondaga in the summer of 1743. 
The Abnaki moved from place to place during the year, as did 
others, often seeking food on the coast between the planting and 
the harvesting of their corn; their villages and gardens being inland 
away from the sea. 
