BUSHNELL] NATIVE VILLAGES AND VILLAGE SITES 65 
in the foreground, near a fire in the open. Others are gathered be- 
neath the shelter on the left, while to the right of the door of the far 
cabin a woman is busily engaged with mortar and pestle, probably 
preparing kombo ashish. The use of the large carrying basket, the 
kishé of the Choctaw, is clearly indicated, and the group in the fore- 
eround may be engaged in preparing dyes and the materials for bas- 
ket making, with strips of cane scattered on the ground. The open 
shelter was probably in use throughout the South and the one which 
stood at Bonfouca in 1846 was undoubtedly typical of all. It closely 
Fig. 5.—Choctaw house of palmetto thatch. 
resembled the houses of the Seminole as described on another page. 
This may have been the ‘‘summer house,” so often mentioned. 
Within the past few years traces of a settlement, or camp site, 
have been encountered on a slight ridge, a hundred yards or more 
from the shore of Lake Pontchartrain, about 12 miles northeast of 
New Orleans. Many bits of pottery are found mingled with the 
shells and sand, and human remains have been discovered. This 
may have been a landing place on the shore of the lake, where parties 
coming from the opposite side would encamp, or those returning 
would await favorable weather before attempting to cross. 
In the year 1771 it was said the buildings of the Choctaw were 
‘exactly similar to those of the Chicasaws.” (Romans, (1), p. 83.) 
108851°—19—5 
