MYER] THE FEWKES GROUP 571 
DESTRUCTION BY FIRE 
The House of the Mysteries was later destroyed by fire. There 
were evidences of the fallen-in plastered wall on top of the black, 
glossy floor in the layer of powdery charcoal near the line of the 
wall south of the hard-packed clay platform, as shown in Figure 160. 
TRACES OF CANE MATTING 
In the layer of charcoal near the door were very faint traces of the 
woven cane matting which appeared to belong to the interior wall 
covering. Apparently the wall had 
fallen in on the floor and the burning 
matting had been smothered. 
Early white explorers in the south- 
ern United States saw similar cane 
matting wall coverings. 
In 1811 two mummified bodies were 
found in a “copperas cave”’ 15 miles 
southwest of Sparta, White County, 
Tenn. They were buried in woven 
cane baskets very curiously wrought. 
There is a specimen of beautiful ancient Tennessee woven cane 
matting preserved in the United States National Museum. This was 
found in a rock shelter on Clifty, near Harriman, Tenn. The author 
has several specimens which were found in rock shelters in 
Smith and Pickett Counties, Tenn. 
Judging from this Clifty specimen, 
the weaver of the wall covering of 
the House of Mysteries in Fewkes 
group had introduced elaborate 
patterns in the woven designs. 
This natural dark cream-tinted 
cane matting was then further decorated with harmonious color 
designs, usually in black. This structure, with its polished black 
floor and beautiful cane matting wall decorations, wdicates a high 
type of barbaric buildings. 
The following extracts from Swanton’s Indian Tribes of the Lower 
Mississippi Valley (Bull. 48, Bureau of American Ethnology, pp. 59 
and 60) will throw light on the method of construction and appearance 
of this building. These extracts were taken by Doctor Swanton from 
several of the accounts of the early explorers. 
Fic. 161.—Mat house, Carolina Indians 
builders, plastered wattled work 
The cabins of the great village of the Natchez, the only one I saw, are in the 
shape of a square pavilion, very low, and without windows. The top is rounded 
much like an oven. The majority are covered with the leaves and stalks of corn; 
