066 MOUND EXPLORATIONS. 



corners; when they are tlms plauteil they are lightly bound to a polo which crosses 

 them on the inside of each siile (of the house). For this purpose large splints of 

 stalks are used to tie them, at the height of five or six feet, according to the size of 

 the caliiu, which forms the walls; these upright peles are not more than about 

 fifteen inches apart from each other; a young man then mounts to the end of one 

 of the corner poles with a cord in his teeth, fastens the cord to the pole, and as he 

 mounts within, the pole bends because those who are below draw the eoril to bend 

 the pole as much as is necessary ; at the same time another young man fixes the pole 

 of the opposite corner in the same way; the two poles being thus bent at a suital)le 

 height, they are fastened strongly and evenly. The same is done with the poles of 

 the other two corners as they are joine.l at the point, which make altogether the 

 figure of a bower or a summer house, such as we liave in France. After this work 

 they fasten sticks on the lower sides or walls at a distance of about eight inches 

 across, as high as the pole of which I have spoken, which forms the length of the 

 wall. 



These sticks being thus fastened, they make mud walls of clay in which they put 

 a sufficient amount of Spanish moss. These walls are not more than 4 inches thick. 

 They leave no iipeuiiig but the door, which is only 2 feet in width by 4 in height. 

 There are some much suuiller. They then cover the frame work, which I have just 

 described, with mats of reeds, imtting the smoothest on the inside of the cabin, 

 taking care to fasten them together so that they are well joined. After this they 

 make large bundles of grass of the tallest that can be found in the low lands, and 

 which is 4 or 5 feet long; this is put on in the same way as straw, which is used to 

 cover thatched houses. The grass is fastened with large canes and splints also of 

 canes. When the cabin is covered with grass they cover all with a matting of canes 

 well bound together, and at the bottom they make a ring of " bind weeds" (lianes) 

 all around the cabin; then they turn the grass evenly, and with this defense, how- 

 ever great the wind uuiy he, it can do nothing against the cabin. These coverings 

 last twenty years without being rejiaired. 



Numerous other quotatioii.s to the same ett'ect might be given, but 

 these are svifficieiit to show that the rcuiaiiis found in the mounds of 

 the south aie precisely what wonkl result from the de.strnction by fire 

 of the houses in use by the Indians when first encountered by Euro 

 peans. Combining the testimony furnished by the mounds with the 

 historical evidence, which the close agreement between the two cer- 

 tainly justifies, it is evident that the houses of the mound-builders 

 were built of wooden materials or wood and clay combined, and were 

 of at least two forms, circular and rectangular; that the fire was usu- 

 ally placed in the center and the smoke allowed to escape through an 

 opening at the top; that in the southern sections they were usually 

 plastered with clay and thatched with stra* or grass, and that the 

 plastering was often ornamented by stamping it with a stamp nmde of 

 split cane, and, in some cases, was painted red. Prof. Swallow noticed 

 this color on the plastering of the burned room he discovered. A coat 

 of paint has also been detected on some of the pieces which we have 

 obtained in our explorations. This testinn)ny would seem to be well- 

 nigh conclusive that Indians were the builders of the houses, traces 

 of which are finind in the Arkansas mounds, and, if so, of the mounds 

 also. 



