SwANTON] INDIANS OF THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES 379 



According to Strachey, the storehouses of the Powhatan common- 

 alty seem to have been holes in the ground : 



Their corne and (indeed) their copper, hatchetts, howses [hoes], beades, perle, 

 and most things with them of value, according to their owne estymacion, they 

 hide, one from the knowledge of another, in the growned within the woodes, and 

 so keepe them all the yeare, or untill they have fitt use for them, as the Romains 

 did their monies and treasure in certaine cellars, called, therefore, as Plinye 

 remembers, favissae; and when they take them forth, they scarse make their 

 women privie to the storehowse. (Strachey, 1849, p. 113.) 



Among the Creeks and the more eastern tribes a lounging room, 

 often on the second floor, occupied part of the storehouse. Thus Bar- 

 tram says it was 



commonly two stories high, and divided into two apartments, transversely, the 

 lower story of one end being a potato house, for keeping such other roots and 

 fruits as require to be kept close, or defended from cold in winter. The chamber 

 over it is the council. At the other end of this building, both upper and lower 

 stories are open on their sides : the lower story serves for a shed for their saddles, 

 pack-saddles, and gears, and other lumber; the loft over it is a very spacious, 

 airy, pleasant pavilion, where the chief of the family reposes in the hot seasons, 

 and receives his guests, etc. [He adds that the Seminole had a storehouse] two 

 stories high, of the same construction, and serving the same purpose with the 

 granary or provision house of the Upper Creeks [i. e., the Creeks proper]. (Bart- 

 ram, 1909, p. 56.) 



There is a striking similarity between these private storehouses of the 

 Creeks and Seminole and the "summer council house" of the Cherokee 

 as described by the same writer : 



Their Summer Council House is a spacious open loft or pavilion, on the top of 

 a very large oblong building. ( Bartram, 1909', p. 57. ) 



The storehouse of the Chickasaw is said by Komans (1775, p. 67) to 

 have been in the shape of "an oblong square," and was probably al- 

 most identical with that of the Creeks. 



When we come to the Siouan tribes of the east we find the lounging 

 room or "council" of Bartram in a different building from the granary. 

 Lawson calls this condition usual among the tribes with which he was 

 familiar. He gives the following particular description of a Santee 

 storehouse : 



These Santee Indians make themselves cribs after a very curious man- 

 ner, wherein they secure their corn from vermin, which are more frequent in 

 these warm climates than countries more distant from the sun. These pretty 

 fabrics are commonly supported with eight feet or posts about seven feet high 

 from the ground, well daubed within and without upon laths, with loam or clay, 

 which makes them tight and fit to keep out the smallest insect, there being a 

 small door at the gable end, which is made of the same composition, and to be 

 removed at pleasure, being no bigger than that a slender man may creep in at, 

 cementing the door up with the same earth when they take corn out of the crib, 

 and are going from home, always finding their granaries in the same posture they 

 left them — theft to each other being altogether uupracticed, never receiving spoils 

 but from foreigners. (Lawson, 1860, p. 35.) 



