386 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOOY [Bdll. 137 



As to the method of smoking, Dumont remarks : 



All the savages are in general very fond of tobacco smoke. They are often seen 

 to swallow 10 or 12 mouthfuls in succession, which they keep in their stomachs 

 without being inconvenienced after they have ceased to draw, and give up this 

 smoke many successive times, partly through the mouth and partly through 

 the nose. [Dumont, 1753, vol. 1, p. 189 ; Swanton, 1911, p. 79.] 



The size attributed by Du Pratz to the native Louisiana tobacco 

 plant occasions some doubt as to whether it was really obtained from 

 the Indians of that section, as he supposes. The plant attributed to 

 lower Louisiana corresponds more nearly to the Nicotiana rustica. 



In order to induce insensibility, pellets of tobacco were swallowed 

 by Natchez men and women about to be strangled to accompany the 

 spirit of a dead member of the Sun caste. 



From most of the other tribes along the lower Mississippi we learn 

 little more regarding tobacco than the bare fact that it was used in 

 connection with the calumet in the conduct of intertribal business. The 

 Caddo offered tobacco and hominy to the scalps they had taken. In 

 1687 the calumet ceremony had reached the Cahinnio of southern 

 Arkansas, but had not extended to other Caddo tribes. The brevity 

 of time covered by tribal memory is well illustrated in the fact that 

 there was no calumet ceremony on the lower Mississippi in 1543, while 

 in 1725 the "ancient word" of the Natchez taught "that in all times 

 they have made use of the calumet in their treaties of peace and in 

 their embassages" (Le Page du Pratz, 1758, vol. 3, pp. 360-361 ; Swan- 

 ton, 1911, p. 79). 



HOUSING 



(Plates 57-63) 



TYPES OF BUILDINGS 



Two principal types of dwelling houses were found in the South- 

 east, the circular house, often called by traders "hot house," which 

 was particularly adapted to winter residence, and the less closely 

 constructed rectangular summer house. A very good general idea of 

 these houses is given by Elvas : 



Throughout the cold lands each of the Indians has his house for the winter 

 plastered inside and out. They shut the very small door at night and build 

 a fire inside the house so that it gets as hot as an oven, and stays so all night 

 long so that there is no need of clothing. Beside those houses they have others 

 for summer with kitchens near by where they build their fires and bake their 

 bread. . . . The difference between the houses of the lords or principal men 

 and the others is that besides being larger they have large balconies in front 

 and below seats resembling benches made of canes ; and round about many large 

 barbacoas in which they gather together the tribute paid them by their Indians, 

 which consists of maize and deerskins and native blankets resembling shawls, 



