396 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Boll. 137 



vate habitations consist generally of two buildings: one a large oblong house, 

 which serves for a cook-room, eating-house, and lodging-rooms, in three apart- 

 ments under one roof; the other not quite so large, which is situated eight 

 or ten yards distant, one end opposite the principal house. This is two 

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

 granary or provision house of the Creeks. (Bartram, 1909, p. 56.) 



This description is based largely on his observation of the houses 

 composing Cuscowilla, a newly established town belonging to the 

 Oconee and one of the oldest Seminole settlements of consequence. 

 In his Travels he thus describes the town : 



The town of Cuscowilla, which is the capital of the Alachua tribe, contains 

 about thirty habitations, each of which consists of two houses nearly the same 

 size, about thirty feet in length, twelve feet wide, and about the same in 

 height. The door is placed midway on one side or in the front. This house 

 is divided equally, across into two apartments, one of which is the cook room 

 and common hall, and the other the lodging room. 



The other house is nearly of the same dimensions, standing about twenty 

 yards from the dwelling house, its end fronting the door. This building is 

 two stories high, and constructed in a different manner. It is divided trans- 

 versely, as the other, but the end next the dwelling house is open on three 

 sides, supported on posts or pillars. It has an open loft or platform, the 

 ascent to which is by a portable stair or ladder: this is a pleasant, cool, airy 

 situation, and here the master or chief of the family retires to repose in the 

 hot seasons, and receives his guests or visitors. The other half of this build- 

 ing is closed on all sides by notched logs; the lowest or ground part is a 

 potato house, and the upper story over it a granary for corn and other provi- 

 sions. Their houses are constructed of a kind of frame. In the first place, 

 strong corner pillars are fixed in the ground, with others somewhat less, rang- 

 ing on a line between ; these are strengthened by cross pieces of timber, and the 

 whole with the roof is covered close with the bark of the Cypress tree. The 

 dwelling stands near the middle of a square yard, encompassed by a low 

 bank, formed with the earth taken out of the yard, which is always carefully 

 swept. Their towns are clean, the inhabitants being particular in laying their 

 filth at a proper distance from their dwellings, which undoubtedly contrib- 

 utes to the healthiness of their habitations. (Bartram, 1791, pp. 189-190.) 



The same writer describes the house of a Seminole chief called 

 "the Bosten or Boatswain by the traders" as follows (fig. 4) : 



It was composed of three oblong uniform frame buildings [e], and a fourth, 

 foure-square [a], fronting the principal house or common hall, after this manner, 

 encompassing one area [A]. The hall was his lodginghouse, large and commodi- 

 ous ; the two wings were, one a cook-house, the other a skin or ware-house ; and the 

 large square one was a vast open pavilion, supporting a canopy of cedar roof 

 by two rows of columns or pillars, one within the other. Between each range 

 of pillars was a platform, or what the traders call cabins, a sort of sofa 

 raised about two feet above the common ground, and ascended by two steps; 

 this was covered with checkered mats of curious manufacture, woven of splints 

 of canes dyed of different colors; the middle was a four-square stage or plat- 

 form, raised nine inches or a foot higher than the cabins or sofas, and also 

 covered with mats. (Bartram, 1909, pp. 37-38.) 



