406 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 137 



oyster shells, the rest being constructed of pine wood. These would 

 be public houses with walls of lime cement or tabby. The difference 

 between the walls and roof was perhaps owing to the fact that the upper 

 part of the cement was covered with mats or thatch to within a couple 

 of feet of the earth. Another type of house mentioned by Oviedo 

 reminds one of the longhouse of the Iroquois, but his description is 

 probably based upon a somewhat distorted impression created by the 

 rectangular town houses of the Timucua to be considered shortly : 



There are several principal [i.e., big] houses all along the coast and each one 

 of them must be considered by those people to be a village, for they are very big 

 and they are constructed of very tall and beautiful pines, leaving the crown of 

 leaves at the top. After having set up one row of trees to form one wall, they set 

 up the opposite side, leaving a space between the two sides of from 15 to 30 feet, 

 the length of the walls being 300 or more feet. As they intertwine the branches 

 at the top and so in this manner there is no need for a tiled roof or other cover- 

 ing, they cover it all with matting interwoven between the logs where there may 

 be hollows or open places. Furthermore they can cross those beams with other 

 [pines] placed lengthwise on the inside, thus increasing the thickness of their 

 walls. In this way the wall is thick and strong, because the beams are very close 

 together. In each one of those houses there is easily room enough for 200 men 

 and in Indian fashion they can live in them, placing the opening for the door 

 where it is most convenient. (Oviedo, 1851, vol. 3, pp. 630-631; S wanton, 1922, 

 p. 48.) 



Incidental notice should perhaps be made of the "temple of 

 Talomeco," of which a long description is given by Garcilaso de la 

 Vega. The dimensions of this, 40 paces by 100, suggest rather the 

 temple of the Natchez or the rectangular sacred buildings of the Vir- 

 ginia Indians than the hot houses we have been describing. It may 

 have been adapted from the summer house rather than the winter 

 dwelling, but we cannot trust to Garcilaso's descriptions in all their 

 details (Garcilaso, 1723, pp. 129-134). Kanjel says that the house 

 of the chief which stood opposite this 



was very large, high and broad, all decorated above and below with very fine 

 handsome mats, arranged so skillfully that all these mats appeared to be a 

 single one ; and, marvelous as it seems, there was not a cabin that was not covered 

 with mats. (Bourne, 1904, vol. 2, pp. 101-102.) 



It cannot be determined from this whether "broad" means that it was 

 oval, or rectangular, or that it was merely large. 



As has been noted in speaking of the longhouse described by Oviedo, 

 the Timucua town house, in this case said to have been actually occu- 

 pied by the chief, was oblong. At the mouth of a river believed to have 

 been the St. Mary's, Kibault observed 



one house among the rest very long and wide, with seats around about made of 

 reeds nicely put together, which serve both for beds and seats, two feet high from 

 the ground, set upon round pillars painted red, yellow, and blue, and neatly 

 polished. (French, 1869, p. 180; Swanton, 1922, p. 352.) 



