SwANTON] INDIANS OF THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES 415 



sommer annoye them ; and the roofe being covered, as I say, the wynd is easily 

 kept out, insomuch as they are as warme as stoves, albeit very smoakye. Wyn- 

 dowes they have none but the light comes in at the doore and at the louer ; for 

 should they have broad and open wydowes in the quarters of their bowses, 

 they know not well how, upon any occasion, to make them close and let in the 

 light too. (Strachey, 1849, pp. 70-71.) 



The description by Beverley may be included. It indicates either 

 that aboriginal Virginia houses did have windows or that windows 

 were introduced into them soon after white contact. 



When they would erect a Wigwang, which is the Indian name for a House, 

 they stick Saplins into the ground by one end, and bend the other at the top, 

 fastening them together by strings made of fibrous Roots, the rind of Trees, or of 

 the green Wood of the white Oak, which will rive into Thongs. The smallest 

 sort of these Cabbins are conical like a Bee-hive ; but the larger are built in an 

 oblong form and both are cover'd with the Bark of Trees, which will rive off 

 into great flakes. Their Windowes are little holes left open for the passage 

 of the Light, which in bad weather they stop with Shutters of the same Bark, 

 opening the Leeward Windows for Air and Light. Their chimney, as among 

 the true Born Irish, is a little hole in the top of the House, to let out the 

 Smoak, having no sort of Funnel, or any thing within, to confine the Smoke 

 from ranging through the whole Roof of the Cabbins, if the vent will not let 

 it out fast enough. The Fire is always made in the middle of the Cabbin. 

 Their Door is a Pendent Mat, when they are near home; but when they go 

 abroad, they barricade it with great Logs of Wood set against the Mat, which 

 are suflicient to keep out Wild Beasts. There's never more than one Room 

 in a House, except in some Houses of State, or Religion, where the Partition 

 is made only by Mats and loose Poles. [They also had beds along the walls 

 on which skins were laid as bedding, but sometimes these were placed directly 

 on the ground.] (Beverley, 1705, bk. 3, pp. 11-12.) 



Temples, or buildings corresponding to them, existed throughout 

 the Powhatan territory. The temple of Pomeioc, mentioned above, 

 was round, it will be remembered, like the Gulf structures correspond- 

 ing, but the usage to which it appears to have been put, was like that 

 of the sacred structures of the Powhatan Indians. These seemed to 

 combine the functions of true temples, i. e., sanctuaries, with mortuary 

 usage, as repositories of the dead, and also store houses for the prop- 

 erty of the werowances or chiefs. Powhatan's treasure house at 

 Orapakes seems to have been devoted principally to the last mentioned 

 purpose, but, as in the case of the others, it was surrounded on the 

 inside with wooden images and there is little doubt that it belonged 

 to the same class. Naturally sacred precincts would be the safest in 

 which to bestow property. Smith says that this house of Powha- 

 tan's was "50 or 60 yards in length" and others are mentioned 80 to 

 100 feet long. Wherever anything is said of the structures we are 

 told specifically that they were built in the form of arbors, like the 

 common houses. Beverley calls these houses Quioccosans, and he 

 gives us an account of what he found in one of them which he exam- 

 ined in the absence of the Indians. There was a smaller room at one 



