Swan ION J miDIANS OF THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES 427 



in summer the fire was often made out of doors. This has been noted 

 of the Florida Seminole, and Dumont observed it along the lower 

 Mississippi. (MacCauley, 1887, p. 501; Dumont, 1753, vol. 1, p. 144; 

 Swanton, 1911, p. 59.) As has been told me specifically of the Ala- 

 bama, the fire was usually on the hare floor, but often in a depression 

 clayed up on all sides and sometimes there was a stone hearth. 



SMOKE HOLES AND WINDOWS 



Apertures to allow the escape of smoke from houses are noted in 

 Virginia Algonquian structures (Smith, Strachey, Beverley), in 

 houses of the eastern Siouan tribes (Lawson), in the town houses of 

 the Guale Indians (Dickenson) , in the house of the Timucua chief of 

 Cumberland Island (San Miguel), in the Bayogoula houses of the 

 lower Mississippi (apertures 2 feet in diameter), and in the summer 

 houses of the Cherokee, Chickasaw, and Choctaw. Choctaw houses are 

 said to have had two smoke vents, one at each end of the gable, and, 

 according to tradition, this type of house was also used by the Alabama. 

 Smoke holes appear as well in Chitimacha tradition. As early as 1790, 

 however, some Creek houses were provided with chimneys (Swan). 

 Naturally smoke holes were less in evidence in the winter houses than 

 in dwellings used in summer. Romans tells us that there was no open- 

 ing of the kind in the Chickasaw hot house, and there seem to have 

 been none in the corresponding structures of the Choctaw and Creeks, 

 nor were there any in the Guale houses about St. Simons Island seen 

 by San Miguel, though Dickenson observed them in the town houses 

 of the expatriated Guale Indians in Florida. We do not hear of 

 them among any of the Mississippi tribes except the Bayogoula. 

 Apparently there were none in the houses of the Natchez, Taensa, 

 Houma, Tunica, Yazoo, Koroa, and Quapaw. There is no mention 

 of a smoke hole in the houses of the Timucua beyond the one given 

 above, and we are told specifically that the Caddo allowed the smoke 

 to filter out through the grass roofs of their dwellings. Dumont de 

 Montigny suggests that this omission was to enable the occupants of a 

 house to get rid of the mosquitoes, but the necessity of preserving a suf- 

 ficiently high temperature throughout winter nights was an important 

 consideration. 



Both Dumont and Adair speak of "fort houses" made with loop- 

 holes, and the Spanish chroniclers state that the houses of Mabila 

 were provided with such loopholes. According to Adair the Chick- 

 asaw had apertures in their hot houses close to the ground to enable 

 them to detect and fire upon approaching enemies. Beverley de- 

 scribes small windows in the houses of the Powhatan Indians which 

 they closed in bad weather with bark shutters, leaving those on the 

 leeward side open, however, for the admission of air and light. As 



