638 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 137 



on a small plain surrounded by very high hills, where nearly all the huts of 

 the savages are built and their fields are in the plain. . . . 



Sapatchitou (Sapa chito) ... is a small hamlet of the village of Boukfouka, 

 which lies in a small plain where the savages have built a little stockaded fort, 

 into which they retreat with their families every night on account of the fre- 

 quent incursions of the Chikachas (Chickasaw) who cross the river near this 

 hamlet when they come in a band upon the Choctaws. (De Villiers, 1923, pp. 

 239-241; Swanton, 1931 a, p. 76.) 



Bushnell (1919, pi. 11) shows a later Louisiana settlement of the 

 Choctaw at Bonfouca. 



We get our views of the Natchez villages only in snatches for, like 

 Southeastern towns generally, they consisted mainly of neighborhoods 

 scattered through the woods and interspersed with fields. Iberville 

 has this note : 



We repaired to [the cabin of the Great Chief], which is raised to a height 

 of 10 feet on earth brought thither, and is 25 feet wide and 45 feet long. Near 

 by are eight cabins. Before that of the chief is the temple mound, which has 

 a circular shape, a little oval, and bounds an open space about 250 paces wide 

 and 300 long. A stream passes near, from which they draw their water. . . . 

 From the landing place on the [Mississippi] river one ascends a very steep hill- 

 side about 150 fathoms high covered completely with woods. Being on top 

 of the hill one finds a country of plains and prairies filled with little hills, in 

 some places groves of trees, many oaks, and many roads cut through, going 

 from one hamlet to another or to cabins. Those who traveled 3 or 4 leagues 

 about say they found everywhere the same country, from the edge of the hill 

 to the village of the chief. (Margry, 1875-86, vol. 4, pp. 410-412; Swanton, 

 1911, p. 191.) 



Nicolas de la Salle says that the village of the Taensa Indians 



extends along the lake (Lake St. Joseph) for 1 league. The temple, the cabin 

 [of the chief], and seven or eight cabins of the old men are surrounded by 

 stakes and make a kind of fort; on the stakes human heads are placed; the 

 temple is dome-shaped, the door painted red, guarded day and night by two 

 men. (IMargry, 1875-86, vol. 1, pp. 566-567; Swanton, 1911, p. 263.) 



Iberville visited it in 1700 : 



There may be in this nation 150 cabins in the space of 2 leagues along the 

 edge of the lake. There is in this place a fairly handsome temple. The nation 

 was numerous formerly, but at present there are not more than 300 men. 

 They have very large fields (deserts) and a very fine country which is never 

 inundated along the borders of this lake, [a body of water] perhaps a fourth 

 of a league broad and 4i^ leagues long, coming from the northeast and making 

 a turn to the west. The main part of this village is about 2 leagues from the 

 end, coming from the Mississippi river and opposite a little [inlet] or stream 

 about a hundred paces wide, on the banks of which are some native cabins. 

 (Margry, 1875-86, vol. 4, pp. 412-414; Swanton, 1911, p. 266.) 



Iberville's journal and that of the commandant of his second ship, 

 Le Marin^ contain the following items regarding the Baj^ogoula town : 



I found this village a quarter of a league from the river, and near it there 

 passes a little stream from which they get their drinking water. It was sur- 



