804 BUREAU OP AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 137 



not invariable accompaniments of houses, and there was usually but 

 one door, which faced the east or south. Stockades reinforced with 

 towers are reported from Virginia to the Mississippi and were prob- 

 ably known to the Caddo though we seem to have no description from 

 Caddo territory. The breechclout, women's skirt, and untailored 

 shirts, cloaks, and blankets are reported from practically all sec- 

 tions, and the clothing, or unclothing, of children was about the same. 

 A simple type of textile woven from the inner bark of trees or a kind 

 of grass seems to have been known in all sections except probably 

 by the wandering Texas bands, who fall properly outside of the 

 Southeastern province. The same sorts of material were used for 

 cords and threads. Feather garments were known throughout the 

 region. Shell beads and pearls were made or extracted in all sec- 

 tions and were highly valued. A certain amount of copper had been 

 introduced from the north and it was known to nearly all the tribes. 

 All references to porcupine quill work in the historic period repre- 

 sent importations from the north, and are without diagnostic signifi- 

 cance. Necklaces, ear ornaments, bracelets, arm and leg bands, the 

 use of paint and tattoo marks were found throughout, and it is 

 only in the special types of decorations that we come upon diagnostic 

 traits. There is little or nothing in historical records regarding 

 flint working, ground stone implements, pipes, chunkey stones, or 

 pottery by which we may classify tribes or tribal groups. This work 

 must fall on the archeologists. References to wooden stools have 

 come to us from all parts of the area except perhaps the northeastern 

 sections. However, they represent West Indian contact and are of 

 little classificatory value. Everywhere we have reports of the em- 

 ployment of dishes of wood and horn, wooden mortars, chests, and 

 cradles, but the records are not sufficient to establish regional types. 

 Almost the same may be said of reed and shell knives, clubs, bows 

 and arrows, and perhaps also of blowguns and shields, but we shall 

 see presently that the introduction of bows and arrows along the 

 Gulf may have been late. Dugout canoes and rafts were employed 

 everywhere, but we also find bark canoes utilized in the interior of 

 ,the country and without distinction as between tribes. Chiefs were 

 borne about on litters except perhaps in the extreme northeast and 

 west. Basketry and mats were universally employed. The artistic 

 development again seems to have been rather uniform. Drums, rat- 

 tles, and flutes or flageolets are reported from all quarters. 



Superficially the social life of the southeastern Indians was much 

 the same. Unless forced into stockades by war, the towns consisted 

 of neighborhoods of single houses or groups of houses extending 

 through the woods, sometimes for several miles, though with a cen- 

 ter for social gatherings and ceremonial observances. Descent was 



