SwANTON] INDIANS OF THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES 813 



ties, particularly mounds, in their old country. When you cross the 

 Savannah River going east, you pass almost immediately out of the 

 mound country except in the former territory of the Cherokee. 



These Siouan Indians were rather sharply divided on linguistic 

 grounds into a northern branch which anciently occupied the Pied- 

 mont and mountain areas of Virginia and extended over much, and 

 probably all, of West Virginia, and a southern branch in central 

 North Carolina and the northern part of South Carolina. It is be- 

 lieved that the culture of these two branches differed considerably, 

 but our information regarding them, particularly regarding the Vir- 

 ginia Siouans, is so meager that it is possible to enumerate few cul- -^, 

 tural differences except speech on which this opinion is based. Lawson 

 implies, although not certainly, that the Virginia Siouans lacked com- 

 munity ceremonial buildings such as the southern tribes had, and 

 Lederer's description of four exogamous divisions may perhaps have 

 applied merely to the northern group, but both points are very un- 

 certain. So many of the industries and customs of these Siouans are 

 like those found either north or south of their territories that we get 

 the impression of groups which had borrowed rather than originated. 

 Let us now enumerate some of the cultural peculiarities found among 

 the Algonquians and Siouans. These are of a decidedly miscellaneous 

 character extending all the way from the fundamental to the trivial, 

 but we have to remember that we are seriously cramped in our 

 sources of information. 



We find that the Algonquians spent much of the summer season by 

 their fishweirs, and that the names of their months were derived largely 

 from the names of food plants and animals. Here for the first time 

 we hear of caches in the ground instead of on posts. The type of 

 dwelling was ordinarily of the conical or oval wigwam pattern, but 

 some buildings, particularly those for sacred purposes, were long. 

 The temple in the town of Pomeioc was, however, rounded, and its 

 shape may be attributed to southern influences. The longer houses 

 were provided with two doors quite unlike Southeastern houses in gen- 

 eral. A refinement of culture appears in the houses of the chiefs 

 where basins and towels were presented to distinguished guests at 

 meals. The ceremonial washing which Barlowe noted in North Caro- 

 lina was probably another instance of the same thing. In textiles 

 "silk grass" seems to have been used more than mulberry bark. Leg- 

 gings were put on only in preparing to travel through underbrush, 

 and, as above noted, we have only bare mention of moccasins by 

 Smith or Strachey and they are absent from the costumes of men and 

 women shown in White's drawings. They appear merely in Beverley's 

 reproductions of Michel's sketches of Siouan Indians. However, 

 knowing that all of these Indians were in the habit of leaving their 



