Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 1.djvu/172

 force of the storms in winter. The Indians had a special liking for the mulberry, and it was almost invariably found in the neighborhood of their habitations. At Kecoughtan there were many boskets and copses of this tree. When the English were returning from their exploration of the Powhatan as far as the Falls, they came upon the Indian women at Arrahattock preparing victuals for them under a great mulberry which was a conspicuous feature of the village. Bay and locust trees were very frequently observed in the Indian towns, and also the wild rose and the sunflower, and there the grapevine grew in the most productive luxuriance because fully exposed to the rays of the sun. In the immediate vicinity, fresh springs poured out a perennial abundance of pellucid water.

The Indian wigwam was either oblong in shape or in the form of an oven, and was made by inserting saplings in the earth, the tops of which were afterwards drawn down to one point, in which position they were permanently kept by their being tied together with withes, manufactured out of fibrous roots, the coating of the hickory or strips of white oak. The surface of the saplings in the instance of the most pretentious wigwams was covered with bark in the condition in which it was torn from the tree; the ordinary dwelling, however, was protected by mats woven from bents gathered in the woods. So neatly were the mats and pieces of bark put together that the atmosphere of the wigwam remained warm in the severest weather in winter. A hole was made in either side for an entrance, and these openings were closed by