Page:History of Richland County, Ohio.djvu/217

 tiL

��HISTORY OF RICHLAND COUNTY.

��205

��such from the whites. Hence their language was very symbolical. They could see the sun in his brightness, they could feel his heat, hence they compared the actions of a good man to the glory of the sun, and his fervent energy to the heat of that body. The moon in her brightness, the wind in its fury, the clouds in their majesty, or in their slow, graceful motion through a lazy atmosphere; the grace and flight of the deer; the strength and fury of the l)ear; the rush or ripple of water as it coursed along the bed of a river, all gave them words whose expressiveness are a wonder and marvel to this day. They looked on the beauti- ful river that borders the southern shores of our State and exclaimed "0-he-zo!" beauti- ful ; on the placid waters of the stream border- ing the western line of Indiana and ejaculated, '■ Wa-ba" — a summer cloud moving swiftly ; on the river flowing into Lake Erie and said, "Cuy-o-ga" (Cuyahoga), crooked; and so on through their entire vocabulary, each name ex- pressive of a meaning, full and admirably adapted to the object. At one time in the history of the Indians in the South, one tribe was driven from the homes of its ancestors, and in their flight they came to the green banks of a beautiful river. The spot was charmingly beautiful, and the chief thrusting his spear into the earth, cried in a loud voice, "Al-a-ba-ma" — here we rest. A river and State now perpet- uate the name and story.

The Indians in Northern Ohio, the tribes already mentioned, had learned a few things from their intercourse with the whites on the borders of Western Pennsylvania, when they were first seen by the pioneers of Richland County. Their cabins or wigwams were of two kinds, circular and parallelogram. The former, the true wigwam, was in use among the Otta- was when the whites came to their country. It was made of a number of straight poles driven firmly into the ground, their upper ends being drawn closely together ; this formed a kind of

��skeleton tent. The squaws plaited mats of thongs, bark or grass, in such a manner as to render them impervious to water. These were spread on the poles, beginning at the bottom and extending upward. A small hole was left for the egress of smoke from the fire kindled in the center of the wigwam. Aroiuid this fire, mats or skins were spread, on which the Indians slept at night, and on which they sat during the day. For a door, the}' lifted one end of the mat. and crept in, letting it fall down behind them. These tents were warm and dry, and generally quite free from smoke. Their fuel was nearl}^ always split by the squaws in the fall of the year, and kept dry by placing it under an in- verted birch-bark canoe. These wigwams were easily moved about from place to place, the labor of their destruction and construction being always performed by the squaws — these beasts of burden among all savage nations. The wigwam was very light and easily carrietl about. It resembled the tents of to-day in shape, and was often superior in points of com- fort and protection.

The cabins were more substantial aflOairs, and were luiilt of poles about the thickness of a small-sized telegraph pole and were of various sizes, commonly, however, about twelve by fif- teen feet in size. These poles were laid one on the other similar to the logs in a cabin, save that, until the Indians learned to notch the point of contact near the end. from the whites, they were held by two stakes being driven in the angles formed in the corners, and fastened at the top by a hickory or bark withe or by a thong of buckskin. The pen was raised to the height of from four to six feet, when an arched roof was made over it by driving at each end a strong post, with a fork at the upper end. which stood a convenient height above the top- most log or pole. A stout pole was laid on the forks, and on this was laid a small pole reach- ing down to the wall. On these rafters small lath were tied, and over the whole pieces of

��*7-

�� �