Page:Memoirs of a Huguenot Family.djvu/284

 in the surveying of it. We saw several turkeys and deer, But we killed none. We returned to the fort about five of the clock.

The 5th day.—After breakfast, I went down to the Saponey Indian town, which is about a musket-shot from the fort, I walked round to view it. It lieth in a plain by the riverside, the houses join all the one to the other, and altogether make a circle; the walls are large pieces of timber which are squared, and being sharpened at the lower end, are put down two feet in the ground, and stand about seven feet above the ground. These posts are laid as close as possible the one to the other, and when they are all fixed after this manner, they make a roof with rafters, and cover the house with oak or hickory bark, which they strip off in great flakes, and lay it so closely that no rain can come in. Some Indian houses are covered in a circular manner, which they do by getting long saplings, sticking each end in the ground, and so covering them with bark; but there are none of the houses in this town so covered. There are three ways for entering into this town or circle of houses, which are passages of about six feet wide, between two of the houses. All the doors are on the inside of the ring, and the ground is very level withinside, which is in common between all the people to divert themselves. There is in the centre of the circle a great stump of a tree; I asked the reason they left that standing, and they informed me it was for one of their head men to stand upon when he had any thing of consequence to relate to them, so that being raised, he might the better be heard.

The Indian women bind their children to a board that is cut after the shape of the child: there are two pieces at the bottom of this board to tie the two legs of the child to, and