Their houses are built like our Arbors, of small young springs bowed and tyed, and so close covered with Mats, or the barkes of trees very handsomely, that notwithstanding either winde, raine, or weather, they are as warm as stooues, but very smoaky, yet at the toppe of the house there is a hole made for the smoake to goe into right over the fire. [1] Hist. Virginia, John Smith. Richmond, 1819, vol. I, p. 130. Butel-Dumont also, in describing the dwellings of the Natchez Indians of the lower Mississippi region, speaks of the door of an Indian cabin "made of dried canes fastened and interlaced on two other canes placed across."[2] A singular use of wattle work is mentioned by Lafitau. He states that the young men, when going through the ordeal of initiation on attaining their majority, were placed apart in-- An inclosure very strongly built, made expressly for this purpose, one of which I saw in 1694, which belonged to the Indians of Paumauenkie. It was in the form of a sugar loaf and was open on all sides like a trellis to admit the air.[3] Of a somewhat similar nature was the construction of biers described by Butel-Dumont. Speaking of the Mobilians, he says: When their chief is dead they proceed as follows: At 15 or 20 feet from his cabin they erect a kind of platform raised about 41/2 feet from the ground. This is composed of four large forked poles of oak wood planted in the earth, with others placed across; this is covered with canes bound and interlaced so as to resemble greatly the bed used by the natives.[4] According to John Lawson, similarly constructed "hurdles" were in use among the Carolina Indians. [Illustration: 1.--Fish weir of the Virginia Indiana (after Hariot).] The tide-water tribes of the Atlantic coast region made very frequent use of fish weirs, which were essentially textile in character. John Smith mentions their use in Virginia, and Hariot gives a number of plates in which the weirs are delineated. The cut here given (figure 1) is from Hariot's plate XIII. It represents a very elaborate trap; much simpler forms are shown in other plates. Slender poles set in the shallow water are held in place by wattling or interlacing of pliable parts. It is probable that traps of similar character were used by the mound-building tribes wherever the conditions were favorable. The only apparent traces of such weirs yet found in any part of the country are a number of stumps of stakes discovered by H. T. Cresson in Delaware river near Wilmington, but these appear to be much heavier than would have been used for the purpose by the natives. Another somewhat usual use of wattling is mentioned by various authors. Butel-Dumont speaks of a raft made of poles and canes, and Du Pratz, writing of the Louisiana Indians, says: