Virginia Architecture in the Seventeenth CenturyForman, Henry Chandlee
History
Virginia Architecture in the Seventeenth Century
Forman, Henry Chandlee
Architecture -- Virginia -- History -- 17th century; Architecture, Colonial -- Virginia
It seems to have been customary to orient the temple doorway, that is,
to place it on the eastern side, and to build, as in the king's houses,
dark and labyrinthine passageways, located in the west end of the
sanctum, where stood two or three "black" idols, facing eastward.
v. BATH HOUSES AND OTHER BUILDINGS
The English called the Indian bath house by the names of "Bagnio" and
"Sweating House." Such fabrics were generally circular, like the outdoor
ovens used by the Indians, and had no windows. The Siouan tribes of
Virginia built some of their bath houses of stone; but throughout
Virginia the common material for such structures was wood. As in the
ordinary dwelling, regularly-spaced saplings were thrust into the
ground and bowed overhead. Then the interstices were closely woven with
branches--that is, wattled,--and were plastered with mud.
The Indian took what amounted to a Turkish bath, a method still in use
in Finland, Mexico, and other parts of the world. But in Virginia the
bath went like this: the bather heated ten or twelve small or "pebble"
stones in a fire. When they had become red hot, they were placed in a
firebed inside the "Bagnio." The bather then stripped, grabbed a
blanket, and shut the door. Slowly pouring water upon the hot stones, he
caused steam to rise so thick you could cut it with a knife. He sat on a
bench until he could no longer stand the intense heat, at which moment
he rushed out of the bath house and jumped into the river, over his head
and ears. If the bather happened to be ill, he was supposed to be washed
clean of sickness. At any rate that was the way of taking the Saturday
night bath on the James, the York, the Pamunkey, the Rivanna, and
elsewhere in the Old Dominion.
* * * * *
Other structures known to have been built by the Indian in Virginia were
hunting houses, platforms, fences, landings, and outdoor ceremonial
centers.
Many were the weeks that the Indian left logs rolled in front of his
house door and was off hunting or foraging. On long trips he erected
"hunting houses," temporary shelters also known as "camping stations."
These were probably simplified wigwams, which could be easily taken down
and reërected in another place.
In every town there stood "scaffolding" or raised platforms, where the
inhabitants frequently sat and conversed, and which served somewhat the
same purpose as our own outdoor summerhouses of olden times. But the
Indian platforms had a loft made of hurdles, upon which the women of the
settlement placed their maize, fish, and other foods to dry.
There was another kind of platform, constructed in their tilled fields,
to serve as scarecrows to their crops of beans, pompions, tomatoes,
squash, corn, and the like. Upon the platform was built a small cabin or
cottage, sometimes arranged in the shape of a half-dome, like a "round
chair," in which an Indian sat to watch the fields. Such listening posts
anticipated our own radar warning installations.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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