They lived in villages in the Long Houses or community dwellings which were to be found among the Iroquois in their early days. These were built by bending saplings and tying them together to form the frame, which they sheathed with bark. Down the centre were the fires, each of which was shared generally by two families. The smoke was supposed to go out by a hole in the roof. On either side of the fire and stretching from end to end were platforms on which the families slept, while underneath were the stores of clothing and provisions. No wonder the dogs, dirt and disease impressed the missionaries to these people, and made them plan for huts rather than a share in these dwellings. Some of the greater villages were palisaded for protection, but the smaller ones were not permanent, being moved about at the will of the people or because of the unsanitary condition of the land that had been occupied. The villages became large when the necessity for protection became greater and some had as many as 2,000 inhabitants. The favourite site for a village was on high ground near springs or an inland lake, so that there would be a good water supply. There was a village Council or Assembly, which dealt with local matters and a tribal assembly for matters of general importance but there was no union for offence and defence well organized and ready for action, as among the Iroquois. The Hurons were smaller in stature than the Iroquois, the largest men being about five feet eight inches in height. They had their feast days, which resembled those of other nations in being associated with the seasons, but their custom of burying the dead has a somewhat marked character. The body was wrapped and placed on a platform away from marauding animals and every ten years or thereabouts there was a great Feast and Dance for the Dead, when, after preparing a great pit, the bodies were placed in it sometimes in rows, sometimes in circles and sometimes in parcels of bones of those who had been long dead. Into the pit were cast pottery, implements of warfare and kettles which were first rendered useless so that the graves might not be desecrated. This is in contrast to some other nations of Indians who bury with the deceased the things which they think will be useful to him in the “happy hunting ground” to which he has gone. This pit is called an Ossuary, and to the excavation of these we owe much of our knowledge of this nation. This communal burial with the Hurons corresponded to the communal life which preceded the era of the individual burial and the individual wigwam.