Indian hut

“ Soon after we saw Indian huts on the banks of the river. They are called by themselves “tepees” (dwellings) , and by the English, “lodges;” they resemble a tent in form, and are covered with buffalo-hides, which are wrapped round long stakes, planted in the ground in a circle, and united at the top, where the smoke passes out through an opening, something like our Laplander's huts, only on a larger scale. There is a low opening in the form of a door to each hut, and over which a piece of buffalo-hide can be let down at pleasure. ”

“ They are even more hostile to white people than to Indians, and it is sometimes dangerous to approach an Indian hut where three or four of these fierce creatures are kept, as they will jump up against the side of a horse, and bite the legs of the rider. Their masters often use the stick before they can get obedience from them. In every Indian hut several of these animals may be found, as they are extremely useful to the shepherds in guarding their flocks and for hunting.
They are much employed throughout the Puna to hunt the “yutu,” a species of partridge which inhabits the rushy grass. ”

“ The location of this solitary hut, remote from all other signs of humanity, so far as the eye could judge, was a singular one; for the Indian loves his kind, and it is rare that one wanders deliberately away to make his home in loneliness, far from the rest of the tribe to which he belongs. In the case of this hut, however, its solitariness was more apparent than real; for although out of sight of any habitation whatever, the tribe to which its inmates belonged was distant not more than two miles, but on the other face of the hill, and hidden far in the recesses of a small canyon. ”

“ The roads are navigable for canoes half the year, when travelling is much more easy than when the season is called dry. The Indian builds his hut on those elevated places which remain islands; when the great flood of waters come down, crickets, lizards, and snakes crawl into his thatched roof; droves of wild cattle surround his habitation. Armadilloes rub their armor against the pottery in the corner of his hut, while the tiger and the stag stand tamely by. ”

“ In the daytime the prospect is not much more alluring. A house that has smoke issuing from only one chimney does not look hospitable, but in most country houses they do not light a fire in the parlour unless they are expecting a call from the minister. All of which goes to prove the truth of the comment made by the Indian, who said: "Indian builds a hut and lives in it. ”

“ The utensils in an Indian hut are very few; one or two brass or iron kettles procured from the traders, or, if they live removed from them, pots formed of stone, together with a few wooden spoons and dishes made by themselves constitute in general the whole of them. A stone of a very soft texture, called the soap stone, is very commonly found in the back parts of North America, particularly suited for Indian workmanship. ”

“ Herds of horses are occasionally seen, and now and then the log hut of some thrifty Indian or half-breed, or the canvas lodge of a family that prefers the discomforts and freedom of savage life to the comforts and restraints of a local habitation. The first night out from the agency was spent at the hut of one of the queer characters that hang about Indian reservations,—a shiftless white man, who pays for the privilege of ferrying travelers across the river by taking the Indians over free. ”

“ The building of a hut is a simple proposition, for all the Indian has to do is to go into the forest and cut some bamboo poles and some palm leaves or banana stalks for a roof, and he has all the material necessary. A few poles are set into the ground, establishing the size, and to these, by means of vines, are attached many horizontal reeds or poles. These may be close together or several inches apart, and sometimes mortar or stones are used to fill in the wall. The same style of steep roof is always made. ”

“ Furniture to the chamber floor there is none. The family herd together like so many squirrels, and with the bamboo climbing pole drawn up there is no danger of intrusion by the beasts of the field.
IN THE CHIRIQUI COUNTRY
In the typical Indian hut there is no furniture on the ground floor other than a rough hewn bench, a few pieces of pottery and gourds, iron cooking vessels and what they call a kitchen, which is in fact a large flat box with raised edges, about eight square feet in surface and about as high from the floor as a table. ”

“ After eight hours' walk you find two or three Indian huts, surrounded by the forest; and in little more than half an hour from these you come to ten or twelve others, where you pass the night. They are prettily situated at the entrance into a savanna. The eastern and western hills are still covered with wood; but on looking to the south-west quarter you perceive it begins to die away. In these forests you may find plenty of the trees which yield the sweet- smelling resin called accaiari, and which, when pounded and burnt on charcoal, gives a delightful fragrance. ”

“ By the magic of even that crude draughtsmanship you are transported back through the centuries into the living city. Close at hand you seem to hear the weird chanting of the priests, to smell the resinous incense; from the steaming plain below rise the sounds of hut-life, the grating of the stone rolling-pin (universal sound in every Indian village) on the metate or stone tray as the housewife crushes the maize, the cries of playing children, the barking of the housedogs, the crowing of the cocks. ”

“ Upon reaching the upper slopes of the hill I dismounted, in order to visit some Indian farm buildings that occupied several acres of rising 210 ground near our path. Although there were evidences of what may be called comparative wealth, these Indians—like all others that I had seen—only possessed a single hut with one large room in it. Men, women and lads were all busy; the boys cleaning and spinning wool for their black ponchos or cloaks, and the women, as usual, engaged in grinding maize and making tortillas. ”

“ In regard to the representations of the convenience for the Indian who has built his hut in the grain-field, I believe that it is quite the contrary, and that it would be more expedient for him and for the commonwealth that he should not be allowed to build it there, or that he be obliged to change his dwelling, for those huts generally serve as refuge for persons bent on mischief; besides, as the Indian thus has no watchful neighbor to inform the religious minister of his doings, and no alcalde, he lives in too much freedom. ”

“ Whether the poor girls can ride or not, they are instantly placed upon horses, and when the hasty plunder of the hut is concluded, they are driven away from its smoking ruins, and from the horrid scene which surrounds it. At a pace which in Europe is unknown, they gallop over the trackless regions before them, feed upon mare’s flesh, sleeping on the ground, until they arrive in the Indian’s territory, when they have instantly to adopt the wild life of their captors. ”

“ The Indian lives generally in a rude hut of shingles, or of sun-dried mud bricks, and roofed with shingles or grass according to the supply at hand; but such huts are low-roofed, the bare earth the only carpet, and wind and rain finding free entry by a thousand openings in walls and roofs. The one room serves for every purpose, and often affords shelter to pigs and poultry, as well as to the family. The staple food is the maize cake (tortilla) , the Indian very rarely tasting animal food—many not once a month, and thousands not once a year. ”

“ Soon they were at the village, a collection of Indian huts covering quite an area of ground, built of sod or mud and most of them circular in form, with but two openings, one at the top for the escape of smoke, and a low passageway through which one must stoop to enter.
At this season of the year the huts were but little occupied, being infested with fleas, and small tents, made of poles covered by blankets or bison skin, afforded more inviting shelter from sun and rain. ”

“ If an Indian were driven out into the extensive woods, with only a knife and a tomahawk, or a small hatchet, it is not to be doubted but he would fatten even where a wolf would starve. He would soon collect fire by rubbing two dry pieces of wood together, make a bark hut, earthen vessels, and a bow and arrows ”

“ During the day I wandered amongst the huts within and near the hamlet in order to see something of the natives who lived in them and were said to follow the ancient customs and habits of domestic life. Near the borders of the savannah some Indians were building a large hut and I observed a method of construction which, although absolutely the reverse of any system that I had previously known, was most suitable for their wants. In the first place the roof is built. ”

“ There are still considerable numbers of Indians who shun the white man and live in the most remote corners of the mountains. I have now and again come upon the most isolated huts, invisible from the valley trails. They were thatched with grass; the walls were of stone; the rafters though light must have required prodigious toil, for all timber stops at 12,000 feet on the mountain borders. The shy fugitive who perches his hut near the lip of a hanging valley far above the trail may look down himself unseen as an eagle from its nest. ”

“ The marked difference between this climate and that of India is, that the nights there are as insupportable as the days, without any bracing intermission from heat. I have just stated what they are here.
Saw nine native huts to-day framed of the bark of a tree, such as I sent you; each hut had its fire; there were the organic remains of kangaroos and other animals, and two or three broken spears and shavings, as if they had been repairing them: we saw many of their footsteps, but were well pleased to find those who had impressed them "not at home." ”

“ The Indians of the races above noticed seldom live in villages, but chiefly in huts scattered through the forests. Sometimes they construct a few of their dwellings near together, and so form a hamlet. Their huts are either quadrangular, oblong, or circular. The walls consist of strong stems of trees, bound together by twining plants; and the roof is of palm leaves laid over a skeleton of reeds. The entrance, which is on the side opposite to the prevailing wind, is left open, and but seldom protected by a door. At Chanchamayo I saw a very simple kind of hut among the Chunchos. ”

“ Huge as the animal may be, it is ere long consumed, and nothing left but the skeleton. Of the bones the natives make the framework of their huts, the ends of the ribs being fixed in the ground, so that the bones form the supports of the arched roof, which is nothing more than boughs, grass, and matting thrown almost at random upon the bony framework.
During the winter time the native huts are of better construction, although the best hut that an Australian ever made is but a very rude and primitive specimen of architecture. ”

“ The huts for the Indian laborers are in close proximity to the residence of the proprietor, upon the roads which lead to it, and are generally constructed in an oval form with upright poles, held together by withes of bark; and they are covered inside and out with a coating of clay. The roofs are pointed, and also made with poles, and thatched with straw. They have no chimneys, and the smoke finds its way out from various openings purposely left. The huts have no flooring, are larger than the common wigwams of the northern Indians, and ordinarily contain but a single room. ”

“ There was an excellent country road all day long through lowlands densely populated by East Indians and negroes in huts and houses always on stilts. Generally these had shingled walls and sheet-iron roofs, though now and then one saw a thatched mud hut that seemed to have been transported bodily from Iberian South America, and sometimes a shingle-sided house with a thatched roof, looking like a well-dressed man still wearing his old and shaggy winter cap. ”

“ A single unfurnished room, merely divided from the next one by a thin boarding, through which everything can be heard, will command from five to thirty rupees a month, and even more, according to its position, in Bombay.
The typical poor man's home in India consists as a rule of a single-storeyed hut with walls of mud or wattle, and roof of grass, palm-leaf, tiles, mud, or stones, according to the nature of the country. ”

“ The roofs of the huts slanted upward from the inner side of the rows, making the outer side of each hut eighteen feet high; and the lofts of these were made warm and comfortable with dry grass mixed with clay, Here they were continually visited during the winter by Indians from all the region around. Here, too, they secured the services of an interpreter, one Chaboneau, who continued with them to the end. ”

“ Another figure moves out from the woods, and a moment later another and yet another; and each figure follows in the track of the foremost, and they stand talking in low murmurs. Thus twenty-five blanketed figures are gathered before the hut of the white renegade. They are Indians, hoary-headed patriarchs of their race, but glowing with the fierce spirit of youth in their sluggish hearts.
Presently they file away one by one, and it becomes apparent that each old man is well armed. They spread out and form themselves into a wide circle, which slowly closes in upon the hut. ”

“ These natives have a curious predilection for building their huts on the sea-shore, and place them below the level of low water. They begin this curious style of architecture by building a long pier, or rather jetty, which extends far into the sea, and which keeps open a communication between the house and the shore.
At the end of this jetty the hut itself is situated, and is made of boarded walls and a thatched roof. Great as is the labor that is bestowed upon it, the house does not come up to our ideas of comfort. ”