plastering.

Prof. G. C. Swallow [Footnote: 8th Rept. Peabody Museum, 1875, pp.
17, 18.] describes a room formed of poles, lathed with split cane,
plastered with clay both inside and out, which he found in a mound
in southeastern Missouri. Colonel Norris found parts of the
decayed poles, plastering, and other remains of a similar house in
a large mound in the same section.

From the statements of the early writers, a few of which are given
here, it is evident that the houses of the Indians occupying this
region when first visited by the whites were very similar to those
of the mound-builders.

La Harpe, speaking of the tribes in some parts of Arkansas, says:
"The Indians build their huts dome-fashion out of clay and reeds."
Schoolcraft says the Pawnees formerly built similar houses. In
Iberville's Journal [Footnote: Relation in Margry, Deconvertes,
4th part (March, 1699), p. 170] it is stated that the cabins of
the Bayogoulas were round, about 30 feet in diameter, and
plastered with clay to the height of a man. Adair says: "They are
lathed with cane and plastered with mud from bottom to top within
and without with a good covering of straw."

Henri de Tonty, the real hero of the French discoveries on the
Mississippi, says the cabins of the Tensas were square, with the
roof dome-shaped, and that the walls were plastered with clay to
the height of 12 feet and were 2 feet thick. [Footnote: Relation
of Henry de Tonty in Margry, Decouvertes, vol. 1, 1876, p. 600]