Cheyenne transporter. [volume] (Darlington, Indian Terr.) 1879-1886, 1885-11-30
The Lake Dwellera.

villages in the middle of lakes and
ponds, or in some place surrounded by
water. In this way they protected
themselves against wild beasts that in
tested the woods around them, and
from the savage men who were more
cruel than the wild beasts.
1t is probable that at this time Eng
land, France and Germany were near
ly covered with forests, through
which monstrous animals wandered.
Great bears, wolves, and possibly the
immense mammoth, drove men and
refuge in the lakes and ponds of
water; they built their towns on piles
or stakes driven into the bottom of the
lake.
All over Europe the remains of these
singular retreats are found, but the
most remarkable are in Switzerland.
Here, where the waters of the lake are
low, great numbers of these villages
NAV be traced. The piles which
they were built are still there; some
times even remains Of the houses are
found. The people who lived IN them
were of small size, apparently. They
used stone axes or hatchets, and fought
with arrows pointed with flint. 1t is
no wonder that they fled from the wild
beasts of the forests.
These lacustrlne villages, as they
are called, cannot have been very COM
Portable. The piles or stakes on which
they rested were cut in the woods near
by, and then dragged to the water
side, where they were driven into the
70
floor of logs was laid upon them. 1t
seems to have been covered over with
brushwood, leaves and grass. The
houses were built above, probably
wooden huts, scarcely sheltered from
the wind and rain.
The people who lived in them knew
how to weave coarse linen or woolen
cloth, but usually must have been
clothed in skins. Rude ornaments of
different kinds-rings, chains Of cop
per or bronze, weapons, stone knives,
hammers of stone, beads-are found.
Fire was evidently used, and the bones
of the OK, hog and goats are proofs
that the lacustrine people were not
vegetarians. But it is easy to imagine
how uncomfortable were their dwell
ings. The floor of brushwood must
always have been damp and un-
healthy; the chill winds of the Swiss
and German lakes pierced through the
huts; sometimes floods overwhelmed
them; sometimes stealthy enemy
broke into their defenses and burned
the whole village as if it were nest
of venOmOus insects. The ashes of
many of these towns are found at the
| s 4 lao, lnl-
were destroyed by fire. They were
usually joined to the shore by bridge
of stakes, over which an enemy could
pass.
Many of these towns are found in
the lakes and ponds of Ireland and
Scotland Here they are called "cran-
noges.' They seem TO have been less
carefully built than those of Switzer-
land, but they still show that the peo-
pie who planned them must have lab
ored hard to provide themselves with
safe home. They had canoes hol-
! lowed from trunks of trees, on which
they carried their piles out into the
! lake. They cut down oak trees of con
siderable size with their hatchets OF
stone or bronze. In one "crannoge'
recently discovered in Scotland more
than 5000 trees, some of great size,
had been cut down and used in build
ing one of these villages in the midst
of lake.
We who live in safe and pleasant
cities or country homes can scarcely
believe that people could exist in these
wild retreats in the midst of the
waters. Yet it seems that they were
inhabited by large population, even
in Scotland. Here men, women and
children lived and died, sometimes
perhaps as happily as if they had lived