The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-08-10
(From the National Geographic Mag
azine for July, 1899

on the work of the wind along the
North Carolina coast, published in this
magazine in June, 1906, pointed out
that the traveller need not now go to
Holland to see windmills. or to Tur-
keStan to see cities. 1t
is equally true that he may review
the records Of the past and examine
into the arts of a remote antiquity
without leaving his own land. with
out departing from his own coasts,
if he is SO fortunate as to be a dweller
in the United States.
He need not go to Switzerland and
study lake dredging to find how hu-
man habitations Weer once built upOn
piles by q race of dWarfS who wished
to protect themselves from the dam
gers of the land and lazily gain a
livelihood by fishing from their very
doors. Nor eed he seek the sub
merged remains Of such dwellings in
the lakes of Sweden. Italy, and Ire
land.
Neither is it necessary for him to
look to far-away Australia in the very
recent past for the home Of the BUSH
man, which is hardly more than a
nest in a hollow under a bush: nor to
Central Africa for a half-cOncealed
hut, such as Batwa pigmy builds for
himself Of palm leaves. A journey
of one thousand miles up the Nile
from Khartum is not necessary in
VI " III the HoII11SpIlcI1Cd1 nut
made Of straW-hatch or Of carefully
woven rushes. hat home of SO many
of the savage descendants of primevaI
man; nor need the traveller visit trop-
zeal Asia, or the Malay peninsuiar,
or the East Indies to accomplish this
purpose. The highest type Of straw
matched gabled house, such as is
used by the Kaffirs Of Natal. may be
found far short of the east coast of
Africa; nor is it necessary to visit
our new possessions in the Pacific to
find such a biding place for nan
Our American Indian still makes
for himself a tepee from blankets Of
his own weaving, and the American
Of the Far North is sheltered through
the long day by a somewhat similar
tent covered with the skins Of animals.
though he burrows in the ground
through the long winter night. These
American tepees are not unlike the
tent of camel's-hair or goats-hair
cloth that protects the Arab from
the heat of the desert.
The Gaddanes of Luzon dwell in
straw houses built in tree tops. and
even the jewellers of Kings Island
spend their summers in cliff houses
perci1ed high upon poles. But the
traveller needs not to visit our island
wards, the a~borigines Of the West,
or the EsQuimaux and Aleuts Of
6A1doHd ~ iho SNSA III
dwellings,.
All of these early types of human
habitatiOns may be seen strewn along
our own coast from Cape HatteraS to
Cape Sable, though they are of more
common occurrence along the North
Carolina coast than elsewhere. These
are by no means the homes of half
savage men, but are the temporary
abodes Of modern civilized men. ma
tive to our own shores. when they
engage in the half-Savage occupations
of fishing and hunting.
They are thus not survlvals. but
atavisfns. Modern man finds him
self in a situation practically Identical
with that of his savage ancestors,
and he meets the conditions of eXis-
tence in essentially the same way as
the Man, after all, is largely
a creature Of instinct. and the small
boy of our day is not alone in his in
stinct of All Of US like
to return at some season of the year
to the habit and garb of our primi-
tive ancestors. With many of our
jewellers by the sea this occasional has
become the usual, and temporary hab-
itations have become permanent, be-
ing kept in repair and used from sea-
son to season when hunting or fish
ing.
Our modern savage-from-choice has
aiSo the strong instinct for conceal
ment, that characterized his savage
~1orebears, as is shown by the fact
that many men who dwell by the coast
know nothing of these lodges. For
example, l have visited hemisphere
cal huts of woven rushes on Cedar
Island, Core Bank, Shackleford Bank,
near Tar Landing. less than a mile
from Fort Macon. at the Rice Path,
about the middle OF Bogue Banks,
and at the Carrot Island fishery, about
four miles from Beaufort. On Cedar
Island there is q larke krall with
domed and conical huts of woven
rush and with gabled thatcheS. Yet
Well-informed citizenc of Beaufort
and Morehead City know little or
nothing of them.