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Show 152 BASIS OP AMERICAN HISTORY [ 1600 controls the religious life and ceremonials of the tribe. As we range south among the Algonquian groups the most striking change is the increasing attention paid to agriculture. \ From New England down it was generally and quite extensively practised, maize, squash, and tobacco being the chief products. y The typical dwelling of the eastern Indians was a small hut built of saplings set firmly in the ground and bent together at the tops, forming a rounded frame. Through this were woven split poles and flexible branches, and the whole was covered in with leaves, reeds, bark, or brush,. \ These were the so-called " wigwams/' and in the northeastern section were usually set in groups; the villages thus formed were sometimes surrounded by a palisade of poles driven into the ground. Summer dwellings were often nothing more than carelessly made shelters of brush. The Algonquians were organized on a totemic clan system, with descent, as a rule, in the female l'ne. There was a chief of each clan, and commonly a tribal chief as well, who was chosen normally from one clan, in which the office was hereditary. This chief was of rather indefinite authority and did not interfere in matters concerning any one clan, but\ was appealed to on questions of general or inter- clan interests. In case of war a war- chief was selected on account of personal prowess, and |