These United States-XVI. Louisiana: (Madame de la Louisiane).

Aboriginally locus La Louisiane was a body of water, a geological sea. More late, a prehistoric dwelling-place for amphibious brutes, where primitive peoples built shell mounds to climb upon in high-water time. These mounds excavated today betray a certain native art, evidenced in rude bowls, earthen vases, stone implements. Later the Indians: some indigenous, like the Attakapas; some nomadic, probably from Mexico, like the sun-worshiping Natchez tribe; in all five or six groups, living each a community life. The early roads of La Louisiane were waterways. The pirogue, a sort of canoe built for four, was means of transit from bayou to river and river to bayou.