Commander Lemoyne d'Iberville graphically describes (Margry IV, 170-172) the village of the Bayogoula with its two temples and 107 cabins. The number of the males was rather large (200 to 250) compared to the paucity of women inhabiting it. A fire was burning in the centre of the temples, and near the door were figures of animals, the "choucoüacha" or opossum being one of them. This word shukuasha is the diminutive of Cha'hta: shukata _opossum_, and contains the diminutive terminal -ushi. Shishikushi or "_tambours faits de calebasses_," gourd-drums, is another Indian term occurring in his description,[79] probably borrowed from an Algonkin language of the north. A curious instance of sign language displayed by one of the Bayogoula chiefs will be found in Margry IV, 154. 155.