WATTLE AND DAUB or DAB, a term in architecture applied to a wall made with upright stakes with withes twisted between them and then plastered over. It is probably one of the oldest systems of construction. The Egyptians employed the stems of maize for the upright stakes; these were secured to gether with withes and covered over with mud, the upper portions of the maize stems being left uncut at the top, to increase the height. These uncut tops were bent out by the weight of the mud
roof, and were probably the origin of the later cavetto cornice, the torus moulding below representing the heavier coil of withes at the top of the wall. Vitruvius (ii. 8) refers to wattle and daub ; in the middle ages it was employed as a framework for clay chimneys, and for the filling in of half-timber.