of the American Indians, 331 



nothing that could convey the idea of time, being simply tracks 

 of feet." 



The Creeks or Muscogulges say they came from the south- 

 west, beyond the Mississippi, and established themselves on the 

 ruin of the Natches, before the English settled the colony of 

 Carolina. (The Chicasaw, Chactaw, and Natches speak the 

 language and dialects of the Muscogulges, (463).) Their go- 

 vernment is strict, and so civilized that it seems impossible for 

 them to act out of the common high road to virtue^ (209). The 

 Creeks have sworn that they will not make peace with the 

 Chactaws while the rivers flow (390). 



The manner of conducting their mystical fire is peculiar and 

 solemn ; two notes sung by a slave as long as he has breath 

 strike the imagination with religious awe, sounding like a-lu- 

 yah, A skin stuffed with tobacco is laid at the king's feet ; it 

 is of an animal of the king's tribe or family, a cat, bear, young 

 tiger, &c. The king smokes his pipe first, ceremoniously 

 blowing some smoke towards the Sun or Great Spirit, to the 

 four cardinal points, then towards the white people. In a se- 

 cluded place they deposit the sacred things, the physic pot, 

 rattles, chaplets of deers' hoofs, and the imperial standard or 

 eagle's tail, which is pure white during peace, but tinged with 

 vermilion when displayed for war. The walls of the houses 

 are decorated with paintings and sculptures of men in variety 

 of attitudes, some with the head of a bear, fox, wolf, &c., and 

 figures of such animals with human heads. The pillars of the 

 council-house are formed like vast speckled serpents ascending, 

 theOttasses (of thistown) being of the snake tribe, (450 — 454). 

 The region between Savanna river and Oakmulge, east and 

 west, and from the sea-coast to the Cherokee, or Apalachian 

 mountains, is remarkable for high conical hills and terraces. 

 It was possessed by the Cherokees since the arrival of Euro- 

 peans, but they were afterwards dispossessed by the Musco- 

 gulges, and all the country was probably many ages, before the 

 Cherokee invasion, inhabited by one nation, ruled by the same 

 system, but so ancient that the Cherokees knew^ not their pur- 

 pose. Perhaps these pyramidal mounts served for look-out 

 towers, or high places for sacrifice (518). The Muscogulges 

 bury their dead in a square deep pit under the couch which 



