GATSCHET — KAS.I.EG. — APPENDIX VII. [22 I J 189 



mixed-bloods usually do not participate in the busk-festivals, 

 which generally occur in July. 



After the participants have arrived and made themselves ready 

 on the first day, the second day of the Kasi'hta busk becomes 

 the great joyful day for young and old. Being a sort of viardi- 

 gras^ it is called by the Creeks the ''day of all-day eating," or 

 nita humpi isyafkita. Since men are detailed for almost everv 

 conceivable ministration connected with the busk, the chiefs send 

 out on the morning of the second day four men for logs to kin- 

 dle the "new fire." They cut them as large as each man can 

 carry, and deposit them on the four corners of the square, where 

 they have to remain for that day. Then the logs are brought 

 together with their ends so close as to allow the fire to burn 

 between them, and on the last day everybody has to take home 

 some of the new sacred fire (called so because kindled ceremo- 

 nially), and extinguish the old fire upon his fireplace. 



The rest of the busk ceremonies in the Kasi'hta square are 

 described in vol. i. pp. 177-80. Particular war-symbols, called 

 atassa;ahaki, are standing in the square of a few of the busking 

 towns ; they are described in the Creek Glossary. 



In the square of Tukabatchi town are preserved the vietallic 

 plates (in Creek, tchatu lani pulutpuki), referred to vol. i. 147, 

 described and figured in Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes, iii. S7-90, 

 and in Pickett, History of Alabama, i. 85. At every busk they 

 are exhibited to the people from a distance^ then washed in a 

 stream and carefully rubbed and cleaned. They are said to utter 

 spontaneously, without being struck or touched, a miraculous 

 ringing sound. 



The Creek towns still keeping up the institution of annual 

 "busking" in their town-square are: Kasi'hta, Abi'hka, Niu- 

 ya/a, Assi lanapi, Atasi, Akfaski, Odshi-apofa. Tukabatchi. 

 Busking towns speaking other languages than Creek are Ali- 

 bamu, Talua 'lako, and Yuchi. 



TII.-THE CREEK TOWNS 



which participated in the Indian insurrection of 1S13 and 1S14 

 against the United States government, or, as the Creeks ex- 



