74 The Winning of the West 



between them, consisted of the Middle towns. Its 

 borders were ill-marked and were ever shifting. 



Thus the towns of the Cherokees stretched from 

 the high upland region, where rise the loftiest 

 mountains of eastern America, to the warm, level, 

 low country, the land of the cypress and the long- 

 leaved pine. Each village stood by itself, in some 

 fertile river-bottom, with around it apple orchards 

 and fields of maze. Like the other southern Indians, 

 the Cherokees were more industrious than their 

 northern neighbors, lived by tillage and agriculture 

 as much as by hunting, and kept horses, hogs, and 

 poultry. The oblong, story-high houses were made 

 of peeled logs, mortised into one another and plas- 

 tered with clay ; while the roof was of chestnut bark 

 or of big shingles. Near to each stood a small 

 cabin, partly dug out of the ground, and in conse- 

 quence very warm; to this the inmates retired in 

 winter, for they were sensitive to cold. In the 

 centre of each village stood the great council-house 

 or rotunda, capable of containing the whole pop- 

 ulation; it was often thirty feet high, and some- 

 times stood on a raised mound of earth. 10 



The Cherokees were a bright, intelligent race, 

 better fitted "to follow the white man's road" than 

 any other Indians. Like their neighbors, they were 

 exceedingly fond of games of chance and skill, as 

 well as of athletic sports. One of the most strik- 

 ing of their national amusements was the kind of 

 ball-play from which we derive the game of lacrosse. 

 10 Bartram, 365. 



