BDSHNBLL] ISTATIVE CEMETERIES AND FORMS OF BURIAL 93 



A few objects of stone and shell and some copper beads were 

 associated with the various burials, buti apparently nothing bf 

 European origin was encountered. Other mounds of equal interest 

 marking the positions of the same period were examined and de- 

 scribed by the same writer. 



The interior arrangement of the mound just mentioned, the mound 

 upon which the great rotunda of Chote may have stood for many 

 years, is quite suggestive of the traditional account of such a mound 

 as related to Mooney by one of his most conservative informants. 

 The circle of stones, with a mass of ashes and charcoal within the 

 inclosure, seems to be explained by this tradition. 



", Some say that the mounds were built by another people. Others 

 say they were built b}" the ancestors of the old Ani Kituhwagi for 

 townhouse foundations, so that the townhouses would be safe when 

 freshets came. The townhouse was always built on the level bottom 

 lands by the river in order that the people might have smooth ground 

 for their dances and ballplays and might be able to go down to water 

 during the dance. When they were ready to build the mound they 

 began by laying a circle of stones on the surface of the ground. 

 Next they made a fire in the center of the circle and put near it the 

 body of some prominent chief or priest who had latel}^ died — 

 some say seven chief men from the different clans. . . . Ihe mound 

 was then built up with earth, which the women brought in 

 baskets . . ." (Mooney, (2), p. 395.) 



And so the tradition continues, relating the various ceremonies 

 which attended the construction of the work. This was not the ac- 

 count of the building of any particular mound, but merely the de- 

 scription, in general, of the construction of an elevated site upon 

 which the town house would later be reared. Of what great interest 

 would be a detailed account of the various rites which were enacted 

 at the time the fire was kindled within the circle of stones; at the 

 tim^ the bodies of the great men were placed on the surface, later 

 to be covered by the mound of earth. The remains were probably 

 wrapped and decorated with the richest possessions of the living, 

 with ornaments and objects of a perishable nature, all of which, 

 unfortunately, soon crumbled awa}- and so disappeared, leaving only 

 scant traces of what had once been covered by the earth, " which the 

 women brought in baskets."' 



MUSKHOGEAN GROUPS 



The southern pine lands, from the Mississippi to the Atlantic and 

 from the lowlands of the Gulf coast to the southern Alleghenies, was 

 the home of Muskhogean tribes. The Choctaw, Natchez, and Chick- 

 asaw lived in the West. Numerous smaller tribes, later recognized as 

 forming the Creek confederacy, occupied the valleys of the Coosa, 



