BUSHNELL] NATIVE VILLAGES AND VILLAGE SITES 85 
here ‘‘we were conducted to the ware house [fig. 10], as the custom is, 
every town having one: we understood these houses were either for 
their times of mirth and dancing, or to lodge and entertain strangers. 
The house was about 31 feet diameter, built round, with 32 squares; 
in each square a cabin about 8 feet long, of a good height, painted 
and well matted. The center of the building is a quadrangle of 
twenty feet, being open at the top, against which the house is built. 
In this quadrangle is the place they dance, having a great fire in the 
middle. In one of the squares is the gate way or passage... This 
was the largest town of all, and about a mile from it was another called 
St. Philip’s.”» (Dickenson, (1), pp. 90-93.) 
Fig. 10.—Plan of the “ warehouse” at St. Marys, October 2, 1699, as suggested by 
Dickenson’s description. The square shows opening in the roof. 
The narrative continues: ““We understood that the Carolina 
Indians, called the Yammasees, which are related to these Indians, 
‘were here about a month before, trading for skins.”” The Yamasi 
were at that time living (p. 105) “about two or three days’ rowing 
from Charleston,”’ southward. 
These large circular structures at once suggest the ‘“rotundas”’ of 
the Creeks, and the town houses that existed among the Chickasaw and 
Cherokee. However, they were probably of lighter construction and 
had a much larger opening in the center of the roof or covering. The 
house at Santa Cruz was described as being 50 feet in diameter and 
having the circular wall divided into 16 sections, or “squares,” each 
of which was occupied by a “cabin,” the latter meaning berth or 
