MYER] GORDON TOWN SITE 503 
smoothed with pottery trowels resembling our modern flatirons in 
shape. The mortar was mixed with the tough grass found in the 
neighborhood. The grass served as a binder, similar to the straw 
used in the Egyptian bricks and in modern adobe. The early whites 
saw the southern Indians building such houses and applying such 
mortar. The Indians softened the clay with water and then kneaded 
the grass into the mass with their bare feet. Farther south they 
often used long gray moss as a binder.* The combined action of the 
attached cane leaves and the binding grasses must have caused the 
mortar to adhere closely to the walls. Nothing was found which 
would indicate the exact shape of the roof, its means of support, or 
the nature of its covering. 
This temple appears to have been destroyed by fire in some un- 
known manner, at some date after the Indians had removed all their 
belongings. At several points in the interior of house circle No. 1 
were found small fragments of the fallen-in, burned, clay-plastered 
walls. At 24-25 in Figure 123 a large mass of this material was 
found on the floor. It had not been disturbed since it had fallen in. 
This fragment of the burned plastered wall showed the cane stem 
wattling with the leaves still attached to the stems. The casts of 
the wild grass binding material could also be clearly seen. 
CEREMONIES AT ERECTION OF TEMPLE 
A study of this house site and the diagram in Figure 123 brings 
out the following facts: This building was erected with many cere- 
monies. The ground on which it was to stand appears to have been 
cleared and the black loam removed down to the original clay subsoil. 
Then, at X, where the earthen rim and the wall of the temple were to 
be erected, a cache pit, 43 by 27 inches, and 52 inches in depth, was 
dug in the clay subsoil. In this cache pit probably some sacred 
object was placed, which contained no bone or stony material. The 
black earth which filled this pit retained no hint as to the character 
of object, if any, placed therein. It evidently consisted of some 
substance like fur, feathers, or wood, which left no recognizable trace 
other than the loose black soil. After this cache pit had been filled, 
a small layer of clay, 12 by 10 inches, and 1% inches in thickness, 
was brought from elsewhere and spread on top of the pit. A strong 
fire was then built and continued upon this little clay cover sufficiently 
long to hard-burn the cover and make the soil underneath show the 
effect of fire to a depth of 2 inches. 
4 See Swanton’s ‘‘ Indian Tribes of the Lower Mississippi Valley,” Bull. 43, Bur. Amer. Ethn., p. 59. 
53666°—28——33 
