MYER] GORDON TOWN SITE 509 
The door is in the midst of the length of the building, which has no other 
opening. On each side there are benches of stone. The inside perfectly corre- 
sponds to this rustic outside. Three pieces of wood, which touch at the ends 
and which are placed in a triangle, or, rather, equally distant from each other, 
take up almost all. the middle of the temple. These pieces are on fire and burn 
slowly. A savage, whom they call the keeper of the temple, is obliged to 
tend the fire and prevent its going out. If it is cold, he may have his fire 
apart, but he is not allowed to warm himself at that which burns in honor of the 
sun. 0 ee 
Oxssects Founp in Brack Loam CovERING TEMPLE 
Seattered through the black loam which covered this temple circle 
were found the lower jaw of an adult black bear, two teeth of a black 
bear, an hourglass shaped bead of black pottery (pl. 102, a), anda 
small rude stone discoidal, 114 inches in diameter and five-eighths of 
an inch in thickness, This discoidal is shown in Plate 102, b. 
THE TOWN SQUARE 
Mounp B 
The low, oval, almost flat mound B, at the northwestern corner 
of the town square, is 41 feet across the base from A to B and 21% 
feet in height, Cto D. (See vertical section in fig. 125.) 
7 a 
D 
Fic. 125.—Vertical section of mound B 
Fire ceremonies played a considerable part in the erection of this 
mound; but its rites were quite different from those in the erection 
of mound A, diagonally across the corner of the square. The many 
such differences found in mounds whose contemplated uses were en- 
tirely different lead to the belief that each type of mound probably 
had appropriate, distinctive sacred rites peculiar to its intended use. 
At the center of the proposed mound an irregularly shaped layer 
of clay, approximately 40 inches in length and 27 inches in width, 
had been spread to a depth of 4 inches on the original surface of the 
soil. A heavy and long-continued fire had been kept on this layer 
of clay or altar until it had been hardened and the soil underneath it 
more or less burned to a depth of 4 inches. This made a total depth 
of 8 inches showing the effect of long-continued strong heat on this 
clay altar. Then, before any earth was piled on top of this burned 
clay bed, all the ashes and débris were carefully removed; but the 
clay was left undisturbed. This removal of ashes was quite different 
from any rites used in the construction of mound A. If there was 
§ Swanton, op. cit., pp. 159-160. 
