396 MYTHS OF THK CHEROKEK [kth.ann.19 



"When thuy were reudv to Idiild tin inuuiid tliey l)egcUi In- layinjra 

 circle of stones on the surface of tlie (ground. Next they made a fire 

 in the center of tlie cii-cle and put near it the l)ody of some proinhient 

 chief or priest who had lately died — some say seven chief men fi-om 

 the diii'erent clans — too-cther with an Uluiisu'ti stone, an uktena scale 

 or hoiii. a feather from the right wing of an eagle or great tla'iuiwa. 

 which lived in those days, and heads of seven colors, red, white, black. 

 blue, purple, yellow, and gray-blue. The priest then conjured all 

 these with disease, so that, if (>ver an enemy invaded the country, even 

 though he should burn and destroy the town and the townhouse, he 

 would never live to return home. 



The mound wiis then built up with earth, which the women brought 

 in baskets, and as they j)iled it al)ove the stones, the bodies of their 

 great men, and the sacred things, they left an open place at the fii'e in 

 the center and letdown a hollow cedar trunk, with the bark on, which 

 fitted around the tire and protected it from the earth. This cedar log 

 was cut lono' enouoh to ivach nearlv to the surface inside the town- 

 house when eveiything was done. The earth was piled up around it. 

 and the whole mound was finished oft' smoothly, and then the town- 

 house was built upon it. One man, called the fire keeper, stayed always 

 in the townhouse to feed and tend the fire. When there was to be a 

 dance or a council he pushed long stalks of the iliija'<ja weed, which 

 some call atxH'-xCin'ti, '" the fire maker" {F.i'i(j<-r<)ii rdiKideuxe or flcabane), 

 down through the opening in the cedar log to the fire at the bottom. 

 He left the ends of the stalks sticking out and piled lichens and punk 

 around, after which he prayed, and as he prayed the fire climbed up 

 along the stalks until it caught the punk. Then he put on wood, and 

 by the time the dancers were ready there was a large fir(> blazing in 

 the townhouse. After the dance he covered the hole over again with 

 ashes, but the fire was always smoldering below. Just befoi-(> the 

 Green-corn dance, in the old times, e\ery fire in the settlement was 

 extinguished and all the people came and got new fire from the town- 

 house. This was called nf.si'/d gdhmhw'tl'yu, ''the honored or sacred 

 tire." Sometimes when the fire in a house went out, the woman came 

 to the fire keeper, who made a new fire by rubbing an ihyii'ga stalk 

 against the under side of n hard dry fungus that grows upon locust 

 trees. 



Some say this everlasting fire was onl^' in the larger mounds at 

 Nikwasi', Kitu'hwa, and a few other towns, and that when the new fire 

 was thus drawn up for the Green-coi'u dance it was distributed from 

 them to the other settlements. The fire burns j'et at the bottom of these 

 great mounds, and when the Cherokee soldiers were camped near 

 Kitu'hwa during the ci\il war they saw smoke still rising from the 

 mound. 



The Cherokee oner had a woodm box. nearly square and wrapped 

 up in buckskin, in which tlicy kept the most sacred things cif their 



