392 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 137 



their relics, & scalps. The town house is a large building built round at the 

 botom for three or four feet high out of sticks & mud with large post[s] of the 

 same bight which support a plate. Inside of this wall is other large post[s] set 

 round which support other plates on which two rest the rafters. On the last 

 plates rest a large beam which supports another large post in the center against 

 which rest the remainder of the rafters so as to bring the roof to a point in a 

 conical form. On these rafters are tied small lathes which support the bark 

 of which the roof is made. There is only one door which makes it as dark as 

 midnight.'" 



This house is remembered by the Alabama, who called it ha'sse 

 ica', "grass house," because it was covered with grass, and by the 

 Creeks of Oklahoma, who called it tcoko'fa. Jackson Lewis said that 

 the Creek hot house was made with a circular floor-plan and a roof 

 converging to a point at the top. It was daubed outside and in with 

 clay and made very tight. In the center they dug a hole for the 

 fire, but all the rest of the space inside was floored with a kind of 

 tough clay obtained for that very purpose and patted down so that 

 it never got dusty. They either constructed beds around the inside 

 of the house or else lay down on skins on the floor around near the 

 walls. For the fire they procured round pieces of wood of kinds that 

 would make the least smoke. What smoke was produced rose to the 

 roof, leaving the air below comparatively clear, and as the fire died 

 down a bed of live coals was left, renewed from time to time by 

 raking, which warmed the house up very well. The door was about 

 4 feet high and was either on the south or the east. This was a sort 

 of refuge in very severe winter weather. Pumpkins, sweetpotatoes, 

 berries, etc., were stored in these houses for fear of frost. 



Plate 59, figure 1, shows the type of structure used in the Alabama 

 ceremonial ground in the eighteenth century, no doubt typical of the 

 Creek structures of this type during the period. 



The system of dwellings used by Creek families was of a type em- 

 ployed elsewhere exclusively in summer, and is said to have been 

 modeled on the plan of the Square Ground, as Bartram indicates in 

 the following description (see fig. 3) : 



The dwellings of the Upper Creeks [including according to the usage of all 

 other writers the Upper and Lower Creeks] consist of little squares, or rather 

 of four dwelling-houses inclosing a square area, exactly on the plan of the 

 Public Square. Every family, however, has not four of these houses; some 

 have but three, others not more than two, and some but one, according to the 

 circumstances of the individual, or the number of his family. Those who have 

 four buildings have a particular use for each building. One serves as a cook- 

 room and winter lodging-house, another as a summer lodging-house and hall 

 for receiving visitors, and a third for a granary or provision house, etc. The 

 last is commonly two stories high, and divided into two apartments, transversely, 

 the lower story of one end being a potato house, for keeping such other roots 

 and fruits as require to be kept close, or defended from cold in winter. The 



*" Copy of ma. obtained through the courtesy of Dr. Charles C. Harrold, of Macon, Qa. 



