402 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 137 



in 1879 (pi. 61), and a log house and summer house or pavilion which 

 constituted part of the Choctaw settlement at Bonfouca in 1846. 



Timberlake, who passed the winter of 1761-62 in the Cherokee 

 country, has left a description of the town house of Echota or Chota, 

 often regarded as the capital of the Cherokee Nation : 



The town-house, in which are transacted all public business and diversions, is 

 raised with wood, and covered over with earth, and has all the appearance of 

 a small mountain at a little distance. It is built in the form of a sugar loaf, and 

 large enough to contain 500 persons, but extremely dark, having, besides the 

 door, which is so narrow that but one at a time can pass, and that after much 

 winding and turning, but one small aperture to let the smoak out, which is so 

 ill contrived, that most of it settles in the roof of the house. Within it has the 

 appearance of an ancient amphitheatre, the seats being raised one above another, 

 leaving an area in the middle, in the center of which stands the fire ; the seats 

 of the head warriors are nearest it. (Timberlake, Williams ed., 1927, p. 59.) 



The Presbyterian missionary, William Richardson, visited Echota 

 December 29, 1758, about 3 years before Timberlake, and it is the town 

 house of Echota which he is really describing in the following words, 

 though his remarks are intended to be of general application : 



Their Town houses are built in the Form of a Sugar Loaf & will hold 4 or 500 

 peo. ; they are supported by ten Pillars ; at the Foot of most of them are seats 

 for the great Men among them ; on ye right hand. Hop, on the 3d the Prince of 

 ye Former Year, on the 4th The Chief Beloved Man, of ye present Year, w'm they 

 call Prince; on the 5th the Head Warrior (Oconostata), &c., in this order I'm 

 informed. The two seats behind y'm where the rest sit made of Canes & where 

 some sleep all Night ; they are very hot & here they sit & talk & smoke & dance 

 sometimes all Night. (Richardson, 1981, p. 133.) 



Bartram, as we have seen, emphasizes the resemblance between the 

 enclosed ceremonial houses of the Creeks and those of the Cherokee. 

 His period is a little later than that of the last-mentioned writers, and 

 the particular account which he gives is based principally on his study 

 of the town house of Cowee : 



They first fix in the ground a circular range of posts or trunks of trees, about 

 six feet high, at equal distances, which are notched at top, to receive into them 

 from one to another, a range of beams or wall plates; within this is another 

 circular order of very large and strong pillars, above twelve feet high, notched 

 in like manner at top, to receive another range of wall plates ; and within this is 

 yet another or third range of stronger and higher pillars, but fewer in number, 

 and standing at a greater distance from each other; and lastly, in the centre 

 stands a very strong pillar, which forms the pinnacle of the building, and to 

 which the rafters centre at top; these rafters are strengthened and bound to- 

 gether by cross beams and laths, which sustain the roof or covering, which is a 

 layer of bark neatly placed, and tight enough to exclude the rain, and sometimes 

 they cast a thin superficies of earth over all. There is but one large door, which 

 serves at the same time to admit light from without and the smoak to escape 

 when a fire is kindled ; but as there is but a small fire kept, sufficient to give light 

 at night, and that fed with dry small sound wood divested of its bark, there is 

 but little smoak. All around the inside of the building, betwixt the second range 



