SWANTON] INDIANS OF THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES 633 



ceremonial buildings and nearby a plaza or square. The same ar- 

 rangement was observed in later times except that the mound was 

 generally wanting. This was included partly for defense no doubt 

 and also to enliance the respect due to the sacred edifices. Garcilaso 

 indicates several towns, particularly those along the Mississippi in 

 which there were two mounds with an intervening plaza. 



Cabeza de Vaca, in his account of the entrance of Narvaez into an 

 Apalachee town, probably Ibitachuco, says : 



The village contained forty small and low houses, reared in sheltered places, 

 out of fear of the great storms that continually occur in the country. The 

 buildings are of straw, and they are surrounded by dense timber, tall trees and 

 numerous water-pools, where there were so many fallen trees and of such size 

 as to greatly obstruct and impede circulation. (Cabeza de Vaca, Bandelier ed., 

 1905, p. 113.) 



Let us turn to the Creek towns. Hawkins says of Tuskegee : 



This little town is in the fork of the two rivers, Coo-sau and Tal-la-poo-sa, 

 where formerly stood the French fort Toulouse. The town is on a bluff on 

 the Coo-sau, forty-six feet above low-water mark ; the rivers here approach 

 each other within a quarter of a mile, then curve out, making a flat of low 

 land of three thousand acres, which has been rich cauebrake ; and one-third 

 under cultivation in times past ; the center of this flat is rich oak and hickory, 

 margined on both sides with rich cane swamp ; the land back of the town, 

 for a mile, is flat, a whitish clay ; small pine, oak, and dwarf hickory, then 

 high pine forest. There are thirty buildings in the town compactly situated, 

 and from the bluflf a fine view of the flat lands in the fork, and on the right 

 bank of Coo-sau, which river is here two hundred yards wide. (Hawkins, 1848, 

 pp. 37-39; Swanton, 1922, pp. 209-210.) 



A rather late view of Kasihta is given by the missionary Hodgson 

 in 1820: 



It appeared to consist of about 100 houses, many of them elevated on poles 

 from two to six feet high, and built of unhewn logs, with roofs of bark, and 

 little patches of Indian corn before the doors. ... In the center of the town 

 we passed a large building, with a conical roof, supported by a circular wall 

 about three feet high; close to it was a quadrangular space, enclosed by four 

 open buildings, with rows of benches rising above one another ; the whole was 

 appropriated, we were informed, to the Great Council of the town, who meet 

 under shelter or in the open air, according to the weather. Near the spot 

 was a high pole, like our may-poles, with a bird at the top, round which the 

 Indians celebrate their Green-Corn Dance. (Hodgson, 1823, pp. 265-266; Swan- 

 ton, 1922, p. 224.) 



Here is Coweta, the sister town, in 1799 : 



Cow-e-tuh, on the right bank of Chat-to-ho-che, three miles below the falls, 

 on a flat extending back one mile. The land is tine for corn ; the settlements 

 extend up the river for two miles on the river flats. These are bordered with 

 broken pine land; the fields of the settlers who reside in the town, are on a 

 point of land formed by a bend of the river, a part of them adjoining the point, 

 are low, then a rise of fifteen feet, spreading back for half a mile, then an- 

 other rise of fifteen feet, and flat a half mile to a swamp adjoining the high- 



