194 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 118 



tice, if such may be found. Fortunately there are a number of 

 recorded observations which throw light on the point. Timberlake 2 

 says that he saw earth-covered town houses in 1762 while he was a 

 hostage to the Over Hill Cherokee on Little Tennessee River. It 

 will be noted that he not only describes town-house structures which 

 are covered with earth, but he particularly describes the small and 

 inadequate door and states that the only other opening in this struc- 

 ture was the smoke hole in the roof. The absence of openings, other 

 than one small door and a small vent for smoke, would produce 

 exactly the condition referred to above, as necessary to cause the 

 incomplete combustion observed* This method of construction of 

 town houses with only a single door and no windows or openings 

 except the smoke hole seems to have been a fairly general practice 

 among the Cherokees in early historic times. 



Timberlake's description seems to be confirmed by a much earlier 

 and quite a remarkable historic event, referred to by Williams 3 and 

 reported by Grant, 4 relative to the action of Sir Alexander Cuming, 

 an agent of His Majesty King George, who on the night of March 23, 

 1729, went into a Cherokee town house at Keeowee where there were 

 above 300 Indians assembled and caused them to acknowledge the 

 sovereignty of King George. The significance of this event in this 

 connection as Grant reports it, is that it would have been impossible 

 had there been more than one door or even windows or other aper- 

 tures providing an exit from the building. This would seem to con- 

 firm the fact that the Cherokee town house at Keeowee in 1729 had 

 only one door and no other major opening. 



Another point should be emphasized. Many early travelers among 

 the southern tribes — Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, and others — report 

 that the town houses seen by them were erected on mounds, and the 

 statement is usually added that "the mounds were built for that pur- 

 pose." As is well known, many of these tribes where such mounds 

 are reported covered their town houses with earth. The opinion is 

 here ventured that many if not all of these mounds which, as reported, 

 had been built for the purpose of forming a site for a town house 

 were actually built by collapse of former town houses on the same 

 site. The multiple occupancy of a single town-house site was per- 

 haps common to most southern groups and this multiple occupancy 

 of a single site by earth-covered town houses is not only the reason 

 for the erection of the mounds but an explanation of the method of its 

 construction. 



2 See footnote 24, p. 212. 

 8 See footnote 20, p. 209. 

 4 See footnote 21, p. 209. 



