webb] ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF NORRIS BASIN 213 



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

 and to which the rafters are strengthened and bound together 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 smoke 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 small pieces of dry sound wood divested of its 

 bark, there is but little smoke. All around the inside of the building, betwixt 

 the second range of pillars and the wall, is a range of cabins or sophas, consist- 

 ing of two or three steps, one above the other, in theatrical order, where the 

 assembly sit or lean down ; these sophas are covered with mats or carpets, very 

 curiously made of thin splints of Ash or Oak, woven or platted together ; near 

 the great pillar in the center the fire is kindled for light, near which the 

 musicians seat themselves, and round about this the performers exhibit their 

 dances and other shows at public festivals, which happen almost every night 

 throughout the year. 28 



Of the location of the town house on top of mounds, Bartram has 

 this to say : 



The council or town house is a large rotunda, capable of accommodating sev- 

 eral hundred people; it stands on the top of an ancient artificial mound of 

 earth, of about 20 feet perpendicular, and the rotunda on the top of it being 

 about 30 feet more, gives the whole fabric an elevation of about 60 feet from 

 the common surface of the ground. But it may be proper to observe that this 

 mound on which the rotunda stands is of much ancienter date than the build- 

 ing, and perhaps was raised for another purpose. The Cherokees themselves 

 are as ignorant as we are, by what people or for what purpose these artificial 

 hills were raised; they have various stories concerning them, the best of 

 which amount to no more than conjecture, and leave us entirely in the dark. 



Adair reports on the location of town houses as follows: 



* * * every town has a large edifice which with propriety may be called 

 the mountain house in comparison to those already described. But the only 

 difference between it and the winter house or stove is in its dimensions and 

 application. It is usually built on the top of a hill and in that separate and 

 imperial statehouse the old beloved men and head warriors meet on material 

 business, or to divert themselves and feast and dance with the rest of the 

 people. 21 



As offering an interesting side light on the use of town houses by 

 the Cherokee, and as presenting a possible reason for building a new 

 town house on the same site as the older houses which had been 

 destroyed, Thomas offers the following statement : 



According to Mr. Mooney — who furnished the writer with some particulars 

 on the subject in addition to what are found in his paper heretofore men- 

 tioned — on account of the sanctity attached to the location in the minds of the 

 people, a new town house was usually built upon the site of the old one. The 

 Cherokee town houses were necessarily located in the immediate vicinity of a 

 stream, and where there was about it a level area. The reasons for this were 



* Bartram, 1792, p. 366. 

 « Adair, 1930, p. 453. 



