HEYE— NORTH CAROLINA MOUNDS 



is of Cherokee ware. There are also several bottoms of jars, of the 

 pointed type, but with the exception of nineteen arrowpoints and a 

 crude hammerstone, no implements were found. 



As all the burials were found near the surface and on the upper 

 side of the stratum of stone, it is evident that they were intrusive 

 and that the mound was not designed for mortuary purposes. It is 

 therefore possible that it was used by the Cherokee in playing their 

 ball game. The situation of the two mounds indicates that they 

 could have been used to mark the limits of the ball-field or to have 

 been used otherwise in connection with the game of ball. 



Mooney 1 says: 



Kaniiga — An ancient Cherokee town on Pigeon river, in the present Hay- 

 wood county, North Carolina. It was deserted before the beginning of the his- 

 toric period, but may have been located about the junction of the two forks of 

 Pigeon river, a few miles east of Waynesville, where there are still a number of 

 mounds and ancient cemeteries extending for some miles down the stream. Being 

 a frontier town, it was probably abandoned early on account of its exposed posi- 

 tion. The name, signifying "scratcher," is applied to a comb, used for scratching 

 the ballplayers, and is connected with kanugu"la, or nugfi"ld, a blackberry bush 

 or brier. 



THE SECOND JAMES PLOTT MOUND 



The second mound on the James Plott farm is now a low, elon- 

 gated knoll. As above stated, this mound was explored and partly 

 leveled by members of the Valentine Museum expedition in 1880. 

 According to old residents who were familiar with the mound before 

 it was disturbed, it was similar in size and shape to the others of this 

 group, except that the top was more flattened. 



SINGLETON MOUND 



Between Canton and Waynesville, about two miles southwest of 

 the Plott mounds, on the property of Mr T. D. Singleton, at Bethel, 

 Pigeon township, Haywood county, was a small, low, circular mound. 

 This mound averaged twenty feet in diameter and from a foot to 

 two feet above the general surface. Being situated in Mr Singleton's 

 front dooryard, it had been used as a flower-bed. At one time two 

 large trees stood on the mound, but they were removed by the present 

 owner of the place, who informed us that they were between sixty to 

 eighty years old. 



The work of excavation was commenced on the roadside of the 

 earthwork. In the southern part several potsherds and a pitted ham- 

 merstone were found, and in the center an earthenware jar, which 



■James Mooney, Myths of the Cherokee, Nineteenth Ann. Rep. Bur. Amer. Ethnol., p. 479. 

 [185] 



