NORTH AMERICA. 
449 
accommodating many hundred people.; conflruct- 
ed and furnifhed within, exactly in the fame man- 
ner as thofe of the Cherokees already defcribed, 
but much larger than any I had feen of them : there 
are people appointed to take care of it, to have it 
daily fwept clean, and to provide canes for fuel, or 
to give light. 
As their virgils and manner of conducting their 
vefpers and myftical fire in this rotunda, are ex- 
tremely lingular, and altogether different from 
the cuftoms and ufages of any other people, I 
Jhall proceed to defcribe them. In the fir 11 place, 
the governor or officer who has the management 
of this bufinefs, with his fervants attending, or- 
ders the black drink to be brewed, which is a 
decoction or infufion of the leaves and tender 
moots of the Caffine : this is done under an open 
fhed or pavillion, at twenty or thirty yards dif- 
tance, directly oppofite the door of the councii- 
houfe. Next he orders bundles of dry canes to 
be brought in : thefe are previouily fplit and. 
broken in pieces to about the length of two feet, 
and then placed obliquely croffways upon one 
another on the floor, forming a fpiral circle 
round about the great centre pillar, rifing to a 
foot or eighteen inches in height from the 
ground ; and this circle fpreading as it proceeds 
roumi and round, often repeated from right to 
left, every revolution encreafes its diameter, and 
at length extends to the diftance of ten or twelve 
feet from the centre, more or lefs, according to 
the length of time the affembly or meeting is to 
continue* By the time thefe preparations are 
accompliflied, it is night, and the affembiy have 
taken their feats in order. The exterior extre- 
mity or outer end of the fpiral circle takes fire 
G g and ■ 
