NORTH AMERICA. 449 
accommodating many hundred people ; con- 
ftructed and furnillied within, exadlly in the 
fame manner as thofe of the Cherokees already 
defcribed, hut much larger than any I had leen 
of them : there are people appointed to take care 
of it, to have it daily fwept clean, and to pro* 
vide canes for fuel, or to give light,, 
As their virgils and manner of conducing their 
vefpers and myftical fire in this rotunda, are ex- 
tremely lingular, and altogether different from 
the cufloms and ufages of any other people, I 
fhall proceed to defcribe them. In the firfl place, 
the governor or officer who has the management 
of this bulinefs, with his fervants attending, or- 
ders the black drink to be brewed, which is a 
decodtion or infufion of the leaves and tender 
fhoots of the Caffine : this is done under an open 
died or pavilion, at twenty or thirty yards di- 
ftance, diredtly oppofite the door of the council- 
houfe. Next he orders bundles of dry canes to 
•» 
be brought in : thefe are previoufly fplit and 
broken in pieces to about the length of two feet, 
and then placed obliquely croflways 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 
round 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 
accomplifbed, it is night, and the alfembly have 
taken their feats in order. The exterior extre- 
mity or outer end of the fpiral circle takes fire 
G g and 
