the entrance, and over it was hung a buffalo-hide, which served as a
door. The fire was built in the centre of the lodge, and directly
overhead was an aperture to let out the smoke. Here the women performed
culinary operations, except in warm weather, when such employments were
carried on outside in the open air. At night the occupants of the lodge
spread their skins and buffalo-robes on the ground, and then men, women,
and children, stretching themselves upon them, went to sleep, with their
feet to the fire. By day the robes were rolled into mats and made to
serve as seats. A lodge of ordinary size would comfortably house a dozen
persons; but two families never occupied one domicile, and, the
Cherokees seldom having a numerous progeny, not more than five or six
persons were often tenants of a single wigwam.

These rude dwellings were mostly strung along the two sides of a wide
avenue, which was shaded here and there with large oaks and poplars and
trodden hard with the feet of men and horses. At the back of each lodge
was a small patch of cleared land, where the women and the negro slaves
(stolen from the white settlers over the mountains) cultivated beans,
corn, and potatoes, and occasionally some such fruits as apples, pears,
and plums. All labor was performed by the women and slaves, as it was
considered beneath the dignity of an Indian brave to follow any
occupation but that of killing, either wild beasts in the hunt or
enemies in war. The house-lots were without fences, and not an enclosure
could be seen in the whole settlement, cattle and horses being left to
roam at large in the woods and openings.

In the centre of Echota, occupying a wide opening, was a circular,
tower-shaped structure, some twenty feet high and ninety in
circumference. It was rudely built of stout poles, plastered with clay,
and had a roof of the same material sloping down to broad eaves, which