OCR Text |
Show BASIS OF AMERICAN HISTORY [ 1600 was in addition the playground of the town. The great house was in the centre of the square and composed of four single- storied buildings facing inward and enclosing a court thirty feet square. The buildings were sheds constructed of wooden frames covered in with roughhewn slabs, and each house was divided into three compartments with platforms or bunks running around the sides. They were all open towards the central court, and each building seems to have been assigned to one of the classes mentioned above. From the roofs hung trophies of various sorts, and in the centre of the square a perpetual fire was kept burning by special attendants appointed for the purpose. The great house was the centre for all meetings of a public character, the place for holding the annual " busk," presently to be described, as well as for the daily dances and amusements. Visiting Indians were also entertained in the great house. The council house stood on a circular mound near one corner of the great house. It was built in the shape of a large cone, placed on walls about twelve feet high, and was from twenty- five to ' thirty feet in diameter. Here the miko and the council met for deliberations of a private or formal character, but when not officially in use it was a general meeting- place for various purposes. The religious and ceremonial life of the Creek concentrated in the annual festival of the puskita, or busk, or green - corn dance, as it has come to be |