THE MOUNDS AND THE CONSTANT FIRE: THE OLD SACRED THINGS
Some say that the mounds were built another people. Others say they were
built the ancestors of the old Ani′-Kĭtu′hwagĭ for townhouse foundations, so
that the townhouses would be safe when freshets came. The townhouse was
always built on the level bottom lands the river in order that the people might
have smooth ground for their dances and ballplays and might be able to go down
to water during the dance.
When they were ready to build the mound they began laying a circle of stones
on the surface of the ground. Next they made a fire in the center of the circle and
put near it the body of some prominent chief or priest who had lately died—put near it the body of some prominent chief or priest who had lately died—
some say seven chief men from the different clans—together with an Ulûñsû′tĭ
stone, an uktena scale or horn, a feather from the right wing of an eagle or great
tlă′nuwă, which lived in those days, and beads of seven colors, red, white, black,
blue, purple, yellow, and gray-blue. The priest then conjured all these with
disease, so that, if ever an enemy invaded the country, even though he should
burn and destroy the town and the townhouse, he would never live to return
home.
The mound was then built up with earth, which the women brought in baskets,
and as they piled it above the stones, the bodies of their great men, and the
sacred things, they left an open place at the fire in the center and let down a
hollow cedar trunk, with the bark on, which fitted around the fire and protected it
from the earth. This cedar log was cut long enough to reach nearly to the surface
inside the townhouse when everything was done. The earth was piled up around
it, and the whole mound was finished off smoothly, and then the townhouse was
built upon it. One man, called the fire keeper, stayed always in the townhouse to
feed and tend the fire. When there was to be a dance or a council he pushed long
stalks of the ihyâ′ga weed, which some call atsil′-sûñ′tĭ, “the fire maker”
(Erigeron canadense or fleabane), down through the opening in the cedar log to
the fire at the bottom. He left the ends of the stalks sticking out and piled lichens
and punk around, after which he prayed, and as he prayed the fire climbed up
along the stalks until it caught the punk. Then he put on wood, and the time
the dancers were ready there was a large fire blazing in the townhouse. After the
dance he covered the hole over again with ashes, but the fire was always
smoldering below. Just before the Green-corn dance, in the old times, every fire
in the settlement was extinguished and all the people came and got new fire from
the townhouse. This was called atsi′la gălûñkwʼti′yu, “the honored or sacred
fire.” Sometimes when the fire in a house went out, the woman came to the fire
keeper, who made a new fire rubbing an ihyâ′ga stalk against the under side
of a hard dry fungus that grows upon locust trees.
Some say this everlasting fire was only in the larger mounds at Nĭkwăsĭ′,
Kĭtu′hwa, and a few other towns, and that when the new fire was thus drawn up
for the Green-corn dance it was distributed from them to the other settlements.
The fire burns yet at the bottom of these great mounds, and when the Cherokee
soldiers were camped near Kĭtu′hwa during the civil war they saw smoke still
rising from the mound.rising from the mound.
The Cherokee once had a wooden box, nearly square and wrapped up in
buckskin, in which they kept the most sacred things of their old religion. Upon
every important expedition two priests carried it in turn and watched over it in
camp so that nothing could come near to disturb it. The Delawares captured it
more than a hundred years ago, and after that the old religion was neglected and
trouble came to the Nation. They had also a great peace pipe, carved from white
stone, with seven stem-holes, so that seven men could sit around and smoke
from it at once at their peace councils. In the old town of Keowee they had a
drum of stone, cut in the shape of a turtle, which was hung up inside the
townhouse and used at all the town dances. The other towns of the Lower
Cherokee used to borrow it, too, for their own dances.
All the old things are gone now and the Indians are different.
Source:
Myths of the Cherokee, James Mooney