"Every town has a house, or particular spot of ground, appropriated to dancing, holding council, and of late, courts. This public house, generally called Town House, is built in a circular form, with perpendicular walls six or eight feet high; from thence it ends at a point, giving the roof a conical form, which is supported by interior posts. From the floor to the highest point of the roof is fifteen to twenty feet. Puncheons are laid around on the inside to serve as seats. The house is covered with the bark of forest trees, confined on with the bark of hickory shrubs, the hickories themselves, or white oak shreds. A doorway is left in building the house, and on the outside a small shed or portico is made; and in front of this is a level yard laid off in a square, and made smooth for the purpose of dancing, on particular occasions."
"Their dwellings generally consist of small log huts, too insignificant to need a description. But their ‘hot houses’ are more remarkable, though more trifling in appearance. They are small, low huts constructed of small logs, mud and clapboards. In forming the roof, generally, a layer of thick puncheons is first laid on, then a thick coat of mud and lastly, clapboards to prevent the mud being washed off by the rain. A small opening is made in the end, capable of admitting a man; to this a shutter is made. Thus all visible avenues through which air can find admittance are carefully closed. Burning coals and embers are kept in the center, or such fuel as produces little or no smoke kept burning. Were there not hundreds of living witnesses before his eyes, a white man accustomed to pure air, could scarcely believe that a salamander could exist twenty four hours in such a situation. But during the winter months many old men spend the greater part of their time in a '‘hot house'’ and employ themselves in roasting potatoes and parching corn.
In the chartered limits of North Carolina and in those of Georgia and Tennessee, as far as my observations extend, the Cherokees are divided into towns and clans. By towns is not to be understood a cluster of dwellings contained within a small space, as amongst the whites, and probably with some other Indian tribes, but a small colony, generally embracing some miles in extent. In the same sense, Cherokee village is to be understood.
"Their dwellings generally consist of small log huts, too insignificant to need a description. But their ‘hot houses’ are more remarkable, though more trifling in appearance. They are small, low huts constructed of small logs, mud and clapboards. In forming the roof, generally, a layer of thick puncheons is first laid on, then a thick coat of mud and lastly, clapboards to prevent the mud being washed off by the rain. A small opening is made in the end, capable of admitting a man; to this a shutter is made. Thus all visible avenues through which air can find admittance are carefully closed. Burning coals and embers are kept in the center, or such fuel as produces little or no smoke kept burning. Were there not hundreds of living witnesses before his eyes, a white man accustomed to pure air, could scarcely believe that a salamander could exist twenty four hours in such a situation. But during the winter months many old men spend the greater part of their time in a '‘hot house'’ and employ themselves in roasting potatoes and parching corn.
In the chartered limits of North Carolina and in those of Georgia and Tennessee, as far as my observations extend, the Cherokees are divided into towns and clans. By towns is not to be understood a cluster of dwellings contained within a small space, as amongst the whites, and probably with some other Indian tribes, but a small colony, generally embracing some miles in extent. In the same sense, Cherokee village is to be understood.