scratched and "go to
water."
As a special privilege a boy was sometimes admitted to the asl on
such occasions, to tend the fire, and thus had the opportunity to
listen to the stories and learn something of the secret rites. In this way
John Ax gained much of his knowledge, although he does not claim
to be an adept. As he describes it, the tire intended to heat the room —
for the nights are cold in the Cherokee mountains — was built upon the
ground in the center of the small house, which was not high enough
to permit a standing position, while the occupants sat in a circle around
it. In front of the tire was placed a large flat rock, and near it a pile
of pine knots or splints. When the tire had burneddown to a bed of
coals, the boy lighted one or two of the pine knots and laid them upon
the rock, where they blazed with a bright light until nearly consumed,
when others were laid upon them, and so on until daybreak.
Sometimes the pine splints were set up crosswise, thus, >0<XX, in a
circle around the fire, with a break at the eastern side. They were
then lighted from one end and burned gradually around the circle,
fresh splints being set up behind as those in front were consumed.
Lawson describes this identical custom as witnessed at a dance among
the Waxhaw, on Catawba river, in 1701:
Now, to return to our state house, whither we were invited by the grandees. As
seen as we came into it, they placed our Englishmen near the king, it being