.MTA1Mg.NzA0NjM

128 p. 37

offer the sacrifice. This was done as follows. The priest always had an assistant called his right hand man, He also had a room for the purpose of offering sacrifice, into which no one must ever enter but he and his right hand man. His assistant now swept this room peculiarly clean, and then brought new fresh earth, and made an altar of earth in the middle of the room. He fixed the top of this very seriously, drew a circle around it, in which he made a fire of small pieces of bark, taken unclear from the east side of the following trees, viz, white oak, Basswood, Chestnut, Black oak, Water oak, and white pine. The fire being prepared, the priest put on it the end of the deer tongue reserved by the hunters. He also threw in the fire seven kernels of corn. These were taken from seven different ears, plucked from seven fields, the fields belonging to the seven different clans. Thus one kernel was sacrificed for each clan. While these were burning, the priest sprinkled a powder into the fire. This was made of old tobacco leaves, old tobacco, so called because used in old times. It is a weed supposed to resemble in some respects tobacco and prayed at this same time that God would bless the priests of the year, and cause them to prove healthy to the people. 
 This being done, and the seats & food having been made ready and the people seated, all were directed to eat, and all commenced simultaneously, except the priest and the seven men and seven women selected to fast previous to the feast. Then continued at the town house seven days longer, eating food made of old provisions. The whole town assembled again, had another feast and dance, when all partook together of the green fruit, and closed the ceremony. Families which could not attend a general meeting, as above, before tasting their first fruits, sent for a priest, to visit them. He took tome of their new fruit, provided, in the palm of his hand, and some grains of the same on his fingers. He then stood before the fire, and prayed that the new fruit, of which they were about to partake, might be blessed to them, so as to prove healthy. He then threw what he had in the palm of his hand into the fire, and gave to each member of the family a grain of wheat was on his fingers. With these things rubbed their breasts &c. and then partook of the green fruit. 
  When the fruits of the field were ripe, and gathered, the Cherokees had another feast, in which they observed the same ceremonies, only eating ripe instead of green fruit.