The _council-house_ or tchukófa `láko stood on a circular mound or eminence, in close contiguity to the northeast corner of the "great house." It is variously called by travelers: hot-house, sudatory, assembly-room, winter council-house, mountain-house,[110] or, from its circular shape, rotunda. Its appearance is generally described as that of a huge cone placed on an octagonal frame about twelve feet high, and covered with tufts of bark. Its diameter was from twenty-five to thirty feet, and in the larger towns the building could accommodate many hundred persons.[111] Its perpendicular walls were made of thick posts, daubed with clay on the outside. Contiguous to the walls, one broad circular seat, made of cane-mats, was going around the structure on the inside, and in the centre the fire was burning on a small elevation of the ground. The fuel consisted of dry cane or dry pine slabs split fine; and, as if it were to give a concrete image of the warming rays of the sun, these split canes were disposed in a spiral line which exhibited several revolutions around the centre. No opening was provided for the escape of the smoke or the admission of fresh air, and the building soon became intolerably hot; but at dance-feasts the natives danced around the fire in the terrible heat and dust, without the least apparent inconvenience.[112]