116 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 71 



returned to the camp. During that day and for three days there- 

 after the relatives remained at home and refrained from work. The 

 fires at the grave were renewed at sunset by those wlio had made 

 them, and after nightfall torches were waved in the air, that ' the 

 bad birds of the night' might not get at the Indian lying in his 

 grave. The renewal of the fires and waving of the torches were 

 repeated three days. The fourth day the fires were allowed to die 

 out. Throughout the camp ' medicine ' had been sprinkled at sunset 

 for three daj'S. On the fourth day it was said that the Indian ' had 

 gone.' From that time the mourning ceased and the members of the 

 family returned to their usual occupations. 



" The interpretation of the ceremonies just mentioned, as given me. 

 is this: The Indian was laid in the grave to remain there, it was 

 believed, only until the fourth day. The fires at head and feet, as 

 well as the waving of the torches, were to guard him from the ap- 

 proach of ' evil birds ' who w^ould harm him. His feet were placed 

 toward the east, that when he arose to go to the skies he might go 

 straight to the sky path, which commenced at the place of the sun's 

 rising; that were he laid with the feet in any other direction he 

 would not know when he rose what path to take and he would be 

 lost in the darkness. He had with him his bow and arrow, that he 

 might procure food on his way. The piece of burnt wood in his 

 hand was to protect him from the ' bad birds ' while he was on his 

 skyAvard journey. These ' evil birds ' are called Ta-lak-i-clak-o. 

 The last rite paid to the Seminole dead is at the end of four moons. 

 At that time the relatives go to the To-hop-ki and cut from around it 

 the overgrowing grass. A widow lives with disheveled hair for the 

 first twelve moons of her widowhood." (MacCauley, (1), pp. 520- 

 522.) 



Another form of Seminole burial has been mentioned, but it 

 could not have been followed to any great extent. " The Seminoles 

 of Florida are said to have buried in hollow trees, the bodies being 

 placed in an upright position, occasionally the dead being crammed 

 into a hollow log lying on the ground." (Yarrow, (1) , p. 138.) The 

 writer failed to give his authority for the statement. 



TIMUCUAN TRIBES 



Long before the Seminole reached central Florida the peninsula 

 had been the home of other native tribes who have left many mounds 

 and other works to indicate the positions of their villages. The 

 northern half of the peninsula, from the Ocilla River on the north 

 to the vicinity of Tampa Bay on the south, and thence across to about 

 Cape Canaveral on the Atlantic coast, was. when first visited by the 

 Spaniards, the home of tribes belonging to the Timucuan family, of 

 whom very little is known. They were encountered near the site of 



