352 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [hull. 73 
Farther on he states that the colors employed were "red, blacke, 
yellow, and russet, very perfect." * When Ribault and his com- 
panions crossed the St. Johns after having met the Indians on one 
side, he says that he found them "waiting for us quietly, and in 
good order, with new paintings upon their faces, and feathers upon 
their heads." 2 And Laudonniere states that when they went to 
war they painted their faces much, "and stick their hair full of 
feathers, or down, that they may seem more terrible." 3 Le Moyne 
notes that they were "in the habit of painting the skin around their 
mouths of a blue color." 4 Like the Creeks, their neighbors, they 
kept their bodies covered with bear grease, for some ceremonial 
reason, Laudonniere declares, and also to protect them from the 
sun's heat. 5 
The chiefs Onatheaqua and Houstaqua living near the Apalachee 
painted their faces black, while the other Timucua chiefs painted 
theirs red. 6 The Indians first seen by De Soto and his men at Tampa 
Bay were painted red. 7 
Another peculiar custom is thus described by Le Moyne: 
They let their nails grow long both on fingers and toes, cutting (or scraping) the 
former away, however, at the sides (with a certain shell), so as to leave them very sharp, 
the men especially; and when they take one of the enemy they sink their nails deep 
in his forehead, and tear down the skin, so as to wound and blind him. 4 
There are not many special descriptions of Timucua houses. 
Ribault says, in speaking of the dwellings of those Indians whom he 
met at the mouth of the river which he called the Seine and which 
was probably what is now known as the St. Marys: 
Their houses are made of wood, fitly and closely set up, and covered with reeds, the 
most part after the fashion of a pavilion. But there was one house among the rest 
very long and wide, with seats around about made of reeds nicely put together, 
which serve both for beds and seats, two feet high from the ground, set upon round 
pillars painted red, yellow, and blue, and neatly polished. 8 
Le Challeux describes them thus : 
Their dwellings are of a round shape and in style almost like the pigeon houses of 
this country, the foundation and main structure being of great trees, covered over 
with palmetto leaves, and not fearing either wind or tempest. 9 
Says Le Moyne : 
The chief's dwelling stands in the middle of the town, and is partly underground 
in consequence of the sun's heat. Around this are the houses of the principal men, 
all lightly roofed with palm branches, as they are occupied only nine months in the 
year; the other three, as has been related, being spent in the woods. When they 
1 Hakluyt, Voyages, in, p. 615. 6 Ibid., p. 91. 
- French, op. cit., p. 178. 7 Bourne, Narr. of De Soto, ii, p. 56. 
3 Laudonniere, op. cit., p. 9. 8 French, op. cit., p. ISO. 
* Le Moyne, Narrative, pp. 8, 15. sGaffarel, nist. Floride francaise, p. 461. 
6 Laudonniere, op. cit., p. 12. 
