492 SEMINOLE INDIANS OF FLORIDA. 
even while the latter was trying to oblige me by answering puzzling 
questions upon matters connected with his tribe. One night, as Lieu- 
tenant Brown and I sat by the campfire at Tél la-hiis-ke’s lodge—the 
larger boys, two Seminole negresses, three pigs, and several dogs, to- 
gether with Tal-la-hiis-ke, forming a picturesque circle in the ashes 
around the bright light —I heard muffled moans from the little palmetto 
shelter on my right, under which the three smaller boys were bundled 
up in cotton cloth on deer skins for the night’s sleep. Upon the moans 
followed immediately the frightened ery of the baby boy, waking out of 
bad dreams and erying for the mother who could not answer; “ Its- 
ki, Its-ki” (mother, mother) begged the little fellow, struggling from 
under his covering. At once the big Indian grasped his child, hugged 
him to his breast, pressed the little head to his cheek, consoling him all 
the while with caressing words, whose meaning I felt, though I could 
not have translated them into English, until the boy, wide awake, 
laughed with his father and us all and was ready to be again rolled up 
beside his sleeping brothers. I have said also that the Seminole are 
frank. Formal or hypocritical courtesy does not characterize them. 
One of my party wished to accompany Ka-tea-la-ni (“4 Yellow Tiger”) 
onahunt. He wished to see how the Indian would find, approach, 
and capture his game. ‘ Me go hunt with you, Tom, to-day?” asked 
our man. ‘ No,” answered Tom, and in his own language continued, 
“not to-day; to-morrow.” ‘To-morrow came, and, with it, Tom-to our 
camp. ‘ You ean go to Horse Creek with me; then I hunt alone and 
you come back,” was the Indian’s remark as both set out. I after- 
wards learned that Ka-tea-la-ni was all kindness on the trail to Horse 
Creek, three miles away, aiding the amateur hunter in his search for 
game and giving him the first shot at what was started. At Horse 
Creek, however, Tom stopped, and, turning to his companion, said, ‘* Now 
you hi-e-pus (go)!” That was frankness indeed, and quite refreshing to 
us who had not been honored by it. But equally outspoken, without 
intending offense, I found them always. You could not mistake their 
meaning, did you understand their words. Diplomacy seems, as yet, to 
be an unlearned art among them. 
KO-NIP-HA-TCO. 
Here is another illustration of their frankness. One Indian, Ko-nip- 
ha-tco (“ Billy”), a brother of “Key West Billy,” has become so desirous 
of identifying himself with the white people that in 1879 he came toCapt. 
I. A. Hendry, at Myers, and asked permission to live with him. Permis- 
sion was willingly given, and when I went to Florida this ‘ Billy” had 
been studying our language and ways for more thana year. At that time 
he was the only Seminole who had separated himself from his people and 
had cast in his lot with the whites. He had clothed himself in our dress 
and taken to the bed and table, instead of the ground and kettle, for sleep 
and food. ‘Meallsame white man,” he beastfully told me one day. But 
a ee 
