MACCAULEY. | INDUSTRIAL ARTS. 517 
The rifle serves them much better. It seems to be customary for every 
male in the tribe over twelve years of age to provide himself with a 
rifle. The bow, as now made, is a single piece of mulberry or other 
elastic wood and is from four to six feet in length; the bowstring is 
made of twisted deer rawhide; the arrows are of cane and of hard 
wood and vary in length from two to four feet; they are, as a rule, 
tipped with a sharp conical roll of sheet iron. The skill of the young 
men in the use of the bow and arrow is remarkable. 
Weaving and basket making.—The Seminole are not now weavers. 
Their few wants for clothing and bedding are supplied by fabrics man- 
ufactured by white men. They are in a small way, however, basket 
makers. From the swamp cane, and sometimes from the covering of 
the stalk of the fan palmetto, they manufacture flat baskets and sieves ~ 
for domestic service. 
Uses of the palmetto.—In this connection I call attention to the ines- 
timable yalue of the palmetto tree to the Florida Indians. From the 
trunk of the tree the frames and platforms of their houses are made; of 
its leaves durable water tight roofs are made for the houses; with the 
leaves their lodges are covered and beds protecting the body from the 
dampness of the ground are made; the tough fiber which lies between 
the stems of the leaves and the bark furnishes them with material from 
which they make twine and rope of great strength and from which they 
could, were it necessary, weave cloth for clothing; the tender new 
growth at the top of the tree is a very 
nutritious and palatable article of food, 
to be eaten either raw or baked; its taste 
is somewhat like that of the chestnut; its 
texture is crisp like that of our celery 
stalk. 
Mortar and pestle. —The home made 
mortar and pestle has not yet been sup- 
planted by any utensil furnished by the 
trader. This is still the best mill they 
have in which to grind their corn. The 
mortar is made from a log of live oak (?) 
wood, ordinarily about two feet in length 
and from fifteen to twenty inches in diam- 
eter. One end of the log is hollowed out 
to quite a depth, and in this, by the ham- 
mering of a pestle made of mastic wood, 
the corn is reduced to hominy or to the 
impalpable flour of which I have spoken. 
(Fig. 73.) Fic. 73. Mortar and pestle. 
Canoe making.—Canoe making is still 
one of their industrial arts, the canoe being their chief means of trans- 
portation. The Indian settlements are a’l so situated that the inhabit- 

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