MACCAULEY.] RELIGION. ns) 
already said. I saw but few attempts at ornamentation beyond those 
made on the person and on clothing. Houses, canoes, utensils, imple- 
ments, weapons, were almost all without carving or painting. In fact, 
the only carving I noticed in the Indian country was on a pine tree 
near Myers. It was a rude outline of the head of a bull. The local 
report is that when the white men began to send their cattle south of 
the Caloosahatchie River the Indians marked this tree with this sign. 
The only painting I saw was the rude representation of a man, upon 
the shaft of one of the pestles used at the Koonti log at Horse Creek. 
It was made by one of the girls for her own amusement. 
I have already spoken of the art of making silver ornaments. 
Music.— Music, as far as 1 could discover, is but little in use among 
the Seminole. ‘Their festivals are few; so few that the songs of the 
fathers have mostly been forgotten. They have songs for the Green 
Corn Dance; they have lullabys; and there is a doleful song they sing 
in praise of drink, which is occasionally heard when the white man 
has sold Indians whisky on coming to town. Knowing the motive of 
the song, I thought the tune stupid and maudlin. Without pretending 
to reproduce it exactly, I remember it as something like this: 

My preciousdrink, !fondlylovethee. Standing|takethee And walkuntil morn. Yo-wan-ha-de. 
I give a free translation of the Indian words and an approximation 
to the tune. The last note in this, as in the lullaby I noted above, is 
unmusical and staccato. 
RELIGION, 
1 could learn but little of the religious faiths and practices existing 
among the Florida Indians. I was struck, however, in making my in- 
vestigations, by the evident influence Christian teaching has had upon 
‘the native faith. How far it has penetrated the inherited thought of 
the Indian I do not know. But, in talking with Ko-nip-ha-teo, he told 
me that his people believe that the Koonti root was a gift from God; 
that long ago the ‘Great Spirit” sent Jesus Christ to the earth with the 
precious plant, and that Jesus had descended upon the world at Cape 
Florida and there given the Koonti to “the red’ men.” In reference 
to this tradition, it is to be remembered that during the seventeenth 
century the Spaniards had vigorous missions among the Florida In- 
dians. Doubtless it was from these that certain Christian names and 
beliefs now traceable among the Seminole found way into the savage 
creed and ritual. 
Lattempted several times to obtain from my interpreter a statement 
of the religious beliefs he had received from his people. I cannot affirm 
with confidence that suecess followed my efforts. 
