SwANTON] INDIANS OF THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES 283 



as a source of bread, one mentioned only in connection with the 

 interior Indians. There is every reason to believe that this was what 

 the Seminole later called kunti, or, to distinguish it from a food 

 plant they had used before entering the peninsula, "white kunti" 

 (kunti hatki). This was obtained from the Zamia integrifolia and 

 involved a rather elaborate process of manufacture, which might have 

 reacted on the people to the extent of giving rise to a distinct cul- 

 tural province had the supply of roots been sufficiently great or 

 had it been possible to cultivate them (MacCauley, 1887, pp. 513- 

 516). Karely has a distinctive civilization of very high character 

 arisen on the basis furnished by an uncultivated plant, though in 

 California we have something approaching it, a distinctive culture 

 based mainly on acorns. However, this was distinctive without 

 being high. 



Logically, the cassava culture should have been introduced into 

 south Florida to take the place of corn, and if it had happened, 

 that district would have been assimilated to the West Indian province. 

 Failing that, it only presented the appearance of a marginal, aberrant 

 cultural area of merely local importance. It occupies in Florida a 

 position somewhat similar to that of the Chitimacha area of southern 

 Louisiana to be considered shortly. 



Something may also be learned of the earlier dietary of the 

 original Floridians by that of their successors, the Seminole, though 

 these last have imported some economic as well as some social cus- 

 toms from their old homes in Alabama, especially the cultivation of 

 corn. MacCauley says : 



Here is a list of their meats: Of flesh, at any time venison, often opossum, 

 sometimes rabbit and squirrel, occasionally bear, and a land terrapin, called 

 the "gopher," and pork whenever they wish it. Of wild fowl, duck, quail, 

 and turkey in abundance. Of home reared fowl, chickens, more than they are 

 willing to use. Of fish, they can catch myriads of the many kinds which 

 teem in the inland waters of Florida, especially of the large bass, called "trout" 

 by the whites of the State, while on the seashore they can get many forms of 

 edible marine life, especially turtles and oysters. Equally well off are these 

 Indians in respect to grains, vegetables, roots, and fruits. They grow maize 

 in considerable quantity, and from it make hominy and flour, and all the 

 rice they need they gather from the swamps. Their vegetables are chiefly 

 sweet potatoes, large and much praised melons and pumpkins, and, if I may 

 classify it with vegetables, the tender new growth of the tree called the 

 cabbage palmetto. Among roots, there is the great dependence of these Indians, 

 the abounding Koonti ; also the wild potato, a small tuber found in black 

 swamp land, and peanuts in great quantities. Of fruits, the Seminole family 

 may supply itself with bananas, oranges (sour and sweet), limes, lemons, 

 guavas, pineapples, grapes (black and red), cocoa nuts, cocoa plums, sea 

 grapes, and wild plums. And with even this enumeration the bill of fare is 

 not exhausted. The Seminole, living in a perennial summer, Is never at a 

 loss when he seeks something, and something good, to eat. I have omitted 

 from the above list honey and the sugar cane Juice and sirup, nor have I re- 



