SwANTON] INDIANS OF THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES 



397 



a 



Figure 4. — Ground plan of the house of a Seminole Indian called by the traders Bosten or 



Boatswain (after Bartram). 



As we follow house architecture toward the south, we observe the 

 appearance of open pavilions or arbors possibly related to or displac- 

 ing the summer house, and in southern Florida in MacCauley's time 

 (1880) among the Seminole still left in the peninsula, they had taken 

 the place of all other types of dwellings (pi. 60). 



This house is approximately 16 by 9 feet in ground measurement, made almost 

 altogether, if not wholly, of materials taken from the palmetto tree. It is actually 

 but a platform elevated about three feet from the ground and covered with a 

 palmetto thatched roof, the roof being not more than 12 feet above the ground 

 at the ridge pole, or 7 at the eaves. Eight upright palmetto logs, unsplit and 

 undressed, support the roof. Many rafters sustain the palmetto thatching. The 

 platform is composed of split palmetto logs lying transversely, flat sides up, upon 

 beams which extend the length of the building and are lashed to the uprights 

 by palmetto ropes, thongs, or trader's ropes. This platform is peculiar, in that 

 it fills the interior of the building like a floor and serves to furnish the family with 

 a dry sitting or lying down place when, as often happens, the whole region is 

 under water. The thatching of the roof is quite a work of art : inside, the regu- 

 larity and compactness of the laying of the leaves display much skill and taste 

 on the part of the builder; outside — with the outer layers there seems to have 

 been much less care taken than with those within — the mass of leaves of which 

 the roof is composed is held in place and made firm by heavy logs, which, bound 

 together in pairs, are laid upon it astride the ridge. The covering is, I was in- 

 formed, watertight and durable and will resist even a violent wind. Only hurri- 

 canes can tear it off, and these are so infrequent in Southern Florida that no at- 

 tempt is made to provide against them. 



The Seminole's house is open on all sides and without rooms. It is, in fact, 

 only a covered platform. The single equivalent for a room in it is the space 

 above the joists which are extended across the building at the lower edges of the 

 roof. In this are placed surplus food and general household effects out of use 

 from time to time. Household utensils are usually suspended from the uprights 



