SWANTON] INiDIANS OF THE SOUTHEiASTEiRN UNIITEID STATES 467 



Customarily the tassels reach to the knee. The sash is a mark of distinction, to 

 a certain extent, as it was only worn in former times by full-grown men. 

 Nowadays, however, it is worn in ball games and upon ceremonial occasions 

 by the participants in general, though only as regalia. 



The woven garters, tse tsA°' ... or gode' kwen4, "leg suspender," should 

 be described with the sash, as their manner of construction and their conventional 

 decoration is the same. The garters or knee bands are several inches in width. 

 They are commonly knitted, while the tassels are of plaited or corded lengths 

 of yarn with tufts at the ends. Here the general form and colors of the decora- 

 tive scheme are the same as those of the sash. The function of the knee band 

 seems to be, if anything, to gather up and hold the slack of the legging so as to 

 relieve some of the weight on the thong that fastens it to the belt. The tasseled 

 ends fall half way down the lower leg. (Speck, 1909, pp. 46-49.) 



The costume of the Seminole Indians of Florida became even more 

 colorful and has persisted nearly to the present day. MacCauley 

 thus describes the male costume as observed by him in the winter of 

 1880-1881: 



The costume of the Seminole warrior at home consists of a shirt, a necker- 

 chief, a turban, a breech cloth, and, very rarely, moccasins. On but one Indian 

 in camp did I see more than this; on many, less. The shirt is made of some 

 figured or striped cotton cloth, generally of quiet colors. It hangs from the neck 

 to the knees, the narrow, rolling collar being closely buttoned about the neck, 

 the narrow wristbands of the roomy sleeves buttoned about the wrists. The 

 garment opens in front for a few inches, downward from the collar, and is 

 pocketless. A belt of leather or buckskin usually engirdles the man's waist, 

 and from it are suspended one or more pouches, in which powder, bullets, pocket 

 knife, a piece of flint, a small quantity of paper, and like things for use in hunt- 

 ing are carried. From the belt hang also one or more hunting knives, each nearly 

 ten inches in length. . . . 



Having no pockets, the Seminole is obliged to submit to several inconveniences ; 

 for instance, he wears his handkerchief about his neck. I have seen as many 

 as six, even eight, handkerchiefs tied around his throat, their knotted ends 

 pendant over his breast; as a rule, they are bright red and yellow things, of 

 whose possession and number he is quite proud. Having no pockets, the Semi- 

 nole, only here and there one excepted, carries whatever money he obtains from 

 time to time in a knotted corner of one or more of his handkerchiefs. 



The next article of the man's ordinary costume is the turban. This is a 

 remarkable structure and gives to its wearer much of his unique appearance. 

 At present it is made of one or more small shawls. These shawls are gener- 

 ally woolen and copied in figure and color from the plaid of some Scotch clan. 

 They are so folded that they are about 3 inches wide and as long as the 

 diagonal of the fabric. They are then, one or more of them successively, wrapped 

 tightly around the head, the top of the head remaining bare; the last end 

 of the last shawl is tucked skillfully away, without the use of pins, somewhere 

 in the many folds of the turban. The structure when finished looks like a 

 section of a decorated cylinder crowded down upon the man's head. I exam- 

 ined one of these turbans and found it a rather firm piece of work, made of 

 several shawls ^vound into seven concentric rings. It was over 20 inches in 

 diameter, the shell of the cylinder being perhaps 7 inches thick and 3 in width. 

 This headdress, at the southern settlements (Mikasuki), is regularly worn in the 

 camps and sometimes on the hunt. While hunting, however, it seems to be the 



