816 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETH]SrOLO<3Y [Bdll. 137 



the dead. During mourning the hair was unbound but not cut off. 

 The Waxhaw and probably other tribes had the custom of the spiral 

 fire maintained during councils. The ceremonial use of tobacco 

 seems not to have been as pronounced as farther west. There was a 

 class of adult slaves recruited from war captives and prevented 

 from escape by mutilation of the feet. The harvest festival was 

 relatively unimportant, but at certain of their ceremonies there was a 

 considerable use of wooden images. 



As has been pointed out, north and south Florida belonged to 

 somewhat different ecological areas and the people were also lin- 

 guistically somewhat diverse. The inhabitants of southern Florida 

 moved from the seacoast seasonally less than those of the north. 

 Human sacrifices were offered in both parts of the peninsula, and the 

 Tocobaga of the west coast and Tekesta of the southeast coast sepa- 

 rated the bones of their dead chiefs from the flesh and reburied them. 

 Judging by the remains at Key Marco, the southern Floridians for- 

 merly used atlatls and wooden stools and wore labrets. All of these 

 Indians, of course, lived largely upon fish. Their houses were thatched 

 with palmetto and most of them seem to have been circular, but others 

 were rectangular and some of the town houses were very long. 

 Wooden head rests are reported instead of pillows, and palmetto re- 

 placed mulberry bark for use in textiles and in the manufacture of 

 breechclouts and baskets. Women's garments were largely of tree 

 moss. The hair was generally worn long. Palmetto leaf hats were 

 worn by girls. The Timucua had ear ornaments made of fish bladders 

 dyed red, but nose ornaments are not reported. The fingernails were 

 left untrimmed like those of the Buzzard Men among the Choctaw. 

 The chunkey game is not recorded from this area. The power of the 

 chief seems to have been absolute and to have been regulated largely by 

 descent, and there seems to have been a caste system or a strong 

 tendency toward it. In the north were totemic clans, the status, liv- 

 ing or dead, of a person through whom relationship came having a 

 great deal to do in determining the term employed. A north Florida 

 chief was buried under a mound upon which his drinking cup was 

 placed and the whole surrounded by a circle of arrows. His house 

 was then burned along with his principal possessions. Leggings seem 

 to have been uncommon but leg ornaments more common than farther 

 north. A rude lodge took the place of the summer house. Mourning 

 was strictly enjoined on widows. 



The Creeks were one of the typical central Muskhogean tribes, 

 speaking one of the two most important Muskogean tongues. The 

 month names in their language refer largely to the weather rather 

 than food animals or plants. Their common house patterns for both 

 summer and winter were rectangular, but the winter ceremonial 



