right yellow buckskin, very
soft and strong; and also the dark red buckskin, which evidently had
passed, in part of its preparation, through smoke. I was told that the
brains of the animal serve an important use in the skin dressing
process. The accompanying sketch shows a simple frame in use for
stretching and drying the skin. (Fig. 74)

Ornamental Arts.

In my search for evidence of the working of the art instinct proper,
i.e., in ornamental or fine art, I found but little to add to what
has been already said. I saw but few attempts at ornamentation beyond
those made on the person and on clothing. Houses, canoes, utensils,
implements, 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 I 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:

[Illustration: Music]
My precious drink, I fondly love thee.
Standing I take thee. And walk until morning. 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.

I could learn but little of the religious faiths and practices existing
among the Florida Indians. I was struck, however, in making my
investigations, 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-tco, he told me
that his people be