e, they are particularly characteristic of the two most widely
spread of the families of which the tribe is composed. These are the
Tiger and Otter clans, which, proud of their lines of descent, have been
preserved through a long and tragic past with exceptional freedom from
admixture with degrading blood. Today their men might be taken as types
of physical excellence. The physique of every Tiger warrior especially I
met would furnish proof of this statement. The Tigers are dark,
copper-colored fellows, over six feet in height, with limbs in good
proportion; their hands and feet well shaped and not very large; their
stature erect; their bearing a sign of self-confident power; their
movements deliberate, persistent, strong. Their heads are large, and
their foreheads full and marked. An almost universal characteristic of
the Tiger's face is its squareness, a widened and protruding
under-jawbone giving this effect to it. Of other features, I noticed
that under a large forehead are deep set, bright, black eyes, small, but
expressive of inquiry and vigilance; the nose is slightly aquiline and
sensitively formed about the nostrils; the lips are mobile, sensuous,
and not very full, disclosing, when they smile, beautiful regular teeth;
and the whole face is expressive of the man's sense of having
extraordinary ability to endure and to achieve. Two of the warriors
permitted me to manipulate the muscles of their bodies. Under my touch
these were more like rubber than flesh. Noticeable among all are the
large calves of their legs, the size of the tendons of their lower
limbs, and the strength of their toes. I attribute this exceptional
development to the fact that they are not what we would call "horse
Indians" and that they hunt barefoot over their wide domain. The same
causes, perhaps, account for the only real deformity I noticed in the
Seminole physique, namely, the diminutive toe-nails, and for the heavy,
cracked, and seamed skin which covers the soles of their feet. The feet
being otherwise well formed, the toes have only narrow shells for nails,
these lying sunken across the middles of the tough cushions of flesh,
which, protuberant about them, form the toe-tips. But, regarded as a
whole, in their physique the Seminole warriors, especially the men of
the Tiger and Otter gentes, are admirable. Even among the children this
physical superiority is seen. To illustrate, one morning Ko-i-ha-tco's
son, Tin-fai-yai-ki, a tall, slende