uple remain at the home of the mother-in-law. It is
the man and not the woman among these Indians who leaves father and
mother and cleaves unto the mate. After a time, especially as the family
increases, the wedded pair build one or more houses for independent
housekeeping, either at the camp of the wife's mother or elsewhere,
excepting among the husband's relatives.

Divorce.

The home may continue until death breaks it up. Sometimes, however,
it occurs that most hopeful matrimonial beginnings, among the Florida
Seminole, as elsewhere, end in disappointment and ruin. How divorce
is accomplished I could not learn. I pressed the question upon
Ko-nip-ha-tco, but his answer was, "Me don't know; Indian no tell me
much." All the light I obtained upon the subject comes from Billy's
first reply, "He left her." In fact, desertion seems to be the only
ceremony accompanying a divorce. The husband, no longer satisfied with
his wife, leaves her; she returns to her family, and the matter is
ended. There is no embarrassment growing out of problems respecting the
woman's future support, the division of property, or the adjustment of
claims for the possession of the children. The independent self-support
of every adult, healthy Indian, female as well as male, and the gentile
relationship, which is more wide reaching and authoritative than that
of marriage, have already disposed of these questions, which are usually
so perplexing for the white man. So far as personal maintenance is
concerned, a woman is, as a rule, just as well off without a husband
as with one. What is hers, in the shape of property, remains her own
whether she is married or not. In fact, marriage among these Indians
seems to be but the natural mating of the sexes, to cease at the option
of either of the interested parties. Although I do not know that the
wife may lawfully desert her husband, as well as the husband his wife,
from some facts learned I think it probable that she may.

Childbirth.

According to information received a prospective mother, as the hour of
her confinement approaches, selects a place for the birth of her child
not far from the main house of the family, and there, with some friends,
builds a small lodge, covering the top and sides of the structure
generally with the large leaves of the cabbage palmetto. To this
secluded place the woman, with some elderly female relatives, goes at
the time the child is to be born, and there, in a sitting post