de it a pestle, made from mastic wood, perhaps four feet
and a half in length.

A bag of corn hung from a rafter, and near it a sack of clothing, which
I did not examine. A skirt, gayly ornamented, hung there also. There
were several basketware sieves, evidently home made, and various bottles
lying around the place. I did not search among the things laid away on
the rafters under the roof. A sow, with several pigs, lay contentedly
under the platform of one of the houses. And near by, in the saw-grass,
was moored a cypress "dug-out," about fifteen feet long, pointed at bow
and stern.

Dwellings throughout the Seminole district are practically uniform in
construction. With but slight variations, the accompanying sketch of
I-ful-lo-ha-tco's main dwelling shows what style of architecture
prevails in the Florida Everglades. (Pl. XIX.)

This house is approximately 16 by 9 feet in ground measurement, made
almost altogether, if not wholly, of materials taken from the palmetto
tree. It is actually but a platform elevated about three feet from the
ground and covered with a palmetto thatched roof, the roof being not
more than 12 feet above the ground at the ridge pole, or 7 at the eaves.
Eight upright palmetto logs, unsplit and undressed, support the roof.
Many rafters sustain the palmetto thatching. The platform is composed of
split palmetto logs lying transversely, flat sides up, upon beams which
extend the length of the building and are lashed to the uprights by
palmetto ropes, thongs, or trader's ropes. This platform is peculiar,
in that it fills the interior of the building like a floor and serves to
furnish the family with a dry sitting or lying down place when, as often
happens, the whole region is under water. The thatching of the roof is
quite a work of art: inside, the regularity and compactness of the
laying of the leaves display much skill and taste on the part of the
builder; outside--with the outer layers there seems to have been less
care taken than with those within--the mass of leaves of which the roof
is composed is held in place and made firm by heavy logs, which, bound
together in pairs, are laid upon it astride the ridge. The covering is,
I was informed, water tight and durable and will resist even a violent
wind. Only hurricanes can tear it off, and these are so infrequent in
Southern Florida that no attempt is made to provide against them.

[Illustration:
Bureau of Ethnology
Fifth Annual Report Pl