and around with
palmetto leaves and in being shaped some like wall tents and others like
single-roofed sheds. The accompanying sketch shows what kind of a
shelter Tael-la-haes-ke had made for himself fit Horse Creek. (Fig. 67.)

[Illustration: Fig. 67. Temporary dwelling.]

Adjoining each of these lodges was a platform, breast high. These were
made of small poles or sticks covered with, the leaves of the palmetto.
Upon and under these, food, clothing, and household utensils, generally,
were kept; and between the rafters of the lodges and the roofs, also,
many articles, especially those for personal use and adornment, were
stored.

Home Life.

Having now seen the formation of the Seminole family and taken a glance
at the dwellings, permanent and temporary, which it occupies, we are
prepared to look at its household life. I was surprised by the industry
and comparative prosperity and, further, by the cheerfulness and mutual
confidence, intimacy, and affection of these Indians in their family
intercourse.

The Seminole family is industrious. All its members work who are able to
do so, men as well as women. The former are not only hunters, fishermen,
and herders, but agriculturists also. The women not only care for their
children and look after the preparation of food and the general welfare
of the home, but are, besides, laborers in the fields. In the Seminole
family, both, husband and wife are land proprietors and cultivators.
Moreover, as we have seen, all children able to labor contribute their
little to the household prosperity. From these various domestic
characteristics, an industrious family life almost necessarily follows.
The disesteem in which Tus-ko-na, a notorious loafer at the Big Cypress
Swamp, is held by the other Indians shows that laziness is not
countenanced among the Seminole.

But let me not be misunderstood here. By a Seminole's industry I do
not mean the persistent and rapid labor of the white man of a northern
community. The Indian is not capable of this, nor is he compelled to
imitate it. I mean only that, in describing him, it is but just for me
to say that he is a worker and not a loafer.

As a result of the domestic industry it would be expected that we should
find comparative prosperity prevailing among all Seminole families; and
this is the fact. Much of the Indian's labor is wasted through his
ignorance of the ways by which it might be economized. He has no
labor saving or labor mu