The Seminole Indians of Florida | Page 7

running over the front of the scalp
from temple to temple, and another strip, of about the same width,
perpendicular to the former, crossing the crown of the head to the nape
of the neck. At each temple a heavy tuft is allowed to hang to the
bottom of the lobe of the ear. The long hair of the strip crossing to the
neck is generally gathered and braided into two ornamental queues. I
did not learn that these Indians are in the habit of plucking the hair
from their faces. I noticed, however, that the moustache is commonly
worn among them and that a few of them are endowed with a rather
bold looking combination of moustache and imperial. As an exception
to the uniform style of cutting the hair of the men, I recall the comical
appearance of a small negro half breed at the Big Cypress Swamp. His
brilliant wool was twisted into many little sharp cones, which stuck out
over his head like so many spikes on an ancient battle club. For some
reason there seems to be a much greater neglect of the care of the hair,
and, indeed, of the whole person, in the northern than in the southern
camps.
The women dress their hair more simply than the men. From a line
crossing the head from ear to ear the hair is gathered up and bound, just
above the neck, into a knot somewhat like that often made by the
civilized woman, the Indian woman's hair being wrought more into the
shape of a cone, sometimes quite elongated and sharp at the apex. A
piece of bright ribbon is commonly used at the end as a finish to the
structure. The front hair hangs down over the forehead and along the
cheeks in front of the ears, being what we call "banged." The only
exception to this style of hair dressing I saw was the manner in which
Ci-ha-ne, a negress, had disposed of her long crisp tresses. Hers was a
veritable Medusa head. A score or more of dangling, snaky plaits,
hanging down over her black face and shoulders gave her a most

repulsive appearance. Among the little Indian girls the hair is simply
braided into a queue and tied with a ribbon, as we often see the hair
upon the heads of our school children.
Ornamentation Of Clothing.
The clothing of both men and women is ordinarily more or less
ornamented. Braids and strips of cloth of various colors are used and
wrought upon the garments into odd and sometimes quite tasteful
shapes. The upper parts of the shirts of the women are usually
embroidered with yellow, red, and brown braids. Sometimes as many
as five of these braids lie side by side, parallel with the upper edge of
the garment or dropping into a sharp angle between the shoulders.
Occasionally a very narrow cape, attached, I think, to the shirt, and
much ornamented with braids or stripes, hangs just over the shoulders
and back. The same kinds of material used for ornamenting the shirt are
also used in decorating the skirt above the lower edge of the petticoat.
The women embroider along this edge, with their braids and the narrow
colored stripes, a border of diamond and square shaped figures, which
is often an elaborate decoration to the dress. In like manner many of the
shirts of the men are made pleasing to the eye. I saw no ornamentation
in curves: it was always in straight lines and angles.
Use Of Beads.
My attention was called to the remarkable use of beads among these
Indian women, young and old. It seems to be the ambition of the
Seminole squaws to gather about their necks as many strings of beads
as can be hung there and as they can carry. They are particular as to the
quality of the beads they wear. They are satisfied with nothing meaner
than a cut glass bead, about a quarter of an inch or more in length,
generally of some shade of blue, and costing (so I was told by a trader
at Miami) $1.75 a pound. Sometimes, but not often, one sees beads of
an inferior quality worn.
These beads must be burdensome to their wearers. In the Big Cypress
Swamp settlement one day, to gratify my curiosity as to how many
strings of beads these women can wear, I tried to count those worn by

"Young Tiger Tail's" wife, number one, Mo-ki, who had come through
the Everglades to visit her relatives. She was the proud wearer of
certainly not fewer than two hundred strings of good sized beads. She
had six quarts (probably a peck of the beads) gathered about her neck,
hanging down her back, down upon her breasts, filling the space under