the Seminole family than the
camp fire. The bed is often only the place where one chooses to lie. It
is generally, however, chosen under the sheltering roof on the elevated
platform, or, when made in the lodge, on palmetto leaves. It is
pillowless, and has covering or not, as the sleeper may wish. If a cover
is used, it is, as a rule, only a thin blanket or a sheet of cotton
cloth, besides, during most of the year, the canopy or mosquito bar.

Manner Of Eating.

Next in importance to the camp fire in the life of the Seminole
household naturally comes the eating of what is prepared there. There
is nothing very formal in that. The Indians do not set a table or lay
dishes and arrange chairs. A good sized kettle, containing stewed meat
and vegetables, is the center around which, the family gathers for its
meal. This, placed in some convenient spot on the ground near the fire,
is surrounded by more or fewer of the members of the household in a
sitting posture. If all that they have to eat at that time is contained
in the kettle, each, extracts, with his fingers or his knife, a piece of
meat or a bone with meat on it, and, holding it in one hand, eats, while
with the other hand each, in turn, supplies himself, by means of a great
wooden spoon, from the porridge in the pot.

The Seminole, however, though observing meal times with some regularity,
eats just as his appetite invites. If it happens that he has a side of
venison roasting before the fire, he will cut from it at any time during
the day and, with the piece of meat in one hand and a bit of Koonti or
of different bread in the other, satisfy his appetite. Not seldom, too,
he rises during the night and breaks his sleep by eating a piece of the
roasting meat. The kettle and big spoon stand always ready for those who
at any moment may hunger. There is little to be said about eating in a
Seminole household, therefore, except that when its members eat together
they make a kettle the center of their group and that much of their
eating is done without reference to one another.

Amusements.

But one sees the family at home, not only working and sleeping and
eating, but also engaged in amusing itself. Especially among the
children, various sports are indulged in. I took some trouble to learn
what amusements the little Seminole had invented or received. I obtained
a list of them which might as well be that of the white man's as of the
Indian's child. The Seminole has a doll,