The Seminole Indians of Florida: Fifth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1883-84, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1887, pages 469-532MacCauley, Clay
History
The Seminole Indians of Florida: Fifth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1883-84, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1887, pages 469-532
MacCauley, Clay
Seminole Indians -- History; Seminole Indians -- Social life and customs
The costume of the Seminole warrior at home consists of a shirt, a
neckerchief, a turban, a breech cloth, and, very rarely, moccasins.
On but one Indian in camp did I see more than this; on many, less. The
shirt is made of some figured or striped cotton cloth, generally of
quiet colors. It hangs from the neck to the knees, the narrow, rolling
collar being closely buttoned about the neck, the narrow wristbands of
the roomy sleeves buttoned about the wrists. The garment opens in front
for a few inches, downward from the collar, and is pocketless. A belt of
leather or buckskin usually engirdles the man’s waist, and from it are
suspended one or more pouches, in which powder, bullets, pocket knife,
a piece of flint, a small quantity of paper, and like things for use in
hunting are carried. From the belt hang also one or more hunting knives,
each nearly 10 inches in length. I questioned one of the Indians about
having no pockets in his shirt, pointing out to him the wealth in this
respect of the white man’s garments, and tried to show him how, on his
shirt, as on mine, these convenient receptacles could be placed, and to
what straits he was put to carry his pipe, money, and trinkets. He
showed little interest in my proposed improvement on his dress.
Having no pockets, the Seminole is obliged to submit to several
inconveniences; for instance, he wears his handkerchief about his neck.
I have seen as many as six, even eight, handkerchiefs tied around his
throat, their knotted ends pendant over his breast; as a rule, they are
bright red and yellow things, of whose possession and number he is quite
proud. Having no pockets, the Seminole, only here and there, one
excepted, carries whatever money he obtains from time to time in a
knotted corner of one or more of his handkerchiefs.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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