Plate XIX. Seminole dwelling 500 Fig. 60. Map of Florida 477 61. Seminole costume 483 62. Key West Billy 484 63. Seminole costume 485 64. Manner of wearing the hair 486 65. Manner of piercing the ear 488 66. Baby cradle or hammock 497 67. Temporary dwelling 502 68. Sugar cane crusher 511 69. Koonti log 514 70. Koonti pestles 514 71. Koonti mash vessel 514 72. Koonti strainer 515 73. Mortar and pestle 517 74. Hide stretcher 518 75. Seminole bier 510 76. Seminole grave 521 77. Green Corn Dance 523 LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL Minneapolis, Minn., _June_ 24,1884. SIR: During the winter of 1880-’81 I visited Florida, commissioned by you to inquire into the condition and to ascertain the number of the Indians commonly known as the Seminole then in that State. I spent part of the months of January, February, and March in an endeavor to accomplish this purpose. I have the honor to embody the result of my work in the following report. On account of causes beyond my control the paper does not treat of these Indians as fully as I had intended it should. Owing to the ignorance prevailing even in Florida of the locations of the homes of the Seminole and also to the absence of routes of travel in Southern Florida, much of my time at first was consumed in reaching the Indian country. On arriving there, I found myself obliged to go among the Indians ignorant of their language and without an interpreter able to secure me intelligible interviews with them except in respect to the commonest things. I was compelled, therefore, to rely upon observation and upon very simple, perhaps sometimes misunderstood, speech for what I have here placed on record. But while the report is only a sketch of a subject that would well reward thorough study, it may be found to possess value as a record of facts concerning this little-known remnant of a once powerful people.