The Indians of the Gulf Region

IN the warmer region around the Gulf of Mexico dwelt a people having the same general hue of skin, form of features and texture of hair as those of the more northern counties. They were either the descendants of the Central or South Americans, or their habits of life had been modified by contact with the half civilized people of those countries. They were an athletic and vigorous race. The men were well proportioned, active and graceful in all their movements. The women were smaller, exquisitely formed, and some of them were very beautiful.

In the colder weather of the winter, the common men wore a mantle made of a sort of cloth manufactured of the soft inner bark of trees, interwoven with hemp or a species of flax. This was thrown gracefully over the shoulder, leaving the right arm exposed. Around the loins was a very short tunic, extending half way down the thighs, or only a wrapper. The richer and nobler sort of men wore beautiful mantles made of feathers of every hue, exquisitely arranged, or the skins of fur-bearing animals, with dressed deer-skin tunics wrought in colors, and moccasins and buskins of the same materials. The women of the better sort, at the cooler season, wore a garment of cloth or feathers or furs wrought like the mantles of the men. It was wrapped more closely around the body at the waist, and fell gracefully almost to the knee. The rest of the form was left bare excepting in the coldest weather, when they wore short mantles that fell from the neck to the hips. Their heads were always uncovered, but the men wore a skull-cap of cloth ornamented with beautiful sea-shells, the claws of beasts, or strings of pearls. It is related that a queen, on the banks of the Savannah River, took from her neck a magnificent string of pearls and twined it around that of De Soto, the early Spanish discoverer of the region. Sometimes they wore pearl pendants in their ears. In summer both sexes went without clothing, excepting a drapery of what is now known in that region as Spanish moss, gathered from the trees. This was fastened at the waist and fell in graceful negligence to the thighs. The chiefs, and prophets, and other principal men, and their wives, painted their breasts and the front part of their bodies, with stripes of white, yellow and red; and some practiced a kind of tattooing. Sometimes the fops of this class might be seen promenading, at evening, in beautiful mantles of deer-skins and of the marten, which trailed on the ground, or were held by attendants; and if they were warriors, on their heads might be seen lofty plumes of the eagle and the flamingo.

The houses of the chiefs, spacious and airy, stood upon large mounds, natural or artificial, that were ascended by steps of wood or earth. These dwellings were built of timber, sometimes in the form of a great pavilion with a broad piazza around it, furnished with benches. They were covered with the leaves of the palmetto, or thatched with straw; and sometimes they were roofed with reeds after the manner of tiles. Their winter houses were daubed inside and out with clay.

The weapons of the Floridians for hunting and war were strong bows and arrows, and javelins. Their arrows were made of fine dried cane, tipped with buck-horn and pointed with flint, hard wood, or fish bones. They were carried in a quiver made of the skin of the fawn, cased at bottom with the hide of the bear or the alligator, and slung by a thong of deer's skin so as to rest on the hip. The warriors all wore shields in battle, composed of wood, split cane, or the hide of the alligator and buffalo. On the left arm they wore a small shield of bark to protect it from the rebound of the bow-string. They also had short swords made of hard wood. When a chief was about to declare war, he sent a party at night toward the town of the enemy, to stick arrows in the ground at the cross-paths or other conspicuous places near it. From these arrows waved long locks of human hair as tokens of scalping. Then he would assemble his painted warriors, and after some wild ceremonies, would turn reverentially toward the sun, with a wooden javelin in his hand, and invoking the aid of the great God of Fire, he would take a vessel of water, and sprinkle it around, saying; "Thus may you do with the blood of your enemies." Raising another vessel of water, he would pour it upon the fire which had been kindled, and as it was extinguished he would say: "Thus may you destroy your enemies and bring home their scalps." When the battle was over, the victors cruelly mutilated the bodies of their captives. Carrying their dissevered limbs and their scalps upon spear-points, into the public square, they were there placed on poles, and the people celebrated the triumph by dancing around these trophies and singing wild songs of joy. The widows of those lost in battle gathered around the chief with piteous cries, praying him to avenge the deaths of their loved ones, asking him for an allowance during their widow-hood and permission to marry again as soon as the law would allow. Then they visited the burial places of their husbands, and cutting off their long tresses, strewed them over the graves. When their hair had grown to its usual length they were ready to marry again.