The Koonti bread, as I saw it among the Indians, was of a bright orange color, and rather insipid, though not unpleasant to the taste. It was saltless. Its yellow color was owing to the fact that the flour had had but one fermentation.
The following is a summary of the results of the industries now engaged in by the Florida Indians. It shows what is approximately true of these at the present time:
Acres under cultivation 100 Corn raised bushels 500 Sugarcane gallons 1,500 Cattle number owned 50 Swine do. 1,000 Chickens do. 500 Horses do. 35 Koonti bushels 5,000 Sweet potatoes do. ... Melons number 3,000
In reference to the way in which, the Seminole Indians have met necessities for invention and have expressed the artistic impulse, I found little to add to what I have already placed on record.
_Utensils and implements._--The proximity of this people to the Europeans for the last three centuries, while it has not led them to adopt the white man's civilization in matters of government, religion, language, manners, and customs, has, nevertheless, induced them to appropriate for their own use some of the utensils, implements, weapons, &c., of the strangers. For example, it was easy for the ancestors of these Indians to see that the iron kettle of the white man was better in every way than their own earthenware pots. Gradually, therefore, the art of making pottery died out among them, and now, as I believe, there is no pottery whatever in use among the Florida Indians. They neither make nor purchase it. They no longer buy even small articles of earthenware, preferring tin instead, Iron implements likewise have supplanted those made of stone. Even their word for stone, "Tcat-to," has been applied to iron. They purchase hoes, hunting knives, hatchets, axes, and, for special use in their homes, knives nearly two feet in length. With these long knives they dress timber, chop meat, etc.
_Weapons._--They continue the use of the bow and arrow, but no longer for the purposes of war, or, by the adults, for the purposes of hunting. The rifle serves them much better. It seems to be customary for every male in the tribe over twelve years of age to provide himself with a rifle. The bow, as now made, is a single piece of mulberry or other elastic wood and is from four to six feet in length; the bowstring is made of twisted deer rawhide; the arrows are of cane and of hard wood and vary in length from two to four feet; they are, as a rule, tipped with a sharp conical roll of sheet iron. The skill of the young men in the use of the bow and arrow is remarkable.