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Show i74 BASIS OP AMERICAN HISTORY [ 1700 their old customs in the Everglades of the southern part of the peninsula. 1 The area occupied by the Seminole in the last century was formerly the seat of the now extinct Timacua, who may be regarded as the aborigines of the Floridan peninsula. They are classed as an independent linguistic stock, but their language as recorded shows affinities both with the Carib of the West Indies and the Muskhogean.' The western branch of the Muskhogean family, the Choctaw, were much less warlike and restless than the Chickasaw and Creek. They were agricultural to a high degree, depending little upon hunting for subsistence. vEthnologically the two factors of distinguishing interest about the Choctaw are their custom of flattening the heads of new- born infants by fronto- occipital pressure, and certain peculiar rites concerning the burial of the dead. The body was disinterred a short time after burial and the bones stripped of all flesh, after which they were preserved with religious care in the " bone houses" which existed in every village. 8 This latter custom was not confined to the Choctaw, but in one form or another existed among many of the eastern tribes. The neighbors of the Choctaw on the east were the Chickasaw, who differed from them 1 MacCauley, " The Seminole Indians of Florida " ( Bureau of Ethnology, Fifth Annual Report, 475). * Gatschet, Migration Legend of the Creek Indians, ix. • B. Romans, East and West Florida, 86, cited by Gatschet, Migration Legend of the Creek Indians. |