16
"How are you doing, Bill?" He mentions to me that visitors
came in. This was his way of telling me why he was momentarily
diverted from what he was saying.)
O: After all the talking and counselling had taken place, the defendant
was free to leave. Again I would like to emphasize it was a crime
to hurt someone's feelings. Anyway, the defendant left the council
house.
However, if he had to be brought to the council by his uncle
for the second time because he did the same thing over again or
committed another crime, they reminded him of the counselling
they had with him the very first time. Then he would be whipped.
Again they talked with him before releasing him, and told him
not to ever do that act again. They told him what the consequences
would be should he decide to try it again. Then they would send
him on his way.
If there was a third time, the uncle had to bring the de-
fendant before the council, the defendant's ear was cut off.
Once again he was reprimanded and counselled. Once more he
was told of the consequence if he continued to commit a crime.
The fourth time he committed this crime was the final
time the crime could be committed, because when his uncle brought
him before the council, the penalty was to have his head cut
off. This is what I have heard. I was born after this law
was made void, but my elders have told me since my childhood
that this was the way the law was enforced by the council house
just prior to my birth.
C: Do you mean that his whole head was cut off?
O: Yes. After his head was cut off he was dead.
C: In the past did the Seminoles bury their dead in graves?
O: No. They did not used to bury their dead in graves. They would
make something like a table or bed elevated a few feet from the
ground and place the dead person on this structure. Then they
covered him.
C: Do you mean to say it looked somewhat like a table?
O: Yes, that is how they made it. Whatever he had with him, they
would place these things on this structure with the dead person.
C: Have you heard the story about the Indian and the white man
talking with one another about differences in the burial of
the Indian way and the white way? One of the things that