The Seminole, who moved into Florida after the white man, brought more practical beliefs, and applied them to his daily life. The making of a dugout canoe is still attended by great ceremony. After a powwow in camp, the leader guides his tribe into the swamp to select the cypress tree that is to be converted into a pich-li, a craft often 30 feet long. Singing and dancing take place around the tree; then the men selected for the task fell the tree, remove the branches and bark, and bury the ash-a-vee (cypress log) in a wet mud bank where it is left for 18 months to age. The unearthing of the log involves more cememony and feasting. After about a week of drying, work begins on shaping and hollowing out with a pit-a-chen-a-lo-gee, which resembles a hand adz. As the work progresses the children join in, squatting around the canoe and beating on it with sticks. From the sound of this tattoo the cutters can tell when the desired thinness has been obtained.
Seminole beliefs are largely associated with warnings; to places and objects strange powers are attributed, and portents are seen in many things. The blooming of the sawgrass in the Everglades is notice of a forthcoming hurricane, and the Seminole thereupon migrates to higher ground. This belief has been widely accepted by white men, even though the sawgrass is known to bloom regularly without regard to tropical storms.
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