Laudonnière in his Historic Notable, as well as Le Moyne in many of his drawings with their accompanying legends, has left us a vivid description of their customs, and which we will now consider, because it was in the midst of this Timuquana population that the most enduring of the Spanish settlements on our Atlantic coast was afterwards planted.

The men and the women were all of fine proportion and went naked. The men were of an olive hue, very corpulent and handsome, and without any apparent deformity. They painted the skin around the mouth blue, and were tattooed on the arms and thighs with a certain herb, which they pricked in with a thorn and which left an indelible color.

The chiefs were probably tattooed over the entire body, as shown in Le Moyne's drawings, where the design is so complex and elaborate as to remove all sense of nakedness. The process was a severe one and sometimes was followed by an illness lasting for seven or eight days.

They rubbed their bodies with oil to protect them from the heat of the sun, and also during the observance of one of their religious ceremonies, to which usage they attributed their dark complexion, for at birth they were of a far whiter color. They trussed up their long black hair upon the top of the head, and wore loincloths made from well-tanned deerskins.

Their warriors wore a head-dress of feathers, leaves, and grasses, or covered their heads with the skin of some wild animal, suspended over the breast small disks of gold and silver, which were engraved, and when on the warpath painted their faces to give themselves a fierce appearance.

Venereal disease was prevalent, for the men were much addicted to women, and to girls who were called "Daughters of the Sun," and some were given to pederasty.

Their sense of smell was highly developed, for they were able to follow an enemy by his scent, and to recognize his approach. Laudonnière, to whom their mode of warfare was entirely novel, thought them deceitful and traitorous, but acknowledged their great courage in fighting, while Le Moyne dwells upon their honesty among themselves in the distribution of the communal stores.

The women were tall and painted like the men, but much whiter. Their hair was allowed to grow down to the hips, about which it fell freely. They could climb the trees with agility, and were so robust they could swim across the broad and shallow rivers bearing their children in one arm.

They attended to the household, where it was their duty to maintain the fire, which was kindled in the usual savage fashion by rubbing two sticks together. They assisted in the planting of the corn-fields and took part in some of the public ceremonies.

They lived apart from their husbands during their pregnancy, and the food which they ate during their courses was not touched by the man. Both men and women allowed the nails of their toes and fingers to grow long, and their fingernails were sharpened to a point so that they might dig them into the forehead of a prisoner and tear down the skin over his face to wound and blind him.

They pierced the lobe of the ear, through which small oblong fish bladders dyed red were passed, which when inflated shone like light-colored carbuncles. There were many hermaphrodites among them, upon whom fell the heaviest work; they carried the provisions when the Indians went on the war-path, transported the sick, cared for those who had contagious diseases, and prepared the dead for burial.