51 G DRESS. 



the filthy barbarians of Northern California still, as Mr. 

 Schoolcraft, to whom we are indebted for an excellent work 

 on the " History, Condition, and Prospects of the Indian 

 Tribes,"* truly says, "their manners and customs, their 

 opinions and mental habits, had, wherever they were inquired 

 into, at the earliest dates, much in common. Their modes of 

 war and worship, hunting and amusements, were very similar. 

 In the sacrifice of prisoners taken in war; in the laws of reta- 

 liation; in the sacred character attached to public transactions 

 solemnized by smoking the pipe ; in the adoption of persons 

 taken in war, in families ; in the exhibition of dances on 

 almost every occasion that can enlist human sympathy; in 

 the meagre and inartificial style of music ; in the totemic tie 

 that binds relationships together, and in the system of symbols 

 and figures cut and marked on their grave-posts, on trees, and 

 sometimes on rocks, there is a perfect identity of principles, 

 arts, and opinions. The mere act of wandering and petty 

 warfare kept them in a savage state, though they had the 

 element of civilization with them in the Maize." -f- 



As regards dress, many of the Indian chiefs had magnificent 

 dresses of skins and feathers. Some of the tribes, indeed, 

 wore no clothes; but this was rarely the case with the women, 

 and even the men had generally at least a loin-cloth. The 

 amount of clothing, however, depended very much on the 

 temperature. In the plains and forests of the tropical and 

 southern latitudes, " the Indian wears little or no clothing 

 during a large part of the year;" but it is very different on 

 the mountains and in the north, where the common dress was 

 the breech-cloth and mocassins, with a buffalo-skin thrown 

 over the shoulders. The inhabitants of Vancouver's Island 

 had mats, made either of dosfs-wool alone, of dou-'s-wool and 



o ^ 



goose-down together, or of threads obtained from cedar-bark. 



Published by authority of Congress. Philadelphia, 1853. 

 t 1. c. vol. ii. p. 47. 



