﻿DRESS. — ORNAMENTS. 38 1 



The poorer sort wear only a fringe of beads, and 

 sometimes only porcupine quills. The wealthy 

 load themselves with beads, strung in every kind of 

 pattern, on the breast and shoulders ; and some- 

 times immense rolls of this valuable article are 

 used as necklaces. Head-bands are formed of 

 small various-coloured beads, mixed with denta- 

 lium shells, and the same kind of shells are worn 

 in the nose and ears. The hair is tied behind in a 

 cue, bound round at the root with a fillet of shells 

 and beads, and loose at the end. This cue is daubed 

 by the tribes on the Yukon Avith grease and the 

 down of geese and ducks, until, by repetitions of 

 the process continued from infancy, it swells to an 

 enormous thickness ; sometimes so that it nearly 

 equals the neck in diameter, and the weight of the 

 accumulated load of hair, dirt, and ornaments, 

 causes the wearer to stoop forwards habitually. 

 The tail feathers of the eagle and iishing-hawk are 

 stuck into the hair on the back of the head, and are 

 removed only when the owner retires to sleep, or 

 when he wishes to wave them to and fro in a dance. 

 Mr. Murray, when he went among these people, 

 found that they attached nearly as much honour 

 to the possession of their cues as the Chinese do 

 to their pig-tails, but he in a short time acquired 

 sufficient influence to persuade a young but power- 

 ful chief to rid himself of the cumbrous and un- 



