DRESS AND ADORNMENT. 



799 



copper bars as thick as the finger were iu the cavity. His body 

 was smeared, with powdered camwood. His garment of a large 

 piece of fig bark, stained with camwood, reached in graceful folds 

 down the body. Round thongs of buffalo hide, with heavy copper 

 balls at the ends, hung around his waist in a huge knot and, like a 

 girdle, held the coat, which was neatly hemmed. Around the 

 neck hung a copper ornament with little points radiating like 

 beams over the chest ; on his bare arms were pendants, in shape 

 like drumsticks, with rings at the end. Half-way up the lower 

 arms and below the knees were three bright, horny -looking 

 circlets of hippopotamus-hide, tipped with copper. In his right 

 hand was a sickle-shaped scimiter of pure copper. 



A piece of suitable material for a garment having been se- 

 cured, the forms would be easily 

 developed. We have already 

 suggested that the close-fitting 

 garments of the northern type 

 of dress arose from the tying on 

 of skins. The present forms of 

 the southern type are almost as 

 simple in their origin. Tylor 

 has suggested a development of 

 forms from the simple blanket 

 or skin robe. The use of the 

 blanket itself we see among 

 many of our Indian tribes to- 

 day. It is simply thrown over 

 the shoulders, grasped at the 

 sides by the hands, and drawn 

 about the body. If the arms 

 are extended while one wears a 

 blanket in this way, the garment 

 drapes in such a manner as to 

 suggest sleeves. Among some 

 tribes of the Southwest there 

 is a slit made in the center of 



the blanket and the head is put through this. Such a slit blanket 

 would easily become a loose-sleeved garment, like the one so com- 

 monly in use in Guatemala and elsewhere. The Sacs and Foxes 

 in Iowa usually wear the blanket. If a man wishes free use of his 

 hands for work, he folds the blanket through the middle to reduce 

 its length, and wraps it tightly about his waist, tucking the free 

 end tightly in. It thus becomes a skirt, and though skirts usually 

 have not developed in this way, they may have done so sometimes. 

 However a skirt arises, the convenience of a divided skirt some- 

 times suggests itself, and a pair of loose and flowing trousers re- 



Fig. 10. Feather Cape and Matting 

 Blanket. New Zealand. 



