3oS AVOYAGETO 



>:r3. mantle doublet!, which, from its fize, appears to be the fkio.- 



I ►— —» oi" an elk, or buffalo tanned. This they fatten on, in the 



common manner ; and it is fo contrived, that it may reach 

 lip, and cover the breafl quite to the throat, falling, at the 

 fame time, almoll: to the heels. It is, fometimes, ingenioufly 

 painted in different compartments ; and is not only fuffi- 

 cicntly flrong to refid arrows ; but, as they informed us by 

 figns, even fpears cannot pierce it ; fo that it may be con- 

 fidcred as their coat of mail, or mod complete defenfive ar- 

 mour. Upon the fame occafion, they fometimes wear a 

 kind of leathern cloak, covered with rows of dried hoofs of 

 deer, difpofed horizontally, appended by leathern thongs, 

 covered with quills ; which, when they move, make a loud, 

 rattling noife, almofl equal to that of many fmall bells. It 

 feems doubtful, however, whether this part of their garb 

 be intended to ftrike terror in war, or only is to be con- 

 fidered as belonging to their eccentric ornaments on cere- 

 monious occafions. For we faw one of their mufical enter- 

 tainments, condu6led by a man dreffed in this fort of cloak, 

 with his malk on, and fliaking his rattle. 



Though thefe people cannot be viewed without a kind of 

 horror, when equipped in fuch extravagant drefles, yet, 

 when diverted of them, and beheld in their common habit 

 and acftions, they have not the lead appearance of ferocity 

 in their countenances ; and feem, on the contrary, as ob- 

 fcrved already, to be of a quiet, phlegmatic, and inacflive 

 difpofition ; deftitute, in fome mcafure, of that degree of 

 animation and vivacity that would render them agreeable 

 as fecial beings. If they are not refcrved, they are far from 

 being loquacious; but their gravity is, perhaps, rather a 

 confcquence of the difpofition jufl. mentioned, than of any 

 convidion of its propriety, or the cffecT: of any particular 



mode 



