646 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1893. 



and both arms are left at liberty for action. As a farther security, on the part which 

 covers the breast they sometimes fix on the inside thin laths of wood.* 



On Vancouver Island the Nootkas make use of— 



A thick tanned leather mantle, doubled, and appears to be the skin of an elk or 

 buffalo. This is so contrived as to cover the breast quite up to the throat, part of it 

 falling down to the heels. This garment is sometimes very curiously painted, and 

 is not only strong enough to resist, but, as we understand from them, spears could 

 not penetrate it. So it may be considered their complete defensive armor, t 



The Cliiuooks of the Oohimbia River use skin and rod armor. Eoss 

 says, in reference to the former, their war garments are of two kinds; 

 one is termed denial, of elk skin, dressed and worked to the thickness 

 of nearly half an inch, and arrow proof. The denial nearly covers the 

 whole body, with an opening" left on the right side to allow the arm free 

 action in combat. (Ross, Alex., Advent., etc., on the Oregon or Colum- 

 bia River. Lond., 1849, i3. 89.) 



Franchere says of the Columbian River tribes: 



For defensive armor they wear a cassock or tunic of elk skin, double, descending 

 to the ankles, with holes for the arms. It is impenetrable for their arrows, which 

 can not pierce two thicknesses of leather; and as their heads are also covered with 

 a sort of helmet, the neck is almost the only part in which they can be wounded. 

 They have another kind of corselet made like the corsets of our ladies, of splinters 

 of hard wood interlaced with nettle twine. The warriors who wear this curious 

 dress do not use the tunic of elk skin. He is consequently less protected, but a good 

 deal more free, the said tunic being very heavy and very stiff. t 



Passing eastward, Lewis and Clarke, when speaking of the Shoshoni 

 of the Rocky Mountains, at the head of the Missouri River, remark : 



They have a kind of armor, something like a coat of mail, which is formed by a 

 great many folds of dressed antelope skins, united by means of a mixture of glue 

 and sand. With this they cover their own bodies and those of their horses, and find 

 it imjiervious to the arrow. § 



Mr. Dorsey informs me that there is reason to believe that the Pawni 

 formerly employed a kind of hide cuirass and a defensive helmet, and 

 as Da Pratz states that the Padoucas (Comanches) "cover their horses 

 with dressed leather (probably bison hide), hanging down quite round, 

 which secures them from darts," it is perhaps permissible to infer that 

 their riders were protected in the same way. 



In that wonderful origin-epic of the Navajoes the Indian singer chants 

 to Dr. Matthews of " suits of armor made of several layers of buckskin. 

 The warriors in those days wore such armor, but they wear it no 

 longer." || 



"* Vancouver, Voyage, Vol. ii., p. 339. 



t Cook's Voy., Vol. ii., p. 246. 



t Franchere, Gabriel, Narrative of a Voyage to the Northwest Coast of America. 

 New York, 18.54, p. 253. 



^ Lewis and Clarke, Allen ed.. Vol. i, 425, 1814. 



II Matthews, Washington, The Mountain Chant. Annual Report of the Bureau of 

 Ethnology, 1883-'84, p. 73. 



