648 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1893. 



The Mosquito Indians of Honduras also employed armor. Bancroft 

 says: 



Armor is made of plaited reeds covered with tiger skins aud ornameuted with 

 feathers; besides this they employ a breastplate of twisted cotton.* 



Entering- tbe continent of South America we find that — 



The Abipoues are unacquainted with shields and targets, but they cover greatest 

 part of their bodies with a sort of defense made of an undressed anta's hide, a tiger 

 skin being sewed either in the in or outside; it is open in the middle, that the head 

 may come through, and extended on each side iis far as the elbows and middle; it is 

 impenetrable to common arrows, but not to spears and bullets. t 



In the vast continent of South America there are only scattering 

 references to the use of armor. In the southern extremity, where the 

 phase of life assumes a resemblance to that of our North American 

 tribes, we find well-known forms of armor. The cavalry of the Arau- 

 canians is "armed with swords and lances; formerly used bows and 

 slings. The soldiers are not clothed in uniform, according to the 

 European custom, but all wear beneath their usual dress cuirasses of 

 leather, hardened by a i)eculiar mode of dressing; their shields and 

 helmets are also made of the same material."! 



The Patagonians also wear a helmet with coat of mail, made of sev- 

 eral folds of hide, and have a shield of bull's hide for use on foot.§ 

 Their weapons are bows, lances, bolas, and clubs. 



3. EASTERN AREA. 



There is sufficient historical evidence that the defensive weapons of 

 the east coast were similar to those of the west coast. The lakes and 

 rivers with short portages rendered communication easy across this 

 vast distance, and points out a great line of migration both of peoples 

 and inventions. This is shown by the following reference: 



Some sixty or seventy years ago a party of Iroquois, having crossed the Rocky 

 Mountains, reached L. Tathaiu two wooden canoes, which at once excited the covet- 

 ousness of a band of Carriers, who killed the strangers for the sake of their canoes. 

 These having been brought here (Stuart's Lake) served as models for the building of 

 the first home-made "dugouts." |I 



On the Atlantic slope there is abundant evidence to show that the 

 Iroquois used body armor. Cartier (Hakluyt Voy.,Vol. in, London, 

 1810), speaking of the Toudamani (Iroquois, probably Onondaga and 

 Seneca) says: 



Also they showed us the manner and making of their armor; they are made of 

 cordes and wood, finely and cunningly wrought together. 



* Bancroft, op. cit., i, p. 723. 



tWaitz. Anthropologic, Vol. ii, p. 361. 



^Thompson, G. A. Alcedo's Geogr. and Hist. Diet, of America. Lond., 1812, Vol. 

 I, p. 407. 



§ Falkuer. Description of Patagonia, p. 129. 



IIMorice, A. G. Proc. Canadian Inst., Oct., 1889, p. 131. The Carriers previously 

 had birch-bark canoes. 



