1^92-93.] NOTES ON THE WESTERN DIENES. 163 



mind, and living, most of them, in close proximity and with frequent 

 intercourse with the Coast Indians on the one hand and the Shushwap 

 on the other, they could not fail to accommodate themselves to their 

 environments. It may be taken for certain that their wearing apparel 

 was, as a whole, rather meagre and scanty. This remark does not apply 

 to the ceremonial costume of the Carriers, which, as v/ill soon be seen, 

 was quite elaborate and complicated. 



The summer dress of the men consisted mainly, if not entirely, of a 

 tunic, the breech piece, the leggings and the mocassins. The tunic was 

 a loose vestment which the Indians now compare to a shirt. Its material 

 was tanned cariboo skin, and it descended to the thigh or thereabouts. 

 It had no tail-like appendage as that of the Eastern Denes. This tunic 

 was uniform neither in cut, nor in material, as poor people made it of 

 almost any available skin with the fur on, and gave it the form best suited 

 to their means. Well-to-do Carriers decorated this garment with a 

 multitude of fringes to conceal the seams. The strands of these were 

 sometimes further embellished by means of porcupine quills dyed yellow 

 or green. 



The breech-piece and the leggings were also of the same material, 

 cariboo skin. The latter covered the legs in their whole length, and were 

 kept in position by a string tied to the leather belt on each opposite side. 

 They were furthermore secured below the knee by means of ornamented 

 garters (see fig. 145). These breech cloth and leggings without trousers 

 were still worn here by a few men not more than twelve years ago. 

 Leggings of identical style are still in common use among the men, but 

 during the winter months only, and they are now worn over the pants. 



The national foot gear is, and has always been, the mocassin. This was 

 originally of the dressed skin of the elk (Cerviis Canadensis). But the 

 poorer classes frequently made it of untanned marmot skin, or even of 

 the skin of the salmon. The mocassins are now uniformly of dressed 

 cariboo or moose skin among the Carriers and Tse'kehne and of deer 

 skin among the TsilKoh'tin. An idea of their present form may be 

 gathered from fig. 142. 



Owing to the nature of the material of these mocassins, our aborigines 

 generally went barefooted in rainy weather, and to-day the women and 

 the children at least still adhere to this custom. It must be added that, 

 progressive as the Carriers are, there is not among them a single man 

 who would undertake a journey of any importance, nay even a short 

 trip, without the traditional mocassins. Even the most advanced young 

 men profess to be unable to walk any considerable distance with our 

 common leather shoes. 



