MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 



499 



nor with all its efforts can nature 

 ever restore its shape ; the heads 

 of grown persons being often in 

 a straight line from the nose to 

 the top of the forehead. 



The hair of both sexes is parted 

 at the top of the head, and thence 

 falls loosely behind the ears, over 

 the back and shoulders. They 

 use combs, of which they are very 

 fond, and, indeed, contrive, with 

 the aid of them, to keep their 

 hair in very good order. The 

 dress of the man consists of a 

 small robe, reaching to the middle 

 of the thigh, tied by a string 

 across the breast, Avith its corners 

 hanging loosely over their arms. 

 These robes are, in general, com- 

 posed of the skins of a small ani- 

 mal, which we have supposed to 

 be the brown mungo. They have, 

 besides, those of the tiger, cat, 

 deer, panther, bear, and elk, which 

 last is principally used in war 

 parties. Sometimes they have a 

 blanket woven with the fingers, 

 from the wool of their native 

 sheep ; occasionally a mat is 

 thrown over them to keep off rain ; 

 but except this robe, they have no 

 other article of clothing during 

 winter or summer, so that every 

 part of the body, but the back 

 and shoulders, is exposed to view. 

 They are very fond of the dress of 

 the whites, whom they call pashi- 

 sheooks or clothmen 3 and when- 

 ever they can procure any clothes, 

 wear them in our manner : the 

 only article, indeed, which we 

 have not seen among them is the 

 shoe. 



The robe of the women is like 

 that worn by the men, except 

 that it does not reach below the 

 waist. Those most esteemed are 

 made of strips of sea-otter ikin^ 



which being twisted are inter- 

 woven with silk-grass, or the 

 bark of the wliite cedar, in such 

 a manner that the fur appears 

 equally on both sides, so as to 

 form a soft and warm covering. 

 The skins of the racoon or beaver 

 are also employed in the same 

 way, though on other occasions 

 these skins are simply dressed in 

 the hair, and worn without fur- 

 ther preparation. The garment 

 which covers the body from the 

 waist as low as the knee before 

 and the thigh behind, is the tissue 

 already described, and is made 

 either of the bruised bark of 

 white cedar, the twisted cords of 

 silk-grass, or of flap;s and rushes. 

 Neither leggings nor moccasins 

 are ever used, the mildness of the 

 climate not requiring them as a 

 security from tlie weather, and 

 their being so much in the water 

 rendering them an incumbrance. 

 The only covering for the head is 

 a hat made of bear-gi'ass, and the 

 bark of cedar, interwoven in a 

 conic form, with a knob of the 

 same shape at the top. It has no 

 brim, but is held on the head by 

 a string passing under the chin, 

 and tied to a small rim inside of 

 the hat. The colours are gene- 

 rally black and white only, and 

 these are maile into squares, 

 triangles, and sometimes rude 

 figm'es of canoes and seamen har- 

 pooning whales. This is all the 

 usual dress of females ; but if 

 the weather be unusually severe, 

 they add a vest formed of skins 

 like the robe, tied behind, with- 

 out any shoulder-straps to keep 

 it up. As this vest covers the 

 body from the armpits to the 

 waist, it conceals the breasts, but 

 on all other occasions, they are 

 ? K 3 suffered 



