NORTH AMERICA 



54-1 





dwellings, and the moral and intellectual characters of the foregoing groups of North American 

 Indians; after which allusion may be made to some of their customs and feasts. And here a 

 great difficulty presents itself, our space being so limited and the number of tribes so great. 

 Under these circumstances the only course is to restrict our observations to a few tribes, 

 whose mode of life must be taken as more or less typical of that of the rest. It may be 

 well to premise that previous to the Spanish discovery (the word is used advisedly) of the 

 New World the aborigines were totally unacquainted with the sheep, the ox, and the horse; 

 the only large animals serviceable to man (exclusive of the numerous species killed for the 

 sake of their fur) being deer of various kinds, the bison, and, in the south, the pronghoru, or, 

 as it is commonly called, antelope. When once introduced, the horse appears to have spread 

 with remarkable rapidity; so rapidly, indeed, that our chief acquaintance with most tribes is 

 subsequent to its introduction. And since these wild people, as soon as they acquired this 

 valuable animal, became essentially equestrian in their mode of life, it is obvious that Indians 

 as we know them must have differed profoundly in their general mode of life from their 

 forefathers of the pre-equine days. 



As regards dress and dwellings, we cannot do better than quote in exfenso the excellent 

 account given by Lewis and Clark (1S04-G) of the Teton Okandandas, a small tribe of the 

 Siouan stock then inhabiting both banks of the Missouri between the Cheyenne and Teton 

 affluents. After mentioning that the men shave their heads, with the exception of a tuft on 

 the crown, which is allowed to grow to its full length (a custom peculiar to this and certain 

 other tribes), the authors write as follows: "In full dress the men of consideration wear a hawk's 



Taken dai-iny Hit ticientljic SxpaHUon of ISri-ti. 1'nMis/ieil lnj Hoivb'ii-'/h <fc *'(/, Edinburgh. Government Copyright. 



A GROUP OP MIC-MAC INDIANS. 



