542 



THE LIVING RACES OF MANKIND 



Photo by Mi: 11". Ilttuj [l'ltUuilelt>lua. 



A DAKOTA-SIOUAN SQUAW. 



feather or calumet feather, worked with porcupine- 

 quills, and fastened to the top of the head, from 

 which it falls back. The face and body are 

 generally painted with a mixture of grease and 

 coal. Over the shoulders is a loose robe or 

 mantle of buffalo [i.e. bison] skin dressed white, 

 adorned with porcupine-quills loosely fixed so as 

 to make a jingling noise when in motion, and 

 painted with various uncouth figures, unintelli- 

 gible to us, but to them emblematic of military 

 exploits or some other incident. The hair of 

 the robe is worn next to the skin in fair weather, 

 but when it rains the hair is put outside, and 

 the robe is either thrown over the arm or 

 wrapped round the body, all of which it may 

 cover. Under this in the winter season they 

 wear a kind of a shirt resembling ours, made of 

 either skin or cloth, and covering the arms and 

 body. Bound the middle is fixed a girdle of 

 cloth or dressed elk [wapiti] skin, about an inch 

 in width, closely tied to the body; to this is 

 attached a piece of cloth or blanket or skin, 

 about a foot wide, which passes between the legs, 

 and is tucked under the girdle both before and 

 behind. From the hip to the ankle he is 

 covered by leggings of dressed antelope-skins, 



with seams at the sides 2 inches in width, ornamented by little tufts of hair, the produce of 

 the scalps taken in war, which are scattered down the leg. The winter mocassins [i.e. boots] 

 are of dressed buffalo-skins, the hair being worn inwards, and soled with thick elk-skin parch- 

 ment; those for summer are of deer- or elk-skin, dressed without the hair, and with soles of 

 elk-skin. On great occasions, or whenever they are in full dress, the young men drag after 

 them the entire skin of a polecat fixed to the heel of the mocassin. Another skin of the 

 same animal, either tucked into the girdle or carried in the hand, serves as a pouch for 

 their tobacco, or what the French traders call bois roule. This is the inner bark of a 

 species of red willow, which, being dried in the sun or over the fire, is rubbed between 

 the hands and broken into small pieces, and used alone or mixed with tobacco. The 

 pipe is generally of red earth, the stem made of ash, about 3 or 4 feet long, and highly 

 decorated with feathers, hair, and porcupine-quills. The hair of the women is suffered to grow 

 long, and is parted from the forehead across the head, at the back of which it is either 

 collected into a kind of bag or hangs down over the shoulders. Their mocassins are like 

 those of the men, as are also the leggings, which do not, however, reach below the knee, 

 where they are met by a long loose shirt which reaches nearly to the ankles; this is fastened 

 over the shoulders by a string, and has no sleeves, but a few pieces of the skin hang a short 

 distance down the arms. Sometimes a girdle fastens this skin around the waist, and over 

 all is thrown a robe like that worn, by the men. Their lodges [wigwams, or houses] are very 

 neatly constructed; they consist of about 100 cabins, made of white buffalo-hide dressed, with a 

 larger one in the centre for holding carnivals and dances. They are built round, with poles 

 about 15 or 20 feet high, covered with white skins. These lodges may be taken to pieces, 

 packed up, and carried with the natives wherever they go by dogs, which bear great burdens." 



Naturally the dress described above varies to a certain extent with the tribe. Among 

 the chiefs of certain tribes the feather head-dress, which is generally made from eagles' 

 feathers, attains an inordinate development, forming a kind of " tail," hanging down the back 



