NORTH AMERICA 



543 



from the head to the heels, with the line of feathers forming a crest down the back. In a 

 remarkably fine specimen exhibited in the ethnological galleries of the British Museum, the 

 front of the head-piece is ornamented with a pair of slender horns cut from those of a bison, 

 while over the forehead is a tiara of the claws of the grizzly bear. Such head-dresses are 

 known to have been used by the Mandans, Sioux, and Asiniboins. The ordinary members 

 of a tribe had of course garments of a simpler type, commonly comprising a loin-cloth, 

 mocassins, leggings, and robe, which were for the most part made of skins, although several 

 of the tribes had acquired the art of making simple fabrics of bast, rushes, and other vegetable 

 substances. As intercourse with Europeans increased, cotton and woollen fabrics were gradually 

 introduced; and now, with the extermination of the bison, blankets replace the robe of 

 bison-hide. Xot the least noteworthy feature connected with the Indians of the North-west is 



J'/ivIv hi/ Mr. \V. llau\ [Philadelphia. 



A GROUP OF NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. ONE OF THE CENTRAL FIGURES SHOWS THE LONG FEATHER 



HEAD-DRESS MENTIONED ON PAGE 542. 



their capacity for withstanding the most intense cold with a very scanty supply of clothing, 

 many of them going about half naked even in mid-winter. An old Indian, when questioned as 

 to the reason of this capacity for withstanding cold, replied that, as the faces of Europeans 

 were capable of bearing exposure to all weathers, his own people could go about in a half-clad 

 condition because their persons were "all face." 



For bedding robes of fur and mats of rushes were chiefly used; some tribes even using 

 rude bedsteads. Among the Siouans the habitations of the forest-dwelling tribes were usually 

 of the above-described tent-like type, covered with bark, rush-mats, skins, or even bushes. 

 On the other hand, the tribes wandering on the open prairie made earth-covered lodges for 

 winter, and bison-skin tents, or tipis, for summer use. Simple as were all these types of 

 dwelling, a regular routine plan was followed in their construction; special importance being 

 attached to the employment of thirteen supporting-poles. 



