352 INDIAN MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 



cotakj a primitive dialect, which, by the majority of eth- 

 nologists, is compared to the Mantchou Tartar. 



Truth to tell, a legend related to me round the camp- 

 fire, during my sojourn among the Eedskins, attributes 

 the origin of the race to a horde of Tartars, who had 

 migrated by the strait which separates Asia from 

 America. 



The men, as a rule, were strong, and well-made. I 

 admired their regularity of features, and their jet-black 

 eyes. Each of them owned a well-bred horse, active, 

 wiry, and spirited, and, moreover, capable of great en- 

 durance. 



As for the women, graceful and pretty up to their 

 fourteenth year, they grow ugly and deformed before the 

 age at which, in Europe, we consider a young girl 

 marriageable. All, men and women, were covered with 

 a kind of garment made of tanned skins, and ornamented 

 with designs tattooed, by a peculiar process, in red, blue, 

 and black : a short blouse, descending just below the hips, 

 pantaloons with fringes cut out of the cloth, moccasins on 

 the feet, and a head-dress composed of a myriad of feathers 

 of all kinds, in whose midst shone conspicuous the stem 

 of an eagle's wing. The huts under which these Indians 

 sheltered themselves from the sun and rain were fabri- 

 cated, like their clothes, out of tanned skins, ornamented 

 with porcupine barbs, and supported by slender wooden 

 poles, so planted as effectually to resist the most impetu- 

 ous wind. 



Such was the appearance of the camp to which chance 

 had conducted my companions and myself. They hastened 

 to unload the cars, to place under shelter the cooking 

 utensils such as the pots and pans, indispensable to every 



