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CHAPTEE XXXI. 



CLOTHING. 



THERE is no tribe of plains Indians that does not now 

 use more or less civilised clothing, seemingly, however, 

 more from imitative faculty than for any use or comfort 

 derived from the clothing itself. 



The natural and ordinary summer dress of the male 

 Indian is breech clout and mocassins. The breech clout 

 is formed by tying a string or belt around the waist ; one 

 end of a piece of very dirty cloth, six or eight feet long 

 by four inches wide, is drawn under the belt in front, 

 passed between the legs and under the belt behind ; one 

 loose end forms a flap in front reaching nearly to his 

 knee, the other hangs out for three or four feet in the 

 rear, like a tail. This is all that is necessary for modesty 

 or decency from the Indian standpoint. In winter the 

 inevitable buffalo robe furnishes all the comfort and 

 warmth that he desires. 



Girls wear the breech clout until they nearly reach 

 the age of puberty, when it is exchanged for a buckskin 

 jacket without sleeves, but fitting well up to the throat, 

 and a short kirtle of the same material reaching nearly 

 to the knee. The old women and nursing mothers do 

 away with the jacket, either leaving the body above the 

 waist entirely exposed, or covering it with a loose piece 

 of cloth in the way of a scarf. 



These are the primitive fashions. c Time's resistless 

 course ' and contact with white people have so changed 

 those fashions that they are now in vogue only among 



