32 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



One observation on Indian headdress, by this author, is of 

 interest: 



The Delaware women never plait their hair, but fold and tie it 

 round with a piece of cloth . . . The Iroquois, Shawanose, 

 and Huron women wear a queue, down to their hips, tied round 

 with a piece of cloth, and hung with red ribbands. The rich adorn 

 their heads with a number of silver trinkets of considerable weight. 

 This mode of finery is not so common among the Delawares as the 

 Iroquois, who by studying dress and ornament more than any other 

 Indian nation, are allowed to dictate the fashion to the rest. 

 Loskiel, 1 152 



In Miss Powell's account of an Iroquois chief in 1785, hereafter 

 to be quoted, she said he had " a pair of immense earrings, which 

 hung below his shoulders." The picture of Joseph Brant in his 

 youth, by Romney, helps us to understand this, his pendants being 

 of the same length. Half of the earring was a chain of large silver 

 rings. From the base of this depended three chains of the same 

 kind. A system of pendants was a favorite feature of this orna- 

 ment, as will be seen later. Parts of these were easily detached and 

 lost, and when thus separated have been misunderstood. Their 

 Onondaga name is Ka-wahs'-hah. 



Fig. 169 shows the earliest form of these ornaments known in 

 New York, and was found in the Onondaga fort of 1654, where 

 many have been obtained, both perfect and fragmentary. It is 

 simply a piece of copper wire symmetrically coiled in opposite direc- 

 tions, and forming a loop in the center. This was then hammered 

 down to a moderate degree. Of course there must have been some 

 means- of attachment to the ear, unless the opening was very large. 

 Fig. 168 is from a neighboring site, occupied in 1677, and probably 

 earlier. They were extensively distributed, but their use was con- 

 fined to that century. They are often broken at the loop, and in 

 this condition have perplexed some collectors. 



A large proportion of the silver earrings known are later than 

 colonial times, as will be seen in fig. 170, furnished by Mrs Converse, 

 whose fine collection is well known. This has not only the Ameri- 

 can eagle, but the union shield on the breast. There is provision 

 for a pendant in the loop at the base of the tail. 



