52 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 43 



Regarding their dress generally Nve read as follows: 

 The men are dressed in deerskins, wliicli are made like our jackets, and 

 descend halfway down tlie lliighs. They have breechcloths and mi/tcs'^ nndev- 

 neath, which cover them from the feet to the hips.^ 



The women are covered with a garment of white cloth, which extends from 

 neck to feet, made almost like the Andriennes of our French ladies. * * * 

 The clothing of the girls is different from that of the women ; they wear only 

 the breechcloth, which is made like the little taffeta aprons which girls in 

 France wear over their skirts. The breechcloths of the girls are ordinarily 

 made of a fabric of white thread and cover their nudeness only in front from 

 the belt halfway down the legs. They fasten it behind with two cords, at the 

 end of each one of which hangs a tassel which falls behind. There are fringes 

 sewed to the lower part of the breechcloth along the front which hang down to 

 the ankle. The girls wear this until they reach the age of puberty, for then 

 they put on the dress of the women."' 



Now that the savages have traded with us they leave off as much as they 

 are able the skins with which they formerly covered themselves. The richest — 

 that is to say, the most skillful hunters — have shirts which they usually wear 

 on their bodies without ever washing them. Some wear over this shirt one of 

 the great coverings of which I have spoken when it is cold and go bare except 

 for their shirts during the hot season. The others, as the chiefs, wear clothing 

 of cloth of Liinbourg, whicli we give them ready made. The modest colors are 

 not to their taste.' No savage in America wears breeches; they content them- 

 selves with a breechcloth, or with a piece of cloth or skin with which they 

 conceal what ought to be concealed. They fasten it to the belt in front and 

 behind. In place of stockings they envelop the leg in another piece of stuff, 

 which they tie under the knee, and which is called mitasseJ^ Their shoe is a 

 piece of skin cut and sewed to the size of the foot. Many women, and espe- 

 cially those belonging to the chiefs, have skirts and always wear a kind of 

 skirt which covers them from the waist to the knee. The best clothed have 

 woolen coverings, the less wealthy have neither shirts nor coverings; they go 

 naked from the waist up, unless the cold obliges them to cover themselves 

 with a skin."* 



These people go ahnost naked. The men wear only a kind of belt, through 

 which they pass a fourth of a piece of red or blue cloth, which in that country 

 is called Limhonrg, which serves to conceal their nudity. Sometimes they 

 employ for the same purpose a piece of linen. This is what they call a brayct. 

 This cloth, fastened in front to their belt, passes between their thighs and 

 reaches the same belt behind, where it is also fastened, leaving a rather large 

 end to hang down behind at the two sides. 



With regard to the women, they have a kind of short petticoat made of an 

 ell of this same cloth, which reaches the lower leg only and whicli they call an 

 alconand. It is never permitted the girls to wear this petticoat so long as they 

 keep their virginity. It is only after they have lost it, whether through 

 marriage or otherwise, tlnit they can make use of it. Until that time in place 

 of this arrangement they wear a kind of net attached to their belt and termi- 

 nating in a point .lust like a kind of corps (renfant, the two sides of which are 

 ornamented with riltbons of bass thread, also worked into a netting. From 

 their belts to their knees hang many strings from the same cord, at the ends of 



a Perhaps this should be mitassi'.i, loggings. 



'' P(5nicaut in Margry, Dr'couvortcs, v, 44(». 



<^ Ibid.. 44.5-440. 



"* The Luxembourg Meuioire nur La Louisiane. 13:i-133, 1752. 



