BULL. 30] 



HAIR DRESSING 



525 



There was generally a difference in the 

 manner of wearing tiie hair between the 

 men and women of a tribe, and in some 

 tribes the women dressed their liair differ- 

 ently before and after marriage, as with 

 the Hoiii, whose maidens arranged it in 

 a whorl over each ear, symbolizing the 

 liower of the squash, but after marriage 

 wore it in simple Ijraids. Aside from 

 these ordinary modes of hair dressing 

 there were styles 

 that were totemic 

 and others connect- 

 ed with religious 

 observances or with 

 shamanistic prac- 

 tices. Among the 

 Omaha and some 

 other tribes the 

 child from 4 to 7 

 years of age formerly 

 had its hair cut in a 

 manner to indicate 

 the totem of its gens; 

 for instance, if the 

 turtle was the totem, 

 all tlie hair was cut 

 off close, except a short fringe encircling 

 the head, a little tuft being left on the fore- 

 head, one at the nape of the neck, and two 

 tufts on each side; the bald crown above 

 the fringe represented the shell of the tur- 

 tleand the tuftsits head, tail, and four legs. 

 Generally s{>eaking, the mode of wearing 

 the hair was in former times not subject 

 to passing fancies or fashions, but was rep- 

 resentative of tribal kinship and beliefs. 



WOODEN COMB AND BIRCH- 

 CARK case; HUDSON BAY 

 ESKIMO. (turner) 



ZUNI HAIR-DRESSING. (sTEVENSOn) 



The first cutting of the hair was usually 

 attended with religious rites. Amongthe 

 Kiowa and other southern Plains tribes a 

 lock from the tirst clipping of the child's 

 hair was tied to the forelock (Mooney). 

 Among many tribes the hair was believed 

 to be closely connected with a person's 

 life. This was true in a religious sense of 

 the scalp-lock. In some of the rituals used 

 when the hair Avas first gathered up and 

 cut from the crown of a boy's head the 



HAIR dressing; western ESKIMO 



MAN. (.Murdoch) 



teaching was set forth that this lock rep- 

 resents the life of the child, now placed 

 wholly in the control of the mysterious 

 and supernatural power that alone could 

 will his death. The braided lock worn 

 thereafter was asign of thisdeuication and 

 belief, and represented the man's life. On 

 it hewore the ornaments that marked his 

 achievements and honors, and for any- 

 one to touch lightl}' this loi'k was re- 

 garded as a grave insult. As a war trophy 

 the scalp-lock had a douljle meaning. It 

 indicated the act of the supernatural 

 power that had 

 decreed the death 

 of the man, and 

 it served as tan- 

 gible proof of the 

 warrior's prow- 

 L' "' ""^^^^K^W V ess in wresting it 

 Y-'. "" "^^^mi'-K V f'''^"! the enemy. 

 Thescalper, how- 

 ever, was not al- 

 ways the killer or 

 the tirst striker. 

 The latter had 

 the chief credit, 

 and frequently left others to do the killing 

 and scalping. With the Eastern or timber 

 tribes, the scalper was usually the killer, 

 but this was not so often the case among the 

 Plains Indians. The scalp was frequently 

 left on the battle ground as a sacrifice. 

 Among the Dakota a bit of the captured 

 scalp-lock was i)reservedforayear, during 

 which period the spirit was supposed to 

 linger near; then, when the great death 

 feast was held, the lock was destroyed 

 and the spirit was freed thereby from its 

 earthly ties ( see Scalp ) . There are many 

 beliefs connected with 

 the hair, all of which 

 are interwoven with 

 the idea that it is mys- 

 teriously connected 

 with a person's life and 

 fortune. One can be 

 bewitched ancf made 

 subservient to the will 

 of a person who be- 

 comes possessed of a 

 bit of his hair; conse- 

 quently combings are 

 usually carefully 

 burned. Accordingto Hrdlicka the Pima, 

 after killing an Apache, purified them- 

 selves with smoke from the burnt hair of 

 the victim. 



Personal joy or grief was manifested 

 by the style of dressing the hair (see 

 Mournnuj). Young men often spend 

 much time over their locks, friends as- 

 sisting friends in the toilet. The Pueblo 

 and Plains tril)es commonly usetl a stiff 

 brush of spear grass for combing and 

 dressing the hair, while theEskimo and the 

 N. W. coast tribes used combs. A pointed 



head of seminole man. 

 (maccauley) 



