76 THE MENOMINI INDIANS [eth.ann.H 



decoration is indulged in liberally. At present there is no special rule 

 governing the arrangement of color designs employed, though formerly, 

 when the society still conferred four degrees, there were distinctive 

 arrangements of color to designate the several degrees by which the 

 rank of the various members could readily be identified. The colors 

 employed were earthy pigments, generally obtained at trading estab- 

 lishments. The mita" who had received but one initiation into the 

 society was allowed, as well as expected, to adorn his face by making 

 a white stripe horizontally across the forehead, a band of white clay of 

 a finger's width, and extending outward as far as the outer angle of 

 each eye. In addition, a spot of green about an inch in diameter was 

 placed upon the middle of the breast. 



Those having received two degrees were usually honored by their 

 preceptor by being permitted to adopt the facial decoration of the latter; 

 this consisted of a fanciful application to the face of red ocher, or ver- 

 milion, and one spot of green beneath each eye. 



The third degree mit;i' v placed a stripe of green so as to extend hori- 

 zontally outward from the corners of the mouth. 



To distinguish a mita' T of the highest rank, one of the fourth degree, 

 the chin was colored with green paint. 



These arrangements were the generic and specific features in color 

 decoration, but slight additions thereto were made, to such an extent 

 only, however, as not to intrude upon or to obscure the typical decora- 

 tions characteristic of the several grades. 



No regularity of color arrangement, in so far as it relates to rank, is 

 now found. No two faces presented any similarity at the meeting 

 under consideration, the greater number of the members having simply 

 besmeared their cheeks, the chin, or other parts of the face, with ver- 

 milion, with here and there a stripe of bine, red, or green. One would 

 have his face colored yellow with ocher or chrome yellow, with a 

 stripe of red running outward from each side of the mouth. Another 

 would have three lines of red passing down over the chin, a central 

 line with one nearer the outer corners of the mouth, between which 

 lines were others of dark blue. Another had black spots the size of a 

 dime, on a red forehead ; while still another, who had recently lost a near 

 relation, had his cheeks and forehead blackened with ashes. 



One young man displayed rather more than ordinary taste in the 

 decoration of his face; there being a stripe across each cheek from the 

 nose to near the ears, curving slightly upward, consisting of alternate 

 squares of vermilion and white, the squares being about three-fourths 

 of an inch across and bordered with black. A row of spots also 

 extended from the upper lip outward toward the ears, each spot being 

 as large as a dime; those nearest the mouth were red, the next two white 

 with a bar sinister in blue, and the last ones red. While scarcely beau- 

 tiful, these facial paintings of the men were very striking. 



The facial decorations of the women members of the society were not 

 so elaborate, their chief form consisting mainly of reddened cheeks, 



