300 THE PAWNEES. 
much more substantial, and usually covered 
with grass and earth instead of skins. The 
Indians commonly remain in their villages 
during the inclement portion of the winter; 
yet most of them spend the early spring upon 
the Prairies in buffalo-hunting; as well as such 
portions of the summer and autumn as are 
not occupied in the cultivation and gathering 
of their crops, which they secure in caches till 
their return. 
In dress they differ but little from the wilder 
tribes, except that, having more communica- 
tion with the whites, they make greater use 
of our fabrics—blankets, coarse cloths, cali- 
coes and the like. Their most striking pe- 
culiarity consists in the cut of their hair. 
Most of them, instead, like the Indians of the 
Plains, of wearing the hair long, trim and ar- 
range it in the most fantastic style. In the 
care bestowed upon this part of their toilet, 
they cannot be excelled by the most soigneur 
of civilized dandies. They shave a large por- 
tion of the head, but leave a fanciful lock 
upon the crown as a scalp-crest (an indispen- 
sable trophy for the enemy), which is in gene- 
ral gorgeously bedecked with painted feathers 
and gewgaws. 
The Pawnees, who now have their princi- 
pal village on the Loup Fork of the Platte 
river, are perhaps the most famous of these 
tribes. Small bands of their war-parties roam 
on foot through every portion of the Prairies, 
often to the Mexican frontier, though they 
generally contrive to return well mounted. 
