DRESS. HOUSES. IMPLEMENTS. 339 



their hair was loaded " from day to day with such a quantity 

 of soot and fat, and it gathers so much dust and other filth, 

 which they leave to clot and harden in it, for they never cleanse 

 it, that it looks like a crust or cap of black mortar." * They 

 wore a skin over the back, fastened in front. They carried 

 this as long as they lived, and were buried in it when they 

 died. Their only other garment was a square piece of skin, 

 tied round the waist by a string, and left to hang down in 

 front. In winter, however, they sometimes used a cap. For 

 ornaments they wore rings of iron, copper, ivory, or leather. 

 The latter had the advantage of serving for food in bad times. 

 Their huts were generally oval, about fourteen feet by 

 ten in diameter, and seldom more than four or five in 

 height. They were made of sticks and mats. The sticks 

 were fastened into the ground at both ends, or if not long 

 enough, two were placed opposite to one another, and secured 

 together at the top. One end of the hut was left open to 

 form the door. The mats were made of bulrushes and flags 

 dried in the sun, and so closely fitted together that only the 

 heaviest rain could penetrate them.f "With respect to 

 household furniture," says Thunberg, "they have little or 

 none. The same dress that covers a part of their body by 

 day, serves them also for bedding at night." Their victuals 

 are boiled in leathern sacs and water, by means of heated 

 stones, but sometimes in earthen pots. Milk is kept in 

 leathern sacs, bladders of animals, and baskets made of 

 platted rushes, perfectly watertight. These, a tobacco pouch 

 of skin, a tobacco pipe of stone or wood, and their weapons, 

 constitute the whole catalogue of their effects. According 

 to Kolben, they sometimes broiled their meat, sometimes 



* Kolben, I.e. p. 188. { Page 141. 



f Thunberg, Pinkerton's Travels, This, however, they appear to have 



vol. xvi., p. 33 ; Kolben, I.e. p. 221 ; learnt from the Europeans. 

 Sparrman, vol. i., p. 195. 



