DRESS. ORNAMENTS. 413 



attached to public transactions solemnized by smoking the 

 pipe ; in the adoption of persons taken in war, in families ; 

 in the exhibition of dances on almost every occasion that can 

 enlist human sympathy ; in the meagre and inartificial style 

 of music ; in the totemic tie that binds relationships together, 

 and in the system of symbols and figures cut and marked on 

 their graveposts, on trees, and sometimes on rocks, there is a 

 perfect identity of principles, arts and opinions. The mere 

 act of wandering and petty warfare kept them in a savage 

 state, though they had the element of civilization with them 

 in the Maize." * 



Many of the Indian chiefs had magnificent dresses of 

 skins and feathers. Some of the tribes, indeed, wore no 

 clothes ; but this was rarely the case with the women, and 

 even the men had generally at least a loin cloth. The amount 

 of clothing, however, depended very much on the temperature. 

 In the plains and forests of the tropical and southern lati- 

 tudes, " the Indian wears little or no clothing during a large 

 part of the year ; " but it is very different on the mountains 

 and in the north, where the common dress was the breech 

 cloth and mocassins, with a buffalo- skin thrown over the 

 shoulders. The inhabitants of Vancouver's Island had mats, 

 made either of dogVwool alone, of dog's-wool and goose- 

 down together, or of threads obtained from cedar bark. They 

 often wore " necklaces of shells, claws, or wampum ; feathers 

 on the head, and armlets, as well as ear- and nose-jewels. "f 

 Many of the Indian tribes are clean in their persons, and 

 frequently use both the sweat-house and cold bath ; others 

 are described as repulsive in countenance and filthy both in 

 person and habits. 



The eastern tribes do not generally disfigure themselves 

 artificially, except indeed by the use of paint ; but it is very 



* I.e. yol. ii., p. 47. f Schoolcraft, vol. iii., p. 65. 



