NORTH WEST COAST OF AMERICA. 289 



a-3 a prefent ; but the women disfigure themfelves in a ^ ^^^ ^• 



moft extraordinary manner, by making an incifion in the ' ' 



under-lip ; in which part they wear a piece of wood made Auguii. 

 in an oval form a little hollow on each fide, and about "' *^ "' 

 the thicknefs of a quarter of an inch ; the outer part of 

 the rim is hollowed all round : this curious piece of 

 wood is thruft into the hole, and is fecured there by the 

 rim of the lip going round it, fixed in the hollow which is 

 made round the wood. They appear to be worn large or 

 fmal] in proportion to the age of the women, or perhaps 

 to the number .of the children they have bore ; thofe that 

 I took to be between thirty and forty years of age wore 

 them about the fize of a fmall faucer, and the older larger 

 in proportion ; one old woman, I remarked particularly, 

 having one as large as a large faucer. The weight of this 

 trencher or ornament weighs the lip down fo as to cover 

 the whole of the chin, leaving all the lower teeth and gum 

 quite naked and expofed, which gives them a very difagree- 

 able appearance. When they eat, it is cuftomary for them to 

 take more in the mouth at a time than they can pofHbly 

 fwallow ; when they have chewed it, the lip-piece ferves 

 them as a trencher to put it out of their mouths on, and then 

 they take it occaiionally. It feems a general pradrice among 

 the females to wear the wooden ornament in their under- 

 lip ; the children have them bored at about two years of 

 age, when a piece of copper- wire is put through the hole ; 

 this they wear till the age of about thirteen or four- 

 teen years, when it is taken out, and the wooden orna- 

 ment introduced ; its firfb fize is about the width of a 

 button. They likewife have their ears bored, where they 

 wear their ornaments of beads and other things. Their 

 apparel is the fame kind as wore by the men ; both men 



P p and 



