Rocky Mountains. 285 



The squaw differs from the males, in having a more squat 

 figure, or is shorter and more thick bodied, with a much 

 broader face. 



The colour of the Indian is, according to Volney, that of 

 the skin of smoked bacon ham. It is sufficiently obvious that 

 this colour is independent of climate; those parts of the body, 

 which are, and, agreeably to their representations, always 

 have been, perfectly shielded from the action of the rays of 

 the sun, from their youth upward, are, notwithstanding, of the 

 same tint with the face, which is never covered. 



In walking they preserve a perfectly upright carriage of the 

 person, without an}- thing of the swinging gait so universal 

 with the white people, which is regarded by them as exces- 

 sively awkward, and which they imitate in their sports to 

 excite the merriment of the spectators, though not in the pre- 

 sence of those, whom they thus ridicule. 



In stepping, the feet are universally placed upon the ground 

 in a parallel manner with each other; they say that turning 

 out the toes in walking, as well as turning them inward, is a 

 very disadvantageous mode of progressing, in high grass or 

 in narrow pathways. 



The peculiar odour, diffused by the body of the Indian, 

 seems to be caused, not so much by the cutaneous transpi- 

 ration, as by the custom of rubbing themselves with odori- 

 ferous plants, and with bison grease. They also sometimes 

 make necklaces of a sort of sweet-scented grass, and suspend 

 small parcels of it about their persons. The various kinds of 

 pigments, with which they overspread their persons, may also 

 be partially operative in producing this effect; and the nin- 

 negahe, which they are so constantly habituated to smoke, is 

 doubtless another agent. 



The odour of the Indian is rather agreeable than other- 

 wise to many, and that diffused by the persons of the Pawnee 

 war party near the Konza village, increased by a profuse 

 perspiration from the violence of their exercise in running, 



