72 
into a flowing gown by extending it to the knees or ankles, and so 
could wear shorter leggings and dispense with the breech-cloth. For 
fuller details we may cite IVIackenzie’s description of the Gree cos- 
tume: “Their dress is at once simple and commodious. It consists 
of tight leggins, reaching near the hip: a strip of cloth or leather, 
called assian, about a foot wide, and five feet long, whose ends are 
drawn inwards and hang behind and before, over a belt tied to the 
former garment, and cinctured with a broad strip of ])archment 
fastened with thongs behind; and a cap for the head, consisting of 
a piece of fur, or small skin, with the brush of the animal as a sus- 
pended ornament ; a kind of robe is thrown occasionally over the 
whole of the dress, and serves both night and day. These articles, 
with the addition of shoes and mittens, constitute the variety of 
their apparel. The materials vary according to the season, and con- 
sist of dressed moosekin, beaver prepared with the fur, or European 
woollens. The leather is neatly painted, and fancifully worked in 
some parts with porcupine quills, and moose-deer hair; the shirts 
and leggins are also adorned with fringe and tassels, nor are the 
shoes and mittens without somewhat of appropriate decoration, and 
worked with a considerable degree of skill and taste. These habili- 
ments are put on, however, as fancy or convenience suggests; and 
they will sometimes proceed to the chase in the severest frost, covered 
only with the slightest of them. . . . The female dress is formed 
of the same materials as those of the other sex, but of a different 
make and arrangement. Their shoes are commonly plain, and their 
leggins gartered beneath the knee. The coat, or body covering, falls 
down to the middle of the leg, and is fastened over the shoulders 
with cords, a flap or cape turning down about eight inches, both 
before and behind, and agreeably ornamented with quill-work and 
fringe; the bottom is also fringed, and fancifully painted as high as 
the knee. As it is very loose, it is enclosed round the waist with a 
stiff belt, decorated with tassels, and fastened behind. The arms are 
covered to the wrist, with detached sleeves, which are sewed as far 
as the bend of the arm; from thence they are drawn up to the neck, 
and the corners of them fall down behind, as low as the waist. The 
cap, when they wear one, consists of a certain quantity of leather 
or cloth, sewed at one end. by which means it is kept on the head. 
