WAR-DltESSES. 
157 
wearers an imposing appearance, must have proved 
an encumbrance, without affording much protec¬ 
tion. Some of the helmets were made of close 
wicker-work, exactly fitted the head, and were 
ornamented along the crown. But those worn by 
the high chiefs only, and called mahiori , though 
not more useful, were peculiarly beautiful. They 
were made in the form of the Grecian helmet, with 
towering crest, and were thickly covered with the 
glossy red and yellow feathers of a small paroquet 
found in the mountains, (with whose feathers the 
war-cloaks are also ornamented,) and though they 
did not appear adapted to defend the head, any 
more than the cloaks were to guard the body, they 
increased the effect of the towering height and 
martial air of the chiefs, whose stature was gene¬ 
rally above that of the common people. The long 
cloaks reaching to the knees, or even to the ankles, 
were worn only by the king and principal chiefs. 
The royal colour was yellow, and no one besides 
the king was allowed to wear a cloak made en¬ 
tirely of yellow feathers. Those of the other chiefs 
were of red and yellow rhomboidal figures inter¬ 
mingled, or disposed in alternate lines, with some¬ 
times a section of dark purple or glossy black. 
Tippets were manufactured of the same materials, 
and worn by the inferior chiefs, or some of the 
principal warriors, whose rank did not entitle them 
to wear the cloak. 
In addition to the helmet and cloak, the high 
chiefs occasionally wore a pciraoa , or other orna¬ 
ment, like a breastplate, suspended from the neck 
by finely braided strings of human hair. 
The diviners were consulted immediately before 
they engaged; they slew their victims, noticed 
also the face of the heavens, the passage of clouds 
