Occasionally, they wore a kind of mantle of matting,
to keep off the rain but, having thus protected the back and shoulders,
they left the rest of the body naked.
The women wore similar robes, though shorter, not reaching below the
waist; besides which, they had a kind of petticoat, or fringe, reaching
from the waist to the knee, formed of the fibres of cedar bark, broken
into strands, or a tissue of silk grass twisted and knotted at the ends.
This was the usual dress of the women in summer; should the weather be
inclement, they added a vest of skins, similar to the robe.
The men carefully eradicated every vestige of a beard, considering it
a great deformity. They looked with disgust at the whiskers and
well-furnished chins of the white men, and in derision called them
Long-beards. Both sexes, on the other hand, cherished the hair of the
head, which with them is generally black and rather coarse. They allowed
it to grow to a great length and were very proud and careful of it,
sometimes wearing it plaited, sometimes wound round the head in fanciful
tresses. No greater affront could be offered to them than to cut off
their treasured locks.
They had conical hats with narrow rims, neatly woven of bear grass or of
the fibres of cedar bark, interwoven with designs of various shapes
and colors; sometimes merely squares and triangles, at other times rude
representations of canoes, with men fishing and harpooning.
Pages:
432
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440
441
442
443
444
445
446
447
448
449
450
451
452
453
454
455
456