Page:The Columbia river , or, Scenes and adventures during a residence of six years on the western side of the Rocky Mountains among various tribes of Indians hitherto unknown (Volume 1).djvu/126

 thick underwood of brier and huckleberry, intermingled with fern and honeysuckle.

Numbers of the natives crowded in and about the fort. They were most uncouth-looking objects; and not strongly calculated to impress us with a favourable opinion of aboriginal beauty, or the purity of Indian manners. A few of the men were partially covered, but the greater number were unannoyed by vestments of any description. Their eyes were black, piercing, and treacherous; their ears slit up, and ornamented with strings of beads; the cartilage of their nostrils perforated, and adorned with pieces of hyaquau placed horizontally; while their heads presented an inclined plane from the crown to the upper part of the nose, totally unlike our European rotundity of cranium; and their bodies besmeared with whale oil, gave them an appearance horribly disgusting. Then the women,—Oh ye gods! With the same auricular, olfactory, and craniological peculiarities, they exhibited loose hanging breasts, short dirty teeth, skin saturated with blubber, bandy legs, and a waddling gait; while their only dress consisted of a kind of petticoat, or rather kilt, formed of small strands of cedar bark twisted into cords, and reaching from the waist to the knee. This covering in calm weather, or in an erect position,