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/52

 which contains the pooah, and after turning them round in the mixture until they are covered with three or four coats, they raise the hand, and giving the fingers a dexterous twist, to shake off the fag-ends, bring them forward rapidly to the mouth, which is ready open for their reception, and by a strong labial compression, they are quickly cleared of their precious burden! But in plain, unadorned simplicity of dress, they far exceeded their royal consort. It merely consisted of a long piece of their country cloth wrapped in several folds round the waist, and reaching only to the knees, leaving the breasts and legs exposed to the criticisms of amateurs in female beauty; to this they occasionally add a scarf of the same material, which is negligently thrown over the shoulders, and falls behind. They are very corpulent: the favourite measured nearly nine feet in circumference round the waist; and the others were not much inferior in size. We may say of the royal taste, that

They were chosen as we choose old plate, Not for their beauty, but their weight.

Still they possess mild engaging countenances, with that "soft sleepiness of the eye" by which