Page:The History of the American Indians.djvu/19

 On the drefs of the Indians of America, j

broad foftened fkin, or feveral fmall {kins fewed together, which they wrap and tye round their waift, reaching a little below their knees : in cold weather, they wrap themfelves in the foftened (kins of buffalo calves, with the wintery lhagged wool inward, never forgetting to anoint, and tie up their hair, except in their time of mourning. The men wear, for orna ment, and the conveniencies of hunting, thin deer- fkin boots, well fmoked, that reach fo high up their thighs, as with their jackets to fecure them from the brambles and braky thickets. They few them about five inches from the edges, which are formed into tofiels, to which they fatten fawns trotters, and fmall pieces of tinkling metal, or wild turkey- cock-fpurs. The beaus ufed to faften the like t6 their war-pipes, with the addition of a piece of an enemy's fcalp with a tuft of long hair hang ing down from the middle- of the ftem, each of them painted red : and they ftill obferve that old cuftom, only they choofe bell-buttons, to give a greater found.

The young Indian men and women, through a fondnefs of their ancient drefs, wrap a piece of cloth round them, that has a near refemblance to the old Roman toga, or praetexta, *Tis about a fathom fquare, bordered feven or eight quarters deep, to make a mining cavalier of the beau monde, and to keep out both the heat and cold. With this frantic appa rel, the red heroes fwaddle themfelves, when they are waddling, whooping,, and prancing it away, in their fweltery town-houfes, or fuppofed fynhe- dria, around the reputed holy fire. In a fweating condition, they will thus incommode themfelves, frequently, for a whole night, on the fame princi ple of pride, that the grave Spaniard's winter eloak mult fweat him in fum- mer. /

They have a great averfion to the wearing of breeches, for to that cuf tom, they affix the idea of helpleflhefs, and effeminacy. I know a Ger man of thirty years Handing, chiefly among the Chikkafah Indians, who becaufe he kept up his breeches with a narrow piece of cloth that reached acrofs his moulders, is diftinguifhed by them, as are all his countrymen, by the defpicable appellative, Kim-Kim Tarakfhe, or Tied Arfe. They efteem the Englifh much more than the Germans, becaufe our limbs, they fay, are kfs reftrained by our apparel from manly exercife, than theirs. The Indian women alfo difcreetly obferve, that, as all their men fit down to make- 7 water r

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