CHAPTER II.

_Of their_ PERSONS, DRESS, _&c._

FROM the first settlement of the French in Canada, to the conquest of it by the English in 1760, several of that nation, who had travelled into the interior parts of North America, either to trade with the Indians, or to endeavour to make converts of them, have published accounts of their customs, manners, &c.

The principal of these are Father Louis Hennipin, Mons. Charlevoix, and the Baron Le Hontan. The first, many years ago, published some very judicious remarks, which he was the better enabled to do by the assistance he received from the maps and diaries of the unfortunate Mons. De la Salle, who was assassinated whilst he was on his travels, by some of his own party. That gentleman’s journals falling into Father Hennipin’s hands, he was enabled by them to publish many interesting particulars relative to the Indians. But in some respects he fell very short of that knowledge which it was in his power to have attained from his long residence among them. Nor was he always (as has been already observed) exact in his calculations, or just in the intelligence he has given us.

The accounts published by the other two, particularly those of Charlevoix, are very erroneous in the geographical parts, and many of the stories told by the Baron are mere delusions.

Some of the Jesuits, who heretofore travelled into these parts, have also written on this subject; but as few, if any, of their works have been translated into the English language, the generality of Readers are not benefitted by them; and, indeed, had this been done, they would have reaped but few advantages from them, as they have chiefly confined their observations to the religious principles of the savages, and the steps taken for their conversion.

Since the conquest of Canada, some of our own countrymen, who have lived among the Indians, and learned their language, have published their observations; however as their travels have not extended to any of the interior parts I treat of, but have only been made among the nations that border on our settlements, a knowledge of the genuine and uncontaminated customs and manners of the Indians could not have been acquired by them.

The southern tribes, and those that have held a constant intercourse with the French or English, cannot have preserved their manners or their customs in their original purity. They could not avoid acquiring the vices with the language of those they conversed with; and the frequent intoxications they experienced through the baneful juices introduced among them by the Europeans, have completed a total alteration in their characters.

In such as these, a confused medley of principles or usages are only to be observed; their real and unpolluted customs could be seen among those nations alone that have held but little communications with the provinces. These I found in the north-west parts, and therefore flatter myself that I am able to give a more just account of the customs and manners of the Indians, in their ancient purity, than any that has been hitherto published. I have made observations on thirty nations, and though most of these have differed in their languages, there has appeared a great similarity in their manners, and from these have I endeavoured to extract the following remarks.

As I do not propose to give a regular and connected system of Indian concerns, but only to relate such particulars of their manners, customs, &c. as I thought most worthy of notice, and which interfere as little as possible with the accounts given by other writers, I must beg my Readers to excuse their not being arranged systematically, or treated of in a more copious manner.

The Indian nations do not appear to me to differ so widely in their make, colour, or constitution from each other, as represented by some writers. They are in general slight made, rather tall and strait, and you seldom see any among them deformed; their skin is of a reddish or copper colour; their eyes are large and black, and their hair of the same hue, but very rarely is it curled; they have good teeth, and their breath is as sweet as the air they draw in; their cheekbones rather raised, but more so in the women than the men; the former are not quite so tall as the European women, however you frequently meet with good faces and agreeable persons among them, although they are more inclined to be fat than the other sex.

I shall not enter into a particular enquiry whether the Indians are indebted to nature, art, or the temperature of the climate for the colour of their skin, nor shall I quote any of the contradictory accounts I have read on this subject; I shall only say, that it appears to me to be the tincture they received originally from the hands of their Creator; but at what period the variation which is at present visible both in the complexion and features of many nations took place, at what time the European whiteness, the jetty hue of the African, or the copper cast of the American were given them; which was the original colour of the first inhabitants of the earth, or which might be esteemed the most perfect, I will not pretend to determine.

Many writers have asserted, that the Indians, even at the maturest period of their existence, are only furnished with hair on their heads; and that notwithstanding the profusion with which that part is covered, those parts which among the inhabitants of other climates are usually the seat of this excrescence, remain entirely free from it. Even Doctor Robertson, through their misrepresentations, has contributed to propagate the error; and supposing the remark justly founded, has drawn several conclusions from it relative to the habit and temperature of their bodies, which are consequently invalid. But from minute enquiries, and a curious inspection, I am able to declare (however respectable I may hold the authority of these historians in other points) that their assertions are erroneous, and proceeding from the want of a thorough knowledge of the customs of the Indians.

After the age of puberty, their bodies, in their natural state, are covered in the same manner as those of the Europeans. The men, indeed, esteem a beard very unbecoming, and take great pains to get rid of it, nor is there any ever to be perceived on their faces, except when they grow old, and become inattentive to their appearance. Every crinous efflorescence on the other parts of the body is held unseemly by them, and both sexes employ much time in their extirpation.

The Naudowessies, and the remote nations, pluck them out with bent pieces of hard wood, formed into a kind of nippers; whilst those who have communication with Europeans procure from them wire, which they twist into a screw or worm; applying this to the part, they press the rings together, and with a sudden twitch draw out all the hairs that are inclosed between them.

The men of every nation differ in their dress very little from each other, except those who trade with the Europeans; these exchange their furs for blankets, shirts, and other apparel, which they wear as much for ornament as necessity. The latter fasten by a girdle around their waists about half a yard of broadcloth, which covers the middle parts of their bodies. Those who wear shirts never make them fast either at the wrist or collar; this would be a most insufferable confinement to them. They throw their blanket loose upon their shoulders, and holding the upper side of it by the two corners, with a knife in one hand, and a tobacco-pouch, pipe, &c. in the other, thus accoutred they walk about in their villages or camps: but in their dances they seldom wear this covering.

Those among the men who wish to appear gayer than the rest, pluck from their heads all the hair except from a spot on the top of it, about the size of a crown-piece, where it is permitted to grow to a considerable length: on this are fastened plumes of feathers of various colours with silver or ivory quills. The manner of cutting and ornamenting this part of the head distinguishes different nations from each other.

They paint their faces red and black, which they esteem as greatly ornamental. They also paint themselves when they go to war: but the method they make use of on this occasion differs from that wherein they use it merely as a decoration.

The young Indians, who are desirous of excelling their companions in finery, slit the outward rim of both their ears; at the same time they take care not to separate them entirely, but leave the flesh thus cut still untouched at both extremities: around this spongy substance, from the upper to the lower part, they twist brass wire, till the weight draws the amputated rim into a bow of five or six inches diameter, and drags it almost down to the shoulder. This decoration is esteemed to be excessively gay and becoming.

It is also a common custom among them to bore their noses, and wear in them pendants of different sorts. I observed that sea shells were much worn by those of the interior parts, and reckoned very ornamental; but how they procured them I could not learn: probably by their traffick with other nations nearer the sea.

They go without any covering for the thigh, except that before spoken of, round the middle, which reaches down half way the thighs; but they make for their legs a sort of stocking either of skins or cloth: these are sewed as near to the shape of the leg as possible, so as to admit of being drawn on and off. The edges of the stuff of which they are composed are left annexed to the seam, and hang loose for about the breadth of a hand: and this part, which is placed on the outside of the leg, is generally ornamented by those who have any communication with Europeans, if of cloth, with ribands or lace, if of leather, with embroidery and porcupine quills curiously coloured. Strangers who hunt among the Indians in the parts where there is a great deal of snow, find these stockings much more convenient than any others.

Their shoes are made of the skin of the deer, elk, or buffalo: these, after being sometimes dressed according to the European manner, at others with the hair remaining on them, are cut into shoes, and fashioned so as to be easy to the feet, and convenient for walking. The edges round the ancle are decorated with pieces of brass or tin fixed around leather strings, about an inch long, which being placed very thick make a cheerful tinkling noise either when they walk or dance.

The women wear a covering of some kind or other from the neck to the knees. Those who trade with the Europeans wear a linen garment the same as that used by the men; the flaps of which hang over the petticoat. Such as dress after their ancient manner, make a kind of shift with leather, which covers the body but not the arms. Their petticoats are made either of leather or cloth, and reach from the waist to the knee. On their legs they wear stockings and shoes, made and ornamented as those of the men.

They differ from each other in the mode of dressing their heads, each following the custom of the nation or band to which they belong, and adhering to the form made use of by their ancestors from time immemorial.

I remarked that most of the females, who dwell on the east side of the Mississippi, decorate their heads by inclosing their hair either in ribands, or in plates of silver: the latter is only made use of by the higher ranks, as it is a costly ornament. The silver they use on this occasion is formed into thin plates of about four inches broad, in several of which they confine their hair. That plate which is nearest the head is of a considerable width; the next narrower, and made so as to pass a little way under the other, and in this manner they fasten into each other, and, gradually tapering, descend to the waist, as represented in plate N^o II. The hair of the Indian women being in general very long, this proves an expensive method.

But the women that live to the west of the Mississippi, viz. the Naudowessies, the Assinipoils, &c. divide their hair in the middle of the head, and form it into two rolls, one against each ear. These rolls are about three inches long, and as large as their wrists. They hang in a perpendicular attitude at the front of each ear, and descend as far as the lower part of it. A more explicit idea may be formed of this mode by referring to plate III.

The women of every nation generally place a spot of paint, about the size of a crown-piece, against each ear; some of them put paint on their hair, and sometimes a small spot in the middle of the forehead.

The Indians, in general, pay a greater attention to their dress and to the ornaments with which they decorate their persons, than to the accommodation of their huts or tents. They construct the latter in the following simple and expeditious manner.

Being provided with poles of a proper length, they fasten two of them across, near their ends, with bands made of bark. Having done this, they raise them up, and extend the bottom of each as wide as they purpose to make the area of the tent: they then erect others of an equal height, and fix them so as to support the two principal ones. On the whole they lay skins of the elk or deer, sewed together, in quantity sufficient to cover the poles, and by lapping over to form the door. A great number of skins are sometimes required for this purpose, as some of their tents are very capacious. That of the chief warrior of the Naudowessies was at least forty feet in circumference, and very commodious.

They observe no regularity in fixing their tents when they encamp, but place them just as it suits their conveniency.

The huts also, which those who use not tents, erect when they travel, for very few tribes have fixed abodes or regular towns or villages, are equally simple, and almost as soon constructed.

They fix small pliable poles in the ground, and bending them till they meet at the top and form a semi-circle, then lash them together. These they cover with mats made of rushes platted, or with birch bark, which they carry with them in their canoes for this purpose.

These cabins have neither chimnies nor windows; there is only a small aperture left in the middle of the roofs through which the smoke is discharged, but as this is obliged to be stopped up when it rains or snows violently, the smoke then proves exceedingly troublesome.

They lie on skins, generally those of the bear, which are placed in rows on the ground; and if the floor is not large enough to contain beds sufficient for the accommodation of the whole family, a frame is erected about four or five feet from the ground, in which the younger part of it sleep.

As the habitations of the Indians are thus rude, their domestic utensils are few in number, and plain in their formation. The tools wherewith they fashion them are so aukward and defective, that it is not only impossible to form them with any degree of neatness or elegance, but the time required in the execution is so considerable, as to deter them from engaging in the manufacture of such as are not absolutely necessary.

The Naudowessies make the pots in which they boil their victuals of the black clay or stone mentioned in my Journal; which resists the effects of the fire nearly as well as iron. When they roast, if it is a large joint or a whole animal, such as a beaver, they fix it as Europeans do, on a spit made of a hard wood, and placing the ends on two forked props, now and then turn it. If the piece is smaller they spit it as before, and fixing the spit in an erect but slanting position, with the meat inclining towards the fire, frequently change the sides, till every part is sufficiently roasted.

They make their dishes in which they serve up their meat, and their bowls and pans, out of the knotty excrescences of the maple tree, or any other wood. They fashion their spoons with a tolerable decree of neatness (as these require much less trouble than larger utensils) from a wood that is termed in America Spoon Wood, and which greatly resembles box wood.

Every tribe are now possessed of knives, and steels to strike fire with. These being so essentially needful for the common uses of life, those who have not an immediate communication with the European traders, purchase them of such of their neighbours as are situated nearer the settlements, and generally give in exchange for them slaves.