on her blanket. A black and blue spot above the left eyebrow, which the princess had received from the mule of her father, as she was attaching a bundle upon his back, appeared to render her countenance the more interesting.
'Let us now say a few words concerning the manners and customs of the Indian nations of the West in general. In all the mountain tribes the costume is nearly the same. The men wear a very long tunic of the skin of the antelope or bighorn; leggins of buckskin or dogskin; shoes of the same material, and a mantle of buffalo skin or a red, blue,
green or white flannel blanket. The seams of their garments are adorned with loin fringes; they clean them by rubbing them with white earth (it is the soap of the savages). The Indian loves to pile ornament upon ornament; he attaches plumes of every kind to his long hair; the eagle feather always occupies the principal place; it is the great medicine bird, the Manitou or guardian spirit of the savage warrior. They attach besides all sorts of trinkets, ribbons of all colors, rings, shells and ornaments of bone. They wear on their necks collars of pearls interlaced with apocoins (an oblong shell that they pick up on the shore
of the Pacific ocean). In the morning, all wash themselves; but for lack of a towel they make use of an end of their tunic. Then every one returns to his lodge to make his toilet; that is, to rub his face, hair, arms and chest with bear's grease, over which they spread a thick layer of vermilion, which gives them- a wild and hideous aspect; I often thought, when I met there, of those bloated visages that are called in Belgium vagefuers gezichten (purgatory
faces). Boys of seven to ten years wear a sort of dalmatica of skins, embroidered with porcupine quills and open at both sides, which gives these little fellows an altogether
singular appearance, without breeches or shirt. Under the age of seven, they have nothing to cover them during sum
2 From Father De Smet's narrative of his journey to the Flatheads in 1840. Translated from Voyages aux Montagnes Rocheuses, pp. 49-54