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Before sunrise we were on the march; for the time I walked more on my hands than on my feet. I drew myself along, I know not how. We came to a creek, which, I believe is a few miles from Big Bone Lick and there for the first time Mr. Pierce and I had a little dispute. The question was about crossing a large creek. Mr. Pierce wished to go up to cross it; I was strongly for swimming across it. Seeing that he wished absolutely to make the grand détour and leave the bank of the Ohio, I did as I always did. A violent part seemed to me the best. -How much he has since thanked me for it.-To put an end to the dispute, I went into the water. He had his back turned and could not oppose my plan. I was already in the water before he was aware of it. Thus I crossed fortunately and he did not delay to follow me. was about eleven o'clock in the morning. We stripped ourselves stark naked and dried our clothes. This bath did us good. When we were dressed we continued our route.

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Nothing unusual happened to us until we got to another creek, which was nearly four miles from the last one we had just crossed. As we were going to swim across it as we did the other, Mr. Pierce saw two boats coming down the Ohio. He called to them, but the boats kept off, believing we were Indians, but seeing our white shirts and our breeches, they determined to come to us. For this purpose they put all the men into one of the boats and left the other with the women and just one man to steer it. This took quite a long time, during which the current kept carrying them on. This time I did not have to beg Mr. Pierce to cross this creek as well as two or three others which followed it. As for me, I followed him, but much more slowly. At last we swam out to join them, for they could not approach the shore on account of the trees which prevented them. It was surprising to me, arrived on board, to see all the people of the boat that received us with carabines in hand. But the fear of being surprised by the Indians obliged them to be on their guard. Arrived on board, they undressed me, warmed some whiskey and rubbed all my body, which did me much good. I drank a little of it and ate a little bread, which seemed to me good. They dressed my neck, which was much swelled. As for my hand, they did nothing for it. They waited until we

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should be at the Falls to cut off the finger-which was not done, thanks to myself. My feet were in a very bad condition and gave me much pain.

Two days' sailing were enough to bring us to the Falls, where I passed the night of March 29th. The next day, which was Sunday, I crossed the Ohio to go to a fort situate opposite Louisville, where I was most cordially received. I was introduced by Col. Blaine [here a footnote: whose acquaintance I made at Fort Pitt. He had come down some time before us and arrived at the Falls without accident]; and Major Willis gave me a reception for which I cannot be too grateful. In short I stayed in the fort with all possible comfort from March 30th to May 11th. For three weeks I could not move and every day they had to take out some portion of my foot which began to putrefy, but with the care of the fort's surgeon and with patience all has been well and my foot is quite cured except the place where the piece of stick went in when I was running away in the woods. Thus far I have been unable to cure it.

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Louisville is quite small. Nothing wonderful is found in it. The ruins of an old fort (Fort Nelson) are to be seen; they are upon the bank of the Ohio, as is the town. believe they do not at all exaggerate its unhealthiness. The city and its environs are very sickly. There are found even in the town low grounds, filled with water, from which exhales the most dreadful stench, especially in the heat of summer. It would not, however, cost much labor to drain these marshes which give the inhabitants fevers, which, if not mortal, are long in curing. The other side of the Ohio, where I stayed some time, where an American fort (Fort Steuben) is built and where there are two hundred men in garrison, is not more healthy than Louisville and there are few persons free from fever. This fort is in a very pretty situation. The land there is excellent and there are trees on every side.

DRESS AND ORNAMENTS OF CERTAIN
AMERICAN INDIANS.

BY LUCIEN CARR.

Or the cause or causes that first led to the use of clothing we know nothing, though various theories have been brought forward by way of accounting for it. Herbert Spencer, for instance, is of the opinion that it grew out of the wish for admiration; other investigators tell us that it was adopted as a protection against the weather; whilst according to the Biblical record, our first parents clothed themselves in aprons of fig leaves in order to conceal their nakedness. Without stopping to inquire into the truth of these and other theories, it is probably safe to say that the use of clothing, like many of our customs and practices, had its origin in a variety of motives, each one of which may have been prepotent in its time and place. At all events, considered as a working hypothesis, this explanation, even if it does not throw a definite light upon the origin of the custom, enables us to account satisfactorily for the differences in the nature and amount of clothing worn by tribes in different portions of the world, as well as for the differences that exist, today, among people of the same tribe at different seasons. The process may even be carried further; for it is only by the aid of some such elastic principle of explanation that we can understand why a savage, at one time, decks himself in gaudy apparel and at

1 Principles of Sociology II., p. 185: New York, 1896.

2" Ils se couvrent pour bannir le froid, et non pour paroistre ": Jesuit Relations, 1634, p. 46: Quebec, 1858. "Ne couvrent point du tout leur honte et nudité, sinon pour cause de grand froid et de longs voyages, qui les obligent à se servir d'une couverture de peau": Sagard, Voyage des Hurons, I., p. 51: 8 Genesis III., verses 7 and 21.

Paris,

1865.

another abjures it; why he paints himself red, black or in figures as the occasion requires ; or why he pierces his nose, blackens his teeth, cuts off his finger, or otherwise scarifies or mutilates his body. To assert that these and the other similar methods by which he seeks to give expression to his feelings and desires, sprung originally from one and the same motive, is to involve ourselves in a network of conjecture from which there is no escape. For this reason, then, in the course of this investigation into the modes of dress and methods of ornamentation of those of our Indians that dwelt east of the Mississippi River, we propose to confine ourselves strictly to the accounts given by the early chroniclers, and will make no effort to fathom the motives that may have governed the Indians in any or all of these particulars, except in so far as they are made known to us by the authors from whom we quote.

Before, however, entering upon the subject, it may be well to premise that when the Europeans first began to visit these shores, our Indians were not in such a state of destitution that they were obliged to go naked, or to content themselves with a scrap of skin barely sufficient to cover their backs, as is said to have been the case with some of the Fuegians. Indeed, so far were they from anything of the kind, that their ordinary dress, as we shall see further on, consisted of a number of different articles which were made of different materials and varied with the locality and the climate. Of these articles they appear, as a rule, to have had an adequate supply, though there can be no doubt that whenever it suited their comfort or convenience, they did not hesitate to lay any or all of them aside2 and go

1 Darwin, Voyage of a Naturalist, I., p. 274: New York, 1846. 2" Si tost que l'air est chaud, où qu' ils entrent dans leurs cabanes, ils jettent leurs atours à bas, les hommes restant tous nuds, à la reserve d' un brayer qui leur cache ce qui ne peut être veu sans vergogne. Pour les femmes, elles quittent leurs bonnet, leurs manches, et bas de chausses, le reste du corps demeurant couvert"; Jesuit Relations, 1634, p. 46: Quebec, 1858. "In summer they go naked having only their private parts covered with a patch": Megapolensis, Short

naked.1 Bearing upon this point, and, to some extent, confirmatory of what is said as to the supply of clothing, is the fact that although the Indians living east of the Mississippi belonged to different linguistic families and were often at war with each other and among themselves, yet there existed among them a system of intertribal traffic by means of which the people of any one section were able to

Sketch of the Mohawk Indians, in Collections of the New York Hist. Soc., second series, Vol. III., part 1, p. 154: New York, 1858. "Pendant les chaleurs les hommes ne portent qu' un brayer: c'est une peau de chevreuil passée en blanc où teinte en noir; . . . Les femmes dans les chaleurs n'ont qu' une demi-aulne de limbourg, au moyen de laquelle elles se couvrent; elles tournent ce drap autour de leur corps, & sont bien cachées depuis la ceinture jusqu' aux genoux; quand elles n' ont point de limbourg, elles employent au même usage une peau de chevreuil: aux hommes ainsi qu'aux femmes, le reste du corps demeure à decouvert": Du Pratz, Histoire de la Louisiane, Vol. II., pp. 190, 191: Paris, 1758. "... nous vimes quelque quatre-vingts ou cent sauvages tout nuds, hormis le brayet, qui faisoient Tabagie, &c.": Lescarbot II., p. 569: Paris, 1866. In Jesuit Relation, 1632, p. 4, we are told that certain prisoners having been made to sing and dance, the oldest among them" commence marcher le long de la cabane tout nud, hormis . . . un morceau de peau qui couvrait ce que la nature a caché": Quebec, 1858. Describing an Indian Council Lafitau says: "C'est une troupe de crasseux, assis sur leur derrière, accroupis comme des singes, & ayant leurs genoux auprès de leurs oreilles, ou bien couchez differemment le dos, ou le ventre en l'air, qui tous la pipe à la bouche traitent des affaires d'état avec autant de sang froid & de gravité, que la Jonte de l'Espagne ou le conseil des Sages à Venise": Mœurs des Sauvages Amériquains, II., p. 178: Paris, 1724. Les hommes, quand il fait chaud, n' ont souvent sur le corps qu' un brahier; l' hyver ils se couvrent plus ou moins suivant le climat": Charlevoix, VI., p. 39, Paris: 1744. Compare plate p. 308 in Vol. II., Du Pratz Louisiane. Plate XI., XII., XVII., &c., in Hariot's First Plantation of Virginia. Figure 2 in plate on p. 38 of Vol. III., Lafitau. Plate p. 130 in Vol. II. of La Hontan, Voyages dans l' Amerique Septentrionale, A la Haye, 1703. Cartier, in Hakluyt, II., p. 93.

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1 In the Nation du Petun," les hommes vont tout nuds sans reserve": Jesuit Relations, 1641, p. 59. Among the Cheveux Relevez or Ottowas, "... les hommes ne couvrent point du tout leurs partis naturelles, qu' ils tiennent à descouvert, avec tout le reste du corps sans honte ny vergogne": Sagard, Voyage des Hurons, p. 53, Paris: 1865. "Mais ils sont . . . larrons et traitres et quoy qu'ils soient nuds, on ne se peut garder de leurs mains": Lescarbot, II., p. 537. "Les femmes se despouillèrent toutes nues, et se jetèrent en l'eau, allants au devant les canots pour prendre ces testes," &c.: Champlain, Voyages, I., p. 206. "Les femmes ont le corps couvert, et les hommes descouvert, sans aucune chose, sinon qu' une robbe de fourrure, qu'ils mettent sur leur corps, qui est en façon de manteau, laquelle ils laissent ordinairement, et principalement en êsté. Les femmes et les filles ne sont plus emues de les voir de la façon, que si elles ne voyoient rien qui sembleroit estrange": Ib. I., p. 357: Paris,

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