aken off; and the skin is, at last,
contracted into the compass designed for the shield. It is then removed,
placed on a dry hide; and, during the remainder of the festival, is
pounded by the bare heels of the guests. This operation sometimes
continues for several days. The shield is then actually proof against
any arrow; and, if the old men and the jugglers have been satisfied with
the feast, they pronounce it impenetrable by bullets also, which many of
the warriors believe. It is ornamented with feathers, with a fringe of
dressed leather, and with paintings of strange figures. This people have
also a sort of arrow-proof mail, with which they cover themselves and
their horses. It is made of dressed antelope-skins, in many folds,
united by a mixture of glue and sand.

The Shoshonees are a diminutive and ill-formed race; with flat feet,
thick ancles, and crooked legs. The hair of both sexes is usually worn
loose over the face and shoulders; some of the men, however, divide it,
by leather thongs, into two equal queues, which they allow to hang over
the ears. Their tippet, or rheno, as it is called, is described to have
been the most elegant article of Indian dress, that the travellers had
ever seen. It is of otter-skin, tasselled with ermine; and not fewer
than an hundred ermine-skins are required for each.

The inhabitants of the plains, to the west of the Rocky Mountains,
appear to differ considerably from their neighbours on the higher
grounds. The _Chopunnish_ or _Pierced Nose nation_, who reside on the
Kooskooskee, and the river now called Lewis's river, are, in person,
stout, portly, and, good-looking men. The women are small, with regular
features; and are generally handsome, though dark. Their chief ornaments
are a buffalo or elk-skin robe, decorated with beads; and sea-shells, or
mother-of-pearl, attached to an otter-skin collar, and hung in the hair,
which falls in front in two queues. They likewise ornament themselves
with feathers and paints of different kinds; principally white, green,
and light blue, all of which they find in their own country. In winter,
they wear a shirt of dressed skins, long painted leggings and moccasins,
and a plat of twisted grass round the neck.

The dress of the women is more simple: it consists of a long shirt of
argali-skin, which reaches down to the ankles, and is without a girdle:
to this are tied shells, little pieces of brass, and other small
articles; but their head is not