also fastened to the
extremities of the tail, so as to show its black colour to greater
advantage. The centre of the collar is further ornamented with the
shells of the pearl oyster. Thus adorned, the collar is worn close round
the neck, and the little rolls fall down over the shoulders nearly to
the waist, so as to form a sort of short cloak, which has a very
handsome appearance. These tippets are very highly esteemed, and are
given or disposed of on important occasions only. The ermine is the fur
known to the northwest traders by the name of the white weasel, but is
the genuine ermine; and by encouraging the Indians to take them, might
no doubt be rendered a valuable branch of trade. These animals must be
very abundant, for the tippets are in great numbers, and the
construction of each requires at least one hundred skins.

The shirt is a covering of dressed skin without the hair, and formed of
the hide of the antelope, deer, bighorn, or elk, though the last is
more rarely used than any other for this purpose. It fits the body
loosely, and reaches half way down the thigh. The aperture at the top is
wide enough to admit the head, and has no collar, but is either left
square, or most frequently terminates in the tail of the animal, which
is left entire, so as to fold outwards, though sometimes the edges are
cut into a fringe, and ornamented with quills of the porcupine. The
seams of the shirt are on the sides, and are richly fringed and adorned
with porcupine quills, till within five or six inches of the sleeve,
where it is left open, as is also the under side of the sleeve from the
shoulder to the elbow, where it fits closely round the arm as low as the
wrist, and has no fringe like the sides, and the under part of the
sleeve above the elbow. It is kept up by wide shoulder straps, on which
the manufacturer displays his taste by the variety of figures wrought
with porcupine quills of different colours, and sometimes by beads when
they can be obtained. The lower end of the shirt retains the natural
shape of the fore legs and neck of the skin, with the addition of a
slight fringe; the hair too is left on the tail and near the hoofs, part
of which last is retained and split into a fringe.

The leggings are generally made of antelope skins, dressed without the
hair, and with the legs, tail and neck hanging to them. Each legging is
formed of a skin nearly entire, and reaches from the ancle to the upper
part of the thigh, and