the legs of the skin are tucked before and behind
under a girdle round the waist. It fits closely to the leg, the tail
being worn upwards, and the neck highly ornamented with fringe and
porcupine quills, drags on the ground behind the heels. As the legs of
the animal are tied round the girdle, the wide part of the skin is drawn
so high as to conceal the parts usually kept from view, in which respect
their dress is much more decent than that of any nation of Indians on
the Missouri. The seams of the leggings down the sides, are also fringed
and ornamented, and occasionally decorated with tufts of hair taken
from enemies whom they have slain. In making all these dresses, their
only thread is the sinew taken from the backs and loins of deer, elk,
buffaloe, or any other animal.

The moccasin is of the deer, elk, or buffaloe skin, dressed without the
hair, though in winter they use the buffaloe skin with the hairy side
inward, as do most of the Indians who inhabit the buffaloe country. Like
the Mandan moccasin, it is made with a single seam on the outer edge,
and sewed up behind, a hole being left at the instep to admit the foot.
It is variously ornamented with figures wrought with porcupine quills,
and sometimes the young men most fond of dress, cover it with the skin
of a polecat, and trail at their heels the tail of the animal.

The dress of the women consists of the same articles as that of their
husbands. The robe though smaller is worn in the same way: the moccasins
are precisely similar. The shirt or chemise reaches half way down the
leg, is in the same form, except that there is no shoulder-strap, the
seam coming quite up to the shoulder; though for women who give suck
both sides are open, almost down to the waist. It is also ornamented in
the same way with the addition of little patches of red cloth, edged
round with beads at the skirts. The chief ornament is over the breast,
where there are curious figures made with the usual luxury of porcupine
quills. Like the men they have a girdle round the waist, and when either
sex wishes to disengage the arm, it is drawn up through the hole near
the shoulder, and the lower part of the sleeve thrown behind the body.

Children alone wear beads round their necks; grown persons of both sexes
prefer them suspended in little bunches from the ear, and sometimes
intermixed with triangular pieces of the shell of the pearl oyster.
Sometimes the men tie them in the same way to the ha