ir of the forepart
of the head, and increase the beauty of it by adding the wings and tails
of birds, and particularly the feathers of the great eagle or calumet
bird, of which they are extremely fond. The collars are formed either of
sea shells procured from their relations to the southwest, or of the
sweet-scented grass which grows in the neighbourhood, and which they
twist or plait together, to the thickness of a man's finger, and then
cover with porcupine quills of various colours. The first of these is
worn indiscriminately by both sexes, the second principally confined to
the men, while a string of elk's tusks is a collar almost peculiar to
the women and children. Another collar worn by the men is a string of
round bones like the joints of a fish's back, but the collar most
preferred, because most honourable, is one of the claws of the brown
bear. To kill one of these animals is as distinguished an achievement as
to have put to death an enemy, and in fact with their weapons is a more
dangerous trial of courage. These claws are suspended on a thong of
dressed leather, and being ornamented with beads, are worn round the
neck by the warriors with great pride. The men also frequently wear the
skin of a fox, or a strip of otter skin round the head in the form of a
bandeau.

In short, the dress of the Shoshonees is as convenient and decent as
that of any Indians we have seen.

They have many more children than might have been expected, considering
their precarious means of support and their wandering life. This
inconvenience is however balanced by the wonderful facility with which
their females undergo the operations of child-birth. In the most
advanced state of pregnancy they continue their usual occupations, which
are scarcely interrupted longer than the mere time of bringing the child
into the world.

The old men are few in number and do not appear to be treated with much
tenderness or respect.

The tobacco used by the Shoshonees is not cultivated among them, but
obtained from the Indians of the Rocky mountains, and from some of the
bands of their own nation who live south of them; it is the same plant
which is in use among the Minnetarees, Mandans, and Ricaras.

Their chief intercourse with other nations seems to consist in their
association with other Snake Indians, and with the Flatheads when they
go eastward to hunt buffaloe, and in the occasional visits made by the
Flatheads to the waters of the Columbia f