Adair's History of the American IndiansAdair, James
History
Adair's History of the American Indians
Adair, James
Indians -- Origin; Indians of North America -- Southern States
Their eyes are small, sharp, and black; and their hair is lank, coarse,
and darkish.[5] I never saw any with curled hair, but one in the Choktah
country, where was also another with red hair; probably, they were a
mixture of the French and Indians. Romancing travellers, and their
credulous copyists, report them to be _imbarbes_, and as persons
_impuberes_, and they appear so to strangers. But both sexes pluck all
the hair off their bodies, with a kind of tweezers, made formerly of
clam-shells, now of middle-sized wire, in the shape of a gun-worm;
which, being twisted round a small stick, and the ends fastened therein,
after being properly tempered, keeps its form: holding this Indian razor
between their fore-finger and thumb, they deplume themselves,[6] after
the manner of the Jewish novitiate priests, and proselytes.—As the
former could not otherwise be purified for the function of his
sacerdotal office; or the latter, be admitted to the benefit of
religious communion.
Their chief _dress_ is very simple, like that of the patriarchal age; of
choice, many of their old head-men wear a long wide frock, made of the
skins of wild beasts, in honour of that antient custom: It must be
necessity that forces them to the pinching sandals for their feet. They
seem quite easy, and indifferent, in every various scene of life, as if
they were utterly divested of passions, and the sense of feeling.
Martial virtue, and not riches, is their invariable standard for
preferment; for they neither esteem, nor despise any of their people one
jot more or less, on account of riches or dress. They compare both
these, to paint on a warrior’s face; because it incites others to a
spirit of martial benevolence for their country, and pleases his own
fancy, and the eyes of spectators, for a little time, but is sweated
off, while he is performing his war-dances; or is defaced, by the change
of weather.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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