Anecdotes of the American Indians, illustrating their eccentricities of character
History
Anecdotes of the American Indians, illustrating their eccentricities of character
Indians of North America -- Anecdotes
have always repelled with contempt, as cumbrous and effeminate. As an
article of female dress, they would consider them less objectionable;
but that the limbs of a warrior should be thus manacled, appears to
them utterly preposterous. They were particularly scandalized at seeing
an officer have them fastened over the shoulder by braces, and never
after gave him any name but Tied-Breech.
The garments now enumerated form the whole of their permanent dress. On
occasions of ceremony, indeed, or when exposed to cold, they put over
it a short shirt fastened at the neck and wrists, and above it a long
loose robe, closed or held together in front. For this purpose they now
generally prefer an English blanket. All these articles were originally
fabricated from the skins of wild animals; but at present, unless
for the moccasins, and sometimes the leggins, European stuffs are
preferred. The dress of the female scarcely differs from that of the
male, except that the apron reaches down to the knees; and even this
is said to have been adopted since their acquaintance with civilized
nations. The early French writers relate an amusing anecdote to prove
how little dress was considered as making a distinction between the
sexes. The Ursuline nuns, having educated a Huron girl, presented her,
on her marriage to one of her countrymen, with a complete and handsome
suit of clothes in the Parisian style. They were much surprised,
some days after, to see the husband, who had ungenerously seized the
whole of his bride’s attire and arrayed himself in it, parading back
and forward in front of the convent, and betraying every symptom of
the most extravagant exultation. This was farther heightened when he
observed the ladies crowding to the window to see him, and a universal
smile spread over their countenances.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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