Ross's Adventures of the first settlers on the Oregon or Columbia River, 1810-1813Ross, Alexander
History
Ross's Adventures of the first settlers on the Oregon or Columbia River, 1810-1813
Ross, Alexander
Mississippi River Valley -- Description and travel; United States -- Description and travel; West (U.S.) -- Description and travel
The men are generally stout, muscular, and strong, but not tall, and
have nothing ferocious in their countenances. Their dress invariably
consists of a loose garment, made of the skin of the wood-rat, neatly
sewed together and painted, which they wrap round the body like a
blanket; nor does the hardy savage, though constantly rustling through
the woods, ever wear a shirt, leggings, or shoes. The chief’s robe is
made of sea-otter skin and other valuable furs. All classes wear the
cheapool, or hat, which is made of a tough strong kind of grass, and is
of so close a texture as to be water-proof. The crown is of a conic
form, terminating generally in a point at the top, and the rim so very
broad as to screen the shoulders from the rain. The cheapool is
chequered or diversified with the rude figures of different animals,
particularly the dog and deer, not painted, but ingeniously
interwoven.[15] Their war garments are of two kinds, one is termed
clemal, of elk-skin, dressed and worked to the thickness of nearly half
an inch, and arrow-proof. The clemal nearly covers the whole body, with
an opening left on the right side to allow the arm free action in
combat. The other is a kind of vest, made of small round sticks of the
size and shape of arrows, twelve inches long: they are laid side to
side, and then sewed together, and fixed on the body like a waistcoat.
This is arrow-proof also. They carry a circular {90} shield, about
eighteen inches in diameter, which is likewise made of the elk-skin; but
in addition to its thickness it is hardened by fire and painted, and is
not only arrow-proof, but proof against the knife and the tomahawk also.
Their implements of warfare are guns, bows and arrows, knife, bludgeon,
and tomahawk, all of which they use with great dexterity. A Chinooke
Indian armed _cap-à-pie_ is a most unsightly and hideous being.
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