Sketches of Aboriginal Life: American Tableaux, No. 1Vide, V. V.
History
Sketches of Aboriginal Life: American Tableaux, No. 1
Vide, V. V.
Historical fiction; Indians of North America -- Fiction; Mexico -- History -- Conquest, 1519-1540 -- Fiction
Her dress evinced much taste, and exhibited no little variety of
ornament. The materials, though rude, were very curiously wrought, and
so judiciously arranged, as to give to the whole a pleasing and romantic
effect. Her tunic was composed of the skins of squirrels and rabbits, in
alternate strips of grey and white. It was secured at the waist by a
belt of skin, beautifully wrought with porcupine quills, colored
pebbles, and strips of bark of various brilliant hues. Her mantle, which
was large, was of the fairest and most delicate skins, arranged with a
certain uniformity and harmony of design, which gave it all the grace
and beauty, without the stiffness, of a regular pattern. It had a
tasteful border, of brilliant feathers, and, like the belt before
described, was fastened by a clasp of an unique and original
contrivance, being made of the beaks and claws of her captives, arranged
and secured so as to interlock with each other. Her head-dress, leggings
and moccasins, were equally perfect in style and effect.
Besides accomplishing all this work, in her solitude, and even laying in
a stock of provisions in advance, sufficient for her wants, in case of a
long season of storms, sickness, or any other exigency, she had found
time to make several hundred fathoms of net-twine, by twisting the inner
rind, or bark, of willow boughs, into small lines. Of these, she
intended to make a fishing-net, as soon as the spring should open, and
thus enlarge her sources of subsistence and enjoyment.
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Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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