“The small rods composing it are about ¾ in. diameter, painted red. Width, 40 in.; height, 25 in. Position as on the body. It was fastened behind with two loops of sinew, into which wooden buttons were inserted” ] The body armour was made of rows of overlapping plates, lashed together, of slats, of rods, of skins, and of cotton padded. The plate armour is the one that was borrowed from Asia; a migration apparently across Bering Strait. The cotton-padded armour was confined to the Amerinds of Mexico and Central America, but the other varieties were distributed over the whole area. In the plate armour, “small, flat, oblong plates of ivory or bone pierced near the edges with from four to six or more holes,” were lashed in series with rawhide thongs. The coat, made in this way of a number of rows, was tied at the back with thongs, or had a toggle fastening. Some of these plates in iron and in copper have been dug up at Cape Prince of Wales and on St. Lawrence Island. This armour is very similar to that of the Japanese, and if it was wholly an imported idea, it was probably a comparatively recent one. The Tlinkits used the slat armour and also a rod armour, the former being made of very hard wood fastened with cords of sinew. A Tlinkit greave has also been found among the collections in the National Museum, so that it is probable that the North-west coast Amerinds protected arms and legs as well as body. The Iroquois are also reported to have used armour of rods both on their limbs and their vital parts. The rod armour was formed by sewing or lacing together with native twine a series of straight slender rods sufficient to pass around the body and tie in front, with places for the arms, and straps over the shoulders. The skin armour was simply a sort of heavy, sleeveless shirt made of thick hide, doubled and reinforced and otherwise rendered as nearly as possible proof against arrow or spear. In Mexico, where the padded cotton armour was chiefly worn, a breastplate of the same material was put on under it. The common Aztec soldiers wore armour of “reeds, grass, and hides, or ’nequen cloth, coated with India-rubber.”[229] Veytia says the “private soldiers painted the upper part of the body to represent armour, but from the waist to the thighs they wore short drawers, and over them fastened around the waist a kind of kilt that reached to the knee, and availed them somewhat for defence. Across the body was a sash made of feathers that passed from the right shoulder to the left side of the waist.”[230] Many Amerinds also wore in conjunction with the various kinds of armour, a helmet, ranging from the feathered war-bonnet to a heavy mask-helmet of wood. The Tarascos of Mexico, according to Brinton, specially excelled in defensive armour, which “consisted of helmet, body pieces, and greaves for the legs and arms, all of wood covered neatly with copper or gold plates, so well done that the