They have wide
mouths, thick lips, and short, irregular and dirty teeth. Indeed
good teeth are seldom to be seen among the tribes west of the
Rocky Mountains, who live simply on fish.
In the early stages of their intercourse with white men, these
savages were but scantily clad. In summer time the men went
entirely naked; in the winter and in bad weather the men wore a
small robe, reaching to the middle of the thigh, made of the
skins of animals, or of the wool of the mountain sheep.
Occasionally, they wore a kind of mantle of matting, to keep off
the rain but, having thus protected the back and shoulders, they
left the rest of the body naked.
The women wore similar robes, though shorter, not reaching below
the waist; besides which, they had a kind of petticoat, or
fringe, reaching from the waist to the knee, formed of the fibres
of cedar bark, broken into strands, or a tissue of silk grass
twisted and knotted at the ends. This was the usual dress of the
women in summer; should the weather be inclement, they added a
vest of skins, similar to the robe.
The men carefully eradicated every vestige of a beard,
considering it a great deformity. They looked with disgust at the
whiskers and well-furnished chins of the white men, and in
derision called them Long-beards.
