dressed by means of fat and oily substances, and often rendered more durable by the smoke with which they are purposely imbued. The ears and nose are adorned with pendents, and the men, as among many other Indian tribes, and after the manner of the Chinese, carefully cut away the hair of the head, except a lock on the crown, which is plaited and ornamented with rings, wampum, and feathers. Many of them, in imitation of the Canadian French, wear handkerchiefs around their heads, but in the manner of a turban. Some have also acquired the habit of wearing printed calicoe shirts next to the skin.
The younger Indians, as I am informed, notwithstanding the neglect of renewing their dress, are so partial to cleanliness of the skin, that they practice bathing both winter and summer.[97]
{90} CHAPTER VII
Departure from Arkansas—Indian villages—Mooney's
settlement—Curran's settlement—Interview with the
Quapaw chief—The Pine Bluffs—Soil, climate, and
productions—The Little Rock—Roads—Mountains—Vegetation—The
Mamelle—Cadron settlement—Tumuli—Soil
and climate—Pecannerie settlement—Mountains—Cherokees—The
Magazine mountain—Dardanelle
settlement—Manners and customs of the
Cherokees—Their war with the Osages.
From Arkansas to the Cadron, a distance of about 300 miles by water, I now understood there existed a considerable line of settlements along the north border of the river, and that the greatest uninhabited interval did not exceed 30 miles. Though the spring was premature, and the weather still subject to uncomfortable vicissitudes, the
