Note 436 — Chapter IV · CALIFORNIANS.
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At Pitt River they 'have no dress except a buckskin thrown around them.' The Shastas and their Neighbors, MS. Near Mount Shasta 'they can scarcely be said to wear any dress, except a mantle of deer or wolf skin. A few of them had deer-skins belted around their waists, with a highly ornamented girdle.' Wilkes' Nar., in U. S. Ex. Ex., vol. v., p. 255. Near Pitt River, the Indians were nearly naked. Abbott, in Pac. R. R. Rept., vol. vi., p. 61. At Trinidad Bay 'their clothing was chiefly made of the skins of land animals, with a few indifferent small skins of the sea-otter.' Vancouver's Voy., vol. ii., p. 247. 'The men, however, do not wear any covering, except the cold is intense, when indeed they put upon their shoulders the skins of sea-wolves, otters, deer, or other animals.' Maurelle's Jour., p. 16. 'They were clothed, for the most part, in skins.' Greenhow's Hist. Ogn., p. 118. On Smith River they were 'in a complete state of nature, excepting only a kind of apology for an apron, worn by the women, sometimes made of elk's skin, and sometimes of grass.' Pfeiffer's Second Journ., p. 313. Among the Weeyots at Eel River the men 'wore a deer-skin robe over the shoulder, and the women a short petticoat of fringe.' Gibbs, in Schoolcraft's Arch., vol. iii., p. 127. On Klamath River their only dress was the fringed petticoat, or at most, a deerskin robe thrown back over the shoulders, in addition. Id., p. 141. 'The primitive dress of the men is simply a buckskin girdle about the loins; of the women, a chemise of the same material, or of braided grass, reaching from the breast to the knees.' Powers, in Overland Monthly, vol. viii., p. 329. 'Were quite naked excepting the maro.' Wilkes' Nar., in U. S. Ex. Ex., vol. v., p. 253. The Klamath Lake Indians 'wear little more than the breech-cloth.' Lord's Nat., vol. i., p. 277. 'They were all well dressed in blankets and buckskin.' Abbott, in Pac. R. R. Rept., vol. vi., p. 70. Carl Meyer, speaking of a tribe he names Allequas, at Trinidad Bay, says: 'der Mann geht im Sommer ganz nackt, im Winter trägt er eine selbst gegerbte Hirsch- oder Rehdecke über die Schultern.' 'Die Allequas-Weiber tragen im Sommer von Bast-Schnüren oder von Rehfellstreifen, im Winter von Pelzwerk oder Gänseflaum verfertigte Schürzen, die bis auf die Knie reichen.' Nach dem Sacramento, p. 217, 219. 'The Klamaths, during the summer go naked, in winter they use the skins of rabbits and wild fowl for a covering.' Thompson, in Ind. Aff. Rept., 1854, p. 283.