PERSONAL ADORNMENT AND DEFORMATION. 75

The above is essentially the mode of dressing the hair noticed by Dall
among the Tenan Loucheux of Alaska, as late as 1867. He writes in this
connection: “Allowed to grow to its full length, and parted in the middle,
each lock was smeared with a mixture of grease and red ochre. These then
presented the appearance of compressed cylinders of red mud about the size
of the finger. This enormous load, weighing in some of the adults at least
fifteen pounds, is gathered in behind the head by a fillet of dentalium shells.
A much smaller bunch hangs on each side of the face. The whole is then
powdered with swan’s down, cut up finely, so that it adheres to the hair,
presenting a most remarkable appearance. The dressing of grease and ochre
remains through life, more being added as the hair grows’’}.

This style of wearing the hair is peculiar to the men. In the gaiety of
their attire, such as we will soon describe it, the gorgeousness of their head-
dress, and the glory of their painted face, these aborigines reminded F. Whymper,
Dall’s companion in Alaska, of the ideal North American Indian he had read
of but never seen?.

Further west still, and close by the Eskimos of the extreme northwest,
a few Loucheux shaved the crown of their head after the manner of their
heterogeneous neighbours. Dr. F. Boas is also authority for the statement
that the aboriginal inhabitants of Thalthan, or westermost Nahanais also
shaved their heads®.

The above mentioned dentalium head-band was replaced in the east by
a stripe of white hare skin, or of the belly part of a deer skin passing as a
bandeau round the head, with the lank, black elf-locks streaming from under-
neaht. The Dog-Rib men and women leave their hair without any other
dressing than wiping their greasy hands on the matted locks, whenever they
have been rubbing their bodies with marrow.

Among the ancient Carriers and most of the western Dénés, men and
women parted their hair in the middle, the men letting it fall on their back
tied together in a knot when in repose, and rolled up like that of the Chinese
when travelling, while the women had it resting on the forepart of their
shoulders in two plaited tresses adorned with dentalium shells.

To this day most Navahoes of either sex wear it long and gathered in
a knot behind the neck, after what we might call the orthodox Déné fashion.
This they occasionally treat to a regular shampooing with suds obtained
from the yucca root. Among the San Carlos Apaches women trim it to the
level of the shoulders. “The girls and younger women comb the front hair
over the forehead and cut it in line with the eye-brows in the form of a
‘bang’, while the remainder is allowed to fall naturally at the sides and back’’*.

* “Travels on the Yukon”, p. 108.

> “Travel and Adventure in the Territory of Alaska’, p. 210.
* Tenth Ann, Rep. B. A. A. S., p. 40.

“ “Notes on the San Carlos Apache”, p. 489.