The elegant
dress and graceful form of the Shoshone cavalier, harmonizes admirably
with the wild and haughty appearance of the animal.
The Shoshone allows his well-combed locks to undulate with the wind,
only pressed to his head by a small metal coronet, to which he fixes
feathers or quills, similar to those put to his horse's rosette. This
coronet is made either of gold or silver, and those who cannot afford to
use these metals make it with swan-down or deer-skin, well-prepared and
elegantly embroidered with porcupine quills; his arms are bare and his
wrists encircled with bracelets of the same material as the coronet; his
body, from the neck to the waist, is covered with a small, soft
deer-skin shirt, fitting him closely without a single wrinkle; from the
waist to the knee he wears a many-folded toga, of black, brown, red, or
white woollen or silk stuff, which he procures at Monterey or St.
Francisco, from the Valparaiso and China traders; his leg from the ankle
to the hip is covered by a pair of leggings of deer-skin, dyed red or
black with some vegetable acids, and sewed with human hair, which hangs
flowing, or in tresses, on the outward side; these leggings are
fastened a little above the foot by other metal bracelets, while the
foot is encased in an elegantly finished mocassin, often edged with
small beautiful round crimson shells, no bigger than a pea, and found
among the fossil remains of the country.
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