white, the cheeks rather high and prominent, the eyes black and lively.  Their countenances are generally pleasant, and they might often be called handsome.  The ears are pierced in infancy, and the lobe is extended to an unnatural size by suspending lead or any other heavy metal from the outer rim, which in time brings them down near the shoulder.  The nose ornaments hang down half an inch, and nearly touch the upper lip.

“The men are bold, manly, and graceful in their gait, always carrying their bodies erect and easy.  On the other hand, the women, by walking with the toes of their feet turned inwards, have a disagreeable and lame appearance.  The men are specially fond of painting their faces and bodies with vermilion, white and blue clay, charcoal or soot mixed with a little grease or water.  With this colour they daub the body, legs, and thighs in bars and patches, and take the greatest pains about painting the face, usually with red and black.  Their skins are generally tattooed with figures representing the sun, stars, eagles, serpents, &c, especially objects which have appeared to them in their dreams.  The women’s faces are much less painted, usually a spot of red on each cheek and a circle of red round the roots of the hair or eyes.”

Here is a summary of what Alexander Henry, sen., wrote of the Kri or Knistino Indians of Lake Athabaska about 1770:—­

“The men in general tattoo their bodies and arms very much.  The women confine this ornamentation to the chin, having three perpendicular lines from the middle of the chin to the lip, and one or more running on each side, nearly parallel with the corner of the mouth.  Their dress consists of leather; that of the men is a pair of leggings, reaching up to the hip and fastened to the girdle.  Between the legs is passed a strip of woollen stuff, but when this cannot be procured they use a piece of dressed leather about nine inches broad and four feet long, whose ends are drawn through the girdle and hang down before and behind about a foot....  The shirt is of soft dressed leather, either from the prong-buck or young red deer, close about the neck and hanging to the middle of the thigh; the sleeves are of the same, loose and open under the arms to the elbows, but thence to the wrist sewed tight.  The cap is commonly a piece of leather, or skin with the hair on, shaped to fit the head, and tied under the chin; the top is usually decorated with feathers or other ornament.  Shoes are made of buffalo (bison) hide, dressed in the hair, and mittens of the same.  Over the whole a buffalo robe is thrown, which serves as covering day and night.