The Slave Indians (a tribe of the Athapaskan family) tattooed their cheeks with charcoal inserted under the skin, also daubed their bodies, robes, and garments profusely with red earth (generally called, in the text of travellers, vermilion), but they had another favourite pigment, procured from the regions on the west of the Rocky Mountains, some kind of graphite, like the lead of lead pencils.  With this they marked their faces in black lead after red earth has been applied, and thus gave themselves a ghastly and savage appearance.  Their dress consists of a leather shirt trimmed with human hair and porcupine-quill work, and leggings of leather.  Their shoes and caps were made of bison leather, with the hair outside.  Their necklaces were strings of grizzly-bear claws, and a “buffalo” robe was thrown over all occasionally.  Some of them occasionally had quite light skins—­when free of dirt or paint—­and grey eyes, and their hair, instead of being black, was greyish-brown.  These last features (grey eyes and brown hair) characterized many individuals among the northern British-Columbian tribes.

The Naskwapis of inland Labrador—­allied in speech to the Kris and the Montagnais, but in blood to the Eskimo—­are described as above the middle size in height, slender, and long-legged, their cheeks being very prominent, eyes black, nose rather flat, mouth large, lips thick, teeth white, hair rough and black, and the complexion a yellowish “frog” colour.  They were dressed in elaborate and warm garments made of reindeer skin.  The ordinary covering for the head of the men was the skin of a bear’s head.  “Thus accoutred, with the addition of a bow and quiver, a stone axe, and a bone knife, a Naskwapi man possessed no small degree of pride and self-importance” (James M’Kenzie).

The handsomest tribes of Amerindians encountered by the Canadian pioneers seem to have been the Ojibwes of Lake Superior, the Iroquois south of the St. Lawrence, and the Mandans of the upper Missouri.

Until well on in the nineteenth century none of the Canadian Amerindians were particular about wearing clothes if the weather was hot.  The men, especially, were either quite oblivious of what was seemly in clothing (except perhaps the Iroquois) or thought it necessary to go naked into battle, or to remove all clothing before taking part in religious ceremonies.

It is commonly supposed that the Red Man was a rather glum person, seldom seen to smile and averse to showing any emotion.  That is not the impression one derives from the many pen portraits of Amerindians in the journals of the great pioneers.  Here, on the contrary, you see the natives laughing, smiling, kissing eagerly their wives and children after an absence, displaying exuberant and cordial friendship towards the white man who treated them well, having love quarrels and fits of raging jealousy, moods of deep remorse after a fight, touching devotion to their comrades or chiefs, and above all to their children.  They are most emotional, indeed, and, apart from this chapter you will find frequent descriptions of how they wept at times over the remembrance of their dead relations and friends.