swAn'T.iJ INDIAN TRIBES OF THE LOWER MISSISSIPPI VALLEY 51

 But, after all, the final moral estimate of a tribe or nation is a
thing that no other tribe or nation is competent to undertake. It
will be made by different individuals differently, depending on the
standards, environment, and prejudices, or, on the other hand, the
sympathetic appreciation of the person acting as judge.


 DRESS AND ORNAMENTS

 ()n the Indian mode of wearing the hair Dumont says, speaking
generally:
 They never have any heard nor even the least hair on any part
of the body. which comes from the fact that from their youth they take great
pains to plulck it out. With regard to the hair of the head the men wear it dif-
ferently. according to difference in nationality. Some cut it entirely, leaving
only a tuft on the top of the head in the Turkish fashion. Others cut it on
one side only, on the right or the left, and keep the other side very long. Many
also have the head completely shaved and have only a braided tress which
hangs on each side, and others are clipped like our monks, having only a crown
of short hairs. The women and girls, on the other hand, wear their hair very
thick and very long; moreover, they have no other headdress. They have very
black and beautiful locks and wear them either braided in tresses or bound into
a cue with a belt of that bison hair which I have said to be as fine and soft as
wool. instead of a ribbon. These tresses are ordinarily interlaced by way of
ornament with strings of blue, white, green, or black beads [made of glass],
according to their taste, sometimes also with quills of the porcupine, a kind of
hedgehog larger than that which we know and which is more common in
Ca;lnada tllan in Llouisiana, where I have never seen any.n
 I)u Pratz, evidently confining himself to the Natchez, remarks as
follows:
 The natives cut their hair around, leaving a crown like the Capuchins, and
leave only enough long hair to make a twisted tress no larger than the little
finger, and which hangs over the left ear. This crown is in the same place and
almost as large as that of a monk. In the middle of this crown they leave
about two dozen long hairs for the attachment of feathers.
 Although the natives all wear this crown, yet the hair is not removed or
pulled from this place, but it is cut or burned with burning coals. It is not
the same with the hair of the armpits and the beard, which they take great
care to pull out, so that they never come back, not being able to suffer any hair
to appear on their bodies, although naturally they do not have more of it
than we.t
 They (the women) wear nothing on their heads; their hair is at full length,
except that in front, which is shorter. The hair behind is fastened in a cue
by means of a netting of mulberry threads, with tassels at the ends. They
take great pains to pull out the hair and leave none on the body except the hair
of the head."

 SDumont, M6m. Hist. sur La Louisiane, I, 136, 137.
 b Du Pratz, Hist. de La Louisiane, II, 198.
 O Ibid., 195.