New England Aboriginals in “Voyages, 1603”

[...] All these Indians from Island Cape [Cape Ann] onwards wear no skins or furs, except very rarely; but their clothes are made from grasses and hemp, and barely cover their bodies, and come down only to the thighs. But the men have their privy parts concealed by a small skin. It is the same also with the women, who wear it a little lower behind than the men; all the rest of the body is naked. When the women came to see us they wore skins open in front. The men cut off the hair on top of their heads like those at Saco river. I saw, among other things, a girl with her hair quite neatly done up by means of a skin dyed red, trimmed on the upper part with little shell beads. Some of her hair hung down behind, while the rest was braided in various ways. These people paint their faces red, black, and yellow. They have almost no beard, and pull it out as fast as it grows.

Source: Samuel de Champlain, "[New England Aboriginals in] Voyages, 1613" in The Works of Samuel de Champlain, vol. III, H.P.Biggar (Toronto: The Champlain Society, 1922), 355-356.

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