Evening star., 1924-09-07

by pressure with the fingers to keen
II from becoming fiat or otherwise
malformed. AS the child grows older
its body is rubbed with cedar bark
or hemlock branches.
A young girl learns in time to be
her own facial masseuse, after she
has received careful Instructions in
IuDoing with upward motions so as
10 ilft the facial muscles. A proud
day in the young Makah girls life
comes when she receives her first
powder puff" AS the tribe lives on
a promontory. far from drug stores
and beauty parlors, this puff is nec-
essarily homemade affair. The in
ner bark fiber of the cedar tree is
the material used. The fiber is dried
over a hre, twisted and pounded un-
til 1T Is soft. The girl is then shown
III she needs such fnstruction-how
to rub her face with it, upward on
the cheeks and across the forehead
Though used more vigorously than
the happer's tiny powder puff, the In
dian article has the same utilitarian
purpose-"to take off the shine"
Squaws Of the tribe further explain
that a Makah girls eyebrows must
be plucked to an artistic line when
she reaches a certain age. And for
four years she must keep to a ne
becoming fat. She also learns that
the woman who would be beautiful
in the eyes of her tribe should bathe
and massage her face and wash her
hair every morning.
The men, aiming more directly for
strength than for beauty, pay some
what less attention to bathing than
the women do, and they use coarser
hemlock branches for rubbing their
bodies.
What the Men Sing.
The Makahs evidently discriminate
between signs of age which can he
warded off and other signs over which
they have little control. Thus an In
dian was foung singing and dancing
with a mirror in his hand. From
the words of his song he would an
pear to have just noted signs of q
retreating hairline. But there is no
apprehension in the song. Miss Dens-
more records it as a vivid illustration
of masculine vanity. He sang:
How high, how high. my forebAa 4
is getting; this Is the first time I have
looked in the glass;"
Another man at feast sang this
quaint bit of free verse to an Indian
rhythm: with all the things that
come of old age I look like a sea
parrot, with white patches on the
sides of my head. Try to grow old as
quickly as possible, look so hand
some"
With so much interest in physical
culture, it would seem likely that
these Indians would appear unusually
strong and well favored. The India n
music expert has printed only pic
lures of middle-aged and elderly In
dians, who sang songs for the phono-
graph records. No ages are attached
to these photographs, but they pre-
sent the faces of Indians much like
the faces of other western tribes,
There are no signs Of marked physi-
cal superiority.
James G. Swan, Smithsonian
scientist who visited the Makahs
about the time of the Civil War, re-
ported that they rarely lived to any
great age. and that 60 years was the
usual limit with them. This makes it
seem unlikely that the portraits rep
resent well preserved Indians of great
antiquity.
Regarding the physical appearance
of the tribe, Mr.. Swan stated: ."The
| Makahs are of medium stature, aver
aging about feet inches. Their
limbs are uncommonly well proper
toned, with a good development OF
muscle. Some are symmetricaIly
Horned and of unusual strength"