History of the Indian Tribes of Hudson's River — Passage 7 (part 2)
[Edward Manning Ruttenber (1872)] They also wear hand bands or bracelets, curiously wrought, and inter woven with wampum. Their breasts appear about half covered with an elegantly wrought dress. They wear beautiful girdles, ornamented with their favorite wampum, and costly ornaments in their ears. Here and there they lay upon their faces black spots of paint. Elk hide moccasins they wore before the Dutch came, and they too were most richly ornamented." Shoes and stockings they obtained from the Dutch, and also bonnets. Plurality of wives was, to some extent, in vogue among them. " The natives," says Van der Donck, " generally marry but one wife and no more, unless it be a chief who is great and powerful j such frequently have two, three or four wives, of the neatest and handsomest of women, and who live together without variance." Minors did not marry except with the advice of their parents or friends. Widowers and widows