embroidered with dyed porcupine quills. Their caps of beaver or martin
were sometimes tied down over their ears with vivid handkerchiefs of
silk. The _habitants_ were rougher and more sombre in their dress. A
black homespun coat, gray leggings, gray woollen cap, heavy moccasins of
cowhide,--this grave costume was usually brightened by a belt or sash of
the liveliest colours. The country-women had to content themselves with
the same coarse homespuns, which they wore in short, full skirts. But
they got the gay colours which they loved in kerchiefs for their necks
and shoulders.

In war the regulars were sharply distinguished from those of the British
army by their uniforms. The white of the House of Bourbon was the colour
that marked their regiments, as scarlet marked those of the British. The
militia and wood-rangers fought in their ordinary dress,--or,
occasionally, with the object of terrifying their enemies, put on the
war-paint and eagle-quills of the Indians. The muskets of the day were
the heavy weapons known as flint-locks. When the trigger was pulled the
flint came down sharply on a piece of steel, and the spark, falling into
a shallow "pan" of powder called the "priming," ignited the charge. The
regulars carried bayonets on the ends of their muskets, but the militia
and rangers had little use for these weapons. They depended on their
marksmanship, which was deadly. The regulars fired breast high in the
direction of their enemy, trusting to the steadiness and closeness of
their fire; but the colonials did not waste their precious bullets and
powder in this way. They had learned from the Indians, whom they could
beat at their own game, to fight from behind trees, rocks, or hillocks,
to load and fire lying down, and to surprise their enemies by stealing
noiselessly through the underbrush. At close quarters they fought, like
the Indians, with knife and hatchet, both of which were carried in their
belts. From the ranger's belt, too, when on the march, hung the leathern