This engege was a waterman, hired on to guide pirogues or keelboats up and down the treacherous waterways of the Mississippi and Missouri River regions. The colonial period French were noted for their predilection for blue cloth of all shades and general love of color and personal adornment. The brass buttoned capote or blanket coat is from a period watercolor at Ft. DeChartres, Il. The French men wore their hair in long queues often bound in cloth. Some, such as Louis Lorimier, the Commandant of Cape Girardeau had hair long enough to stand upon. This man's woodland style moccasins are quilled and beaded in an eastern patter
