Breech clout

Breech clout or Breech-clout is the english name given to the garment worn by Native American males to clothe the groin and buttocks.
An early description of the garment dates from 1634, "a paire of Indian Breeches to cover that which modesty commands to be hid, which is but a peece of cloth a yard and a halfe long, put betweene their groinings, tied with a snakes skinne about their middles, one end hanging downe with a flap before, the other like a taile behinde."
It was probably in spoken use by the late 1600s with the first known appearance in print in 1706 being attributed to William Penn:
* "In this condition, stark naked (his Breech Clout only excepted) he ran to the River".
All other surviving records from the 18th century of breech clout in print are also from north America, most with a Pennsylvania connection, suggesting the name arose in that state.
* Their dress consist of the skins of some wild beast, or a blanket, a shirt either of linen, or of dressed skins, a breech clout, leggins, reaching half way up the thigh, and fastened to a belt
* they gave me a Breech-Clout to cover my Nakedness (corrected from bridge clout in 1st Edition,1764)
* In 1768 Breech Clouts are listed in an account of goods supplied by Philadephia merchants Baynton, Wharton and Morgan to Captain Gordon Forbes of His Majesty's 34th Regiment. (This collection also has "Britch Clout" in a certificate dated 1769)
* a bullet and several swan shot had passed thro' his coat and breech clout
* no better than an Indian's breech-clout
* "Plaguy bad news," replied the wounded Indian; for the squaws have taken the breech-clout, and fight worse than the long knives"
* they had bows and arrows, and had otter skins for breech clouts and buffaloe skins instead of blankets;
* several mentions of breech-clout from 1791 to 1814 in official letters an reports
* a breech-clout and leggings
* entirely naked, except a breech-clout
* that he had thrown away the petticoat, and had put on the breech-clout
* I saw numbers running towards me, stripped naked, excepting breech-clouts
At the time, i.e. beginning of the 18th Century, breech meant backside and clout was a piece of cloth.
For example in 1653 both words appear in A Chronicle of the Kings of England by Richard Baker:
* a lewd Boy turned up his naked breech towards the Herauld and bid him kisse it
* not so much as a clout left about him to cover his privy parts

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