  We study a one-dimensional wire with strong Rashba and Dresselhaus spin-orbit
coupling (SOC), which supports Majorana fermions when subject to a Zeeman
magnetic field and in proximity of a superconductor. Using both analytical and
numerical techniques we calculate the electronic spin texture of the Majorana
end states. We find that the spin polarization of these states depends on the
relative magnitude of the Rashba and Dresselhaus SOC components. Moreover, we
define and calculate a local "Majorana polarization" and "Majorana density" and
argue that they can be used as order parameters to characterize the topological
transition between the trivial system and the system exhibiting Majorana bound
modes. We find that the local "Majorana polarization" is correlated to the
transverse spin polarization, and we propose to test the presence of Majorana
fermions in a 1D system by a spin-polarized density of states measurement.
