diff --git a/elasticsearch/connection/base.py b/elasticsearch/connection/base.py
index 7841fd02e..bda71c58e 100644
--- a/elasticsearch/connection/base.py
+++ b/elasticsearch/connection/base.py
@@ -17,13 +17,17 @@ class Connection(object):
     """
     transport_schema = 'http'
 
-    def __init__(self, host='localhost', port=9200, url_prefix='', timeout=10, **kwargs):
+    def __init__(self, host='localhost', port=9200, url_prefix='', timeout=10, transport_schema='http', auth=None, **kwargs):
         """
         :arg host: hostname of the node (default: localhost)
         :arg port: port to use (default: 9200)
         :arg url_prefix: optional url prefix for elasticsearch
         :arg timeout: default timeout in seconds (default: 10)
         """
+        self.transport_schema = transport_schema
+
+        self.auth = auth
+
         self.host = '%s://%s:%s' % (self.transport_schema, host, port)
         if url_prefix:
             url_prefix = '/' + url_prefix.strip('/')
diff --git a/elasticsearch/connection/http.py b/elasticsearch/connection/http.py
index c55be9f23..bf25cf2ec 100644
--- a/elasticsearch/connection/http.py
+++ b/elasticsearch/connection/http.py
@@ -13,7 +13,10 @@ class RequestsHttpConnection(Connection):
     """ Connection using the `requests` library. """
     def __init__(self, host='localhost', port=9200, **kwargs):
         super(RequestsHttpConnection, self).__init__(host=host, port=port, **kwargs)
+
         self.session = requests.session()
+        if self.auth is not None:
+            self.session.auth = tuple(self.auth.split(':', 1))
 
     def perform_request(self, method, url, params=None, body=None, timeout=None):
         url = self.host + self.url_prefix + url
@@ -22,7 +25,9 @@ def perform_request(self, method, url, params=None, body=None, timeout=None):
         request = requests.Request(method, url, params=params or {}, data=body).prepare()
         start = time.time()
         try:
-            response = self.session.send(request, timeout=timeout or self.timeout)
+            response = self.session.request(method=request.method, url=request.url, headers=request.headers,
+                data=request.body, hooks=request.hooks, timeout=timeout or self.timeout)
+
             duration = time.time() - start
             raw_data = response.text
         except (requests.ConnectionError, requests.Timeout) as e:
@@ -44,7 +49,15 @@ class Urllib3HttpConnection(Connection):
     """
     def __init__(self, host='localhost', port=9200, **kwargs):
         super(Urllib3HttpConnection, self).__init__(host=host, port=port, **kwargs)
-        self.pool = urllib3.HTTPConnectionPool(host, port=port, timeout=kwargs.get('timeout', None))
+
+        auth_headers = dict()
+        if self.auth is not None:
+            auth_headers.update(urllib3.make_headers(basic_auth=self.auth))
+
+        if self.transport_schema == 'https':
+            self.pool = urllib3.HTTPSConnectionPool(host, port=port, timeout=kwargs.get('timeout', None), headers=auth_headers)
+        else:
+            self.pool = urllib3.HTTPConnectionPool(host, port=port, timeout=kwargs.get('timeout', None), headers=auth_headers)
 
     def perform_request(self, method, url, params=None, body=None, timeout=None):
         url = self.url_prefix + url