parts, too, they gather wild
rice. Before their summer holidays are over, they have usually secured
a fair stock of dried berries, smoked meats and bladders and casings
filled with fish oil or other soft grease, to help out their bill of
fare during the winter. The women devote most of their spare moments
to bead, hair, porcupine, or silk work which they use for the
decoration of their clothing. They make _mos-quil-moots_, or hunting
bags, of plaited _babiche_, or deerskin thongs, for the use of the men.
The girl's first lesson in sewing is always upon the coarsest work;
such as joining skins together for lodge coverings. The threads used
are made from the sinews of the deer or the wolf. These sinews are
first hung outside to dry a little, and are then split into the finest
threads. The thread-maker passes each strand through her mouth to
moisten it, then places it upon her bare thigh, and with a quick
movement rolls it with the flat of her hand to twist it. Passing it
again through her mouth, she ties a knot at one end, points the other,
and puts it away to dry. The result is a thread like the finest
hair-wire.

For colouring moose hair or porcupine quills for fancy work, the women
obtain their dyes in the following ways: From the juice of boiled
cranberries they derive a magenta dye. From alder bark, boiled,
beaten, and strained, they get a dark, slate-coloured blue which is
mixed with rabbits' gall to make it adhere. The juice of bearberries
gives them a bright red. From gunpowder and water they obtain a fine
black, and from coal tar a stain for work of the coarsest kind. They
rely chiefly, however, upon the red, blue, green, and yellow ochres
found in many parts of the country. These, when applied to the
decoration of canoes, they mix with fish oil; but for general purposes
the earths are baked and used in the form of powder.

From scenes such as I have described the summer traveller obtains his
impression of the forest Indians. Too often their life and character
are judged by such scenes, as if these truly represented their whole
existence. In reality, this is but their holiday season which they are
spending upon their tribal summer camping ground. It is only upon
their hunting grounds that one may fairly study the Indians; so,
presently, we shall follow them there. And when one experiences the
wild, free life the Indian lives--hampered by no household goods or
other property that he cannot at a