122 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. |VoL. IV. 



solidity of the vessel and ensure greater neatness of appearance, wattup,. 

 or split spruce root, is made to pass through the bark and wrapped very 

 tightly around the rod and rim. In order to avoid striking successively 

 the same grain of the bark with the awl, the holes are pierced each re- 

 ceding backward till four or five have been stitched in, after which the 

 first of a new series is made closer to the brim. To break the monotony^ 

 of the wattup wrapping, small pieces of tcdn-7ia-{ qdj* or bird cherry 

 {Piunus pensylvaiiica, Linn.) bark are inserted, generally in the middle 

 of each of the four sides of the vessel, enough of their shining surface 

 being left uncovered to be easily visible. 



The largest of the bark vessels above illustrated is called a tcajyaj. It 

 has, as a rule, a capacity of from three or four to ten gallons. As regards 

 the uses to which it is put, they are manifold. While the women are 

 gathering berries, it serves to bring home the fruit which has been 

 immediately collected in the smaller or thej vessel (fig. i lo). In the lodge 

 the tcajya] is also the recipient of clothes, the sewing implements of the 

 women, the family heirlooms, the trinkets of the children, etc. More- 

 over, it serves frequently to cache up close by the houses any household 

 chattels which it is thought expedient to protect against mice. When 

 thus employed it is suspended, carefully covered with birch bark, from 

 the lower limb of a branchy evergreen. 



Some tca^yaj, while remaining identical in form, materially differ in their 

 style of cutting and sewing. Of these fig. 1 13 affords a fair example. 



None of the bark vessels of the Carriers is provided with a lid. 



The second vessel, the the], "receptacle," (figs, no, 112) somewhat 

 resembles the first in form and hardly differs in make, save of course, the 

 altered cutting of the bark. But while all the tca|ya| are very deep and 

 as nearly quadrilateral in shape as the material will allow, the orifice of 

 the thej is oval and the vessel is proportionately more shallow. More- 

 over, all such specimens as exhibit a pretension to elegance have tlie 

 middle of their length rims somewhat elliptical. Inserted between the 

 bark and the encircling rod on both narrow sides are two buckskin 

 thongs forming loops to which is attached the neat yarn string — generally 

 adorned with multicoloured yarn tufts — which serves to suspend the 

 vessel from the neck. The the{ is carried on the breast, while the tca|ya[ 

 is packed, sometimes two at a time, on the back and the occiput. Some- 

 times, as is the case with the more stylish patterns, the cherry bark orna- 

 ments are replaced by dyed horse hair arranged so as to produce 

 geometrical designs. 



* " Stick which one tears around," by allusion to the mode of treating its bark. 



