224 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



[bull. 53 



that the tribe derived its name, many Indians holding the same 

 opinion (see footnote ^, p. 59). In figure 4 is shown a pattern, cut 

 by the aged woman at Lac du Flambeau who made the moccasins. 

 Speaking through an interpreter, she said that in the old days they 

 had no shears and cut the deerskin with a knife. No pattern was 

 used, as they "just made a covering for the feet and gathered it up." 

 She said that she sewed the moccasin up the instep and "piped it 

 to hold it firm," the shortest of the thi-ee strips being used for that 

 purpose. She then moistened the moccasin on the inside and molded 

 the outline with the back of a knife placed inside the moccasin. 

 The gathered front also was moistened with tepid water and flattened 

 by pressing it on her knee. The seam up the back was curved below 

 the heel, leaving the small triangle of deerskin. She cut patterns for 

 two strips to be used in fastening the moccasin, but one long strip was 

 used in the pair illustrated, being passed through two little slits at the 

 front of the instep and tied, leaving the long ends to be passed 



Fig. 4. Pattern of moccasins. 



around the ankle and tied at the back when the moccasin was worn. 

 In the old days, when deerskin was plentiful, the moccasins were 

 cut in one piece; it is said that one deerskin would make only two 

 pairs of moccasins. In the pair illustrated the flaps are separate from 

 the feet. The sewing was done with sinew, according to the old 

 custom. 



Mtev much discussion and with no little hesitation on her part, a 

 blind woman sang the following song, which was recorded by the 

 phonograph. 



