HOUSEHOLD UTENSILS. 



301 



Flu. 115 Wooden bucket, ^rui-uut. 



ing cups. They are made of strips of thin boards cut from spruce or 



from larch trees, the wider strijis beiug as much as si.x iuches wide aud 



oue-third of an iucli thick. They 



are steamed aud bent into ovoid 



or circular forms and the ends 



of the strij) overlapping. Theu 



they are sewed with split roots 



from those trees. A groove is 



cut near the lower edge and into 



it is placed a dish-shaped jnece 



of wood for a bottom. 

 These vessels are identical in 



shape and limction with those 



manufactured by the Yukon river Indians of Alaska. 



They also use berry-dishes or baskets like Fig. 116 made from the 



bark of the spruce 

 peeled in the spring 

 of the year. At this 

 time the bark is 

 quite flexible and 

 may be bent into 

 the desired shape. 

 The corners are 

 sewed with coarse 

 roots from the same 

 tree and the rim is 

 strengthened by a 

 strip of root sewed 

 over and around it 

 by means of a liner 



strand. These baskets serve a good puri)ose when the women are pick- 

 ing berries, of which they are inordinately 



fond; and during that season it is a rarity 



to see a woman or man without a mouth 



stained the peculiar blue color which these 



berries impart. 

 Baskets of this shape fretiuently have a 



top of buckskin sewed to them, closed with 



a drawstring, as shown in Fig. 117 (No. 



3485). Such things serve to hold trinkets 



and other small articles. 

 Large objects are carried in bags, either 



long or basket-shaped, made of the skins of 



deer legs. The leg skins are scraped and fig. in.-Birohbark basket, Nenenot. 



worked to a moderate degree of pliability and their edges sewed together 



until a sufficient number have been joined to make the bag of the re- 



Fio. 116. — Bircbbark basket, Nenenot. 



