DENS MORE] PLANTS USED IN ARTS 391 
soft and pleasing to the eye. The teeth used in making the impres- 
sion were the eyeteeth and “side teeth,” the folded material being 
indented in a variety of ways, ranging from a sharp prick, like the 
prick of an awl, to a broad mark produced by slightly twisting the 
bark between the teeth. More than 200 birch-bark transparencies 
have been collected by the writer, and some of the best patterns were 
made by a woman who had only one upper tooth. The bark used 
was the soft, fine inner layers of the white birch, and it was slightly 
warmed to render it more pliable. 
The origin of this art is obscure, but it seems probable that it arose 
in a somewhat casual manner. A woman seated on the ground or 
in the wigwam might take a broad leaf or bit of thin birch bark, 
fold it, bite a few lines in it, unfold it and hold it up to look at it. 
As the result was pleasurable she might seek to improve upon her 
first work and others might seek to copy or emulate it. Leaves best 
adapted to the purpose would be selected, it would naturally be found 
that the birch bark could be folded and indented better if it was 
first warmed before the fire, and gradually a more elaborate folding 
of the bark would produce more interesting patterns. The informa- 
tion obtained from aged members of the tribe and the specimens of 
the art which they have been able to execute give no evidence of the 
influence of the white race nor of any connection with textile or 
ceramic art except that some of the patterns were copied in bead- 
work. It had no connection with a ceremony, and no symbolism, 
except that dream symbols might be indented and used as patterns 
for beadwork in the same manner that the symbol of a man’s dream 
might be outlined in paint. It was an art with a recognized tech- 
nique, producing results of a wide variety in the form of articles 
that were kept, exchanged, and compared, and in which the work- 
ers felt a personal pride. It was peculiar to the Algoquian tribes 
and was a phase of the tribal life that has passed away, and with 
the passing of that life the art has become almost extinct. It 
formed a pastime of the winter evenings, when the young people were 
seated in the wigwam with no other light than the fire, and it was 
especially practiced during the sugar camp, in early spring, when 
there was an abundance of birch bark at hand, and it was softer 
than later in the season, thus being better adapted to the making of 
transparencies. A few women of the younger generation (30 to 40 
years of age) can indent the bark, but their patterns, as will be 
shown, have lost the artistic value of the earlier period. 
The art had two branches, one of which appears to have been 
an outgrowth of the other and to have been practiced less exten- 
sively. The principal, and apparently the first, phase of the art 
was intended chiefly for pleasure and had a secondary use in sug- 
