CRADLES OP THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. 



167 



der of the body aud just under the margin, continuing around the bor- 

 der of the hood and awning, lies a rod ot osier. A strip of birch bark 

 laid on the upper and inner side of the margin serves as a stiffener. It 

 is sewed down by an ingenious bast- 

 ing, with stitches an inch or more 

 long, which pass down through the 

 two thicknesses of birch bark, 

 around the osier twig that lies just 

 below the margin, and up again 

 through the two thicknesses of birch 

 bark by another opening, to com- 

 mence the next stitch. The hood is 

 formed by puckering the birch bark 

 after the manner of a grocer's bag. 

 The bordering osier is neatly sewed 

 to the edge of the hood and awning 

 by a coil of split spruce root. Rows 

 of beads of many colors adorn the 

 awning piece. In a country intol- 

 erable by reason of mosquitoes it is 

 not strange that provision for sus- 

 taining some sort of netting should 

 have been devised. Playthings of 

 various kinds are also hung to this 

 awning for the hands and eyes and 

 ears of the infant occupant, and it 

 is quite sure that this bow or hood 

 saves the face of the child many 

 hurtful blows from a fall.* 



232.) (Voyages, etc.). Captain King states that he observed the custom of carrying 

 children in the hood among the Chuckchees of the east coast (xvi, 3(54, note). On the 

 other coast Captain Cook remarked of the dresses at Prince William's Sound that 

 " some " only had hoods (xvi, 280). 



*Long, J. (Voyages and Travels of an Indian Interpreter, London, 1791, 4to) : He 

 describes the cradle of the Chippewas, who range north to the Arctic Circle ; describes 

 also the position and mode of carrying the child, aud its swathing; states that before 

 the French occupation of Canada there were no swathings in use, failing material for 

 them (pp, 60, 01). Before the French period the cradle was " a trough filled with dry 

 rotten-wood dust," in which the baby, "covered with furs," was " kept until weaned" 

 (p. 51). The head of the child in the Chippewa cradle is protected by a hoop (p. 60). 



Back, Captain (Narrative of Arctic Land Expedition, Philadelphia, 1836, 8vo) : On 

 the shore of Great Slave Lake he saw infants " swaddled and unable to stir." 



Harmon's Journal. (The title page of this work is lost. Harmon's expedition was 

 made in 1S00, and, under the auspices of the Northwest Company, he traveled 

 through the same country as Mackenzie.) Speaking of the Sauteux, Crees, Assini- 

 boines, Rapid Indians, Blackfeet, Bloods, Sussees, Cautonies, Muskagoes, Chipeways, 

 Beavers, Sicaunies, Ta-cullias, Ate-nas, and Nate-ote-tains, he says that they all use 

 the cradle-board (p. 316). Harmon thus describes the cradle-board of the Indians of 

 British America : "All Indian children, when young, are laced in a kind of bag * * * 



Fig. 4. 



Birch-bark Cradle from Yukon River, 

 Alaska. 



(Cat. No. 32985, U. S. N. M. Norton Souud. Collected 

 by E. W. Nelson. ) 



