THE INDIAN MOSS-BAG. 233 



Nothing of baby is seen but its face and head. The 

 black head and bead-like black eyes look very funny 

 peering out of the moss-bag. I forgot to mention that 

 care is taken to support the back of the babe's head by 

 a pillow of the moss, the back portion of the bag being 

 left a little higher than the front for that purpose. 



A strong loop of braided bark or of finely-cut strips 

 of doe-skin is attached to the moss-bag, by which the 

 primitive cradle may be suspended to the branch of a 

 tree or to a peg in the wall of the lodge or house, cr be 

 passed over the mother's forehead when travelling or 

 moving from place to place with the child on her back. 



The infant seems perfectly at ease and contented. 

 Of course, it is released at times during the day and 

 allowed to stretch its limbs on its mother's lap or on the 

 floor of the lodge, where a blanket or skin of some wild 

 animal is spread for it to lie upon. 



So accustomed are the children to this original cradle- 

 bed that when able to creep they will voluntarily 

 seek for it and dispose themselves to sleep, fretting if 

 debarred from being put to rest in it. 



Not only is this papoose cradle in use among the 

 Indians, but in the nurseries of the white settlers as 

 well, and great taste and skill is shown in the material 

 of which they are made. Beautiful patterns in needle- 

 work are wrought with silk, moose hair and beads by 

 the ladies of the Hudson Bay Company to ornament 

 their moss-bags. 



