M \ ri. Hi \i. CULTURE 65 



buffalo and deer. When sewing, Blackfool women 



had at hand a piece of dried tendon from which they 

 pulled the shreds with their teeth, softened them in 

 their mouths and then twisted them into a thread by 

 rolling between the palms of their hands. The moisten- 

 ing of the sinew in the mouth not only enabled the 

 women to twist the thread tightly, but also caused the 

 sinew to expand so that when it dried in the stitch it 

 shrank and drew the stitches tight. The woman's 

 ordinary sewing outfit was carried in a soft bag of 

 buffalo skin and consisted of bodkins, a piece of sinew, 

 and a knife. Bodkins were sometimes carried in small 

 beaded cases as shown in the exhibit. 



The Use of Rawhide. In the use of rawhide for 

 binding and hafting, the Plains tribes seem almost 

 unique. When making mauls and stone-headed clubs 

 a piece of green or wet hide is firmly sewed on and as 

 this dries its natural shrinkage sets the parts firmly. 

 This is nicely illustrated in saddles. Thus, rawhide 

 here takes the place of nails, twine, cement, etc., in other 

 cultures. 



The Parf leche. A number of characteristic bags 

 were made of rawhide, the most conspicuous being the 

 parfleche. Its simplicity of construction is inspiring and 

 its usefulness scarcely to be over-estimated. The ap- 

 proximate form for a parfleche is shown in Fig. 23, 

 and its completed form in Fig. 24. The side outlines as 

 in Fig. 23 are irregular and show great variations, 

 none of which can be taken as certainly characteristic. 

 To fill the parfleche, it is opened out as in Fig. 23, and 



