396 USES OF PLANTS BY THE CHIPPEWA INDIANS [eth. ann. a 



family were in the sugar camp and he sent his wife to get some 

 birch bark for making dishes as the other women did. She took 

 an ax and was gone all day. When she came home at night she 

 had a great bundle of bark on her back. This made him glad, for 

 he thought she had been very industrious. She opened her bundle 

 and said, " See what I have been doing all day." Then she showed 

 him quantities of patterns and pictures bitten in birch bark. Her 

 bundle was full of them. She had been biting patterns all day 

 instead of making dishes. 



The man was so ashamed that he hung his head and died. He 

 could not bear to have people know that he had brought home such 

 a good-for-nothing wife. 



Etching and self-patterns on birch bark. — Bark taken from birches 

 in the early spring has the tender " sap-bark " of the previous year 

 next to the outer bark. If the bark gathered at this time is put in 

 hot water the " sap-bark " turns dark brown while the outer layers 

 of bark remain light in color. This renders possible a wide variety 

 of decoration in contrasting colors. Dishes are made with this dark 

 color as a foundation and the decoration is supplied with a sharp 

 implement, the lines showing the light color of the under layer of 

 bark and the contrast remaining after the bark has- dried. The 

 implement used for this purpose was a pointed stick or the " splint- 

 bone " from the heel of a deer, preferably a young doe. The bark 

 is in the right stage for this work at the season of sugar making, 

 and many sugar makuks are made with the dark surface of the bark 

 on the outside, etched with simple decorations. A typical example 

 is the sugar makuk in Plate 34, which is etched with parallel horizon- 

 tal lines between which are vertical, diagonal, or zigzag lines arranged 

 in simple groupings. The fresh sugar was often stored in them and 

 vised as a gift, the decoration making the gift more attractive. At 

 the present time this work is frequently done in a freehand drawing 

 of leaves and flowers, the designs being without artistic value. 



Another type of decoration made possible by the condition of the 

 bark at this season may be called " self-patterns " in birch bark. 

 Sometimes the pattern appears in the light color on a dark back- 

 ground and sometimes the colors are reversed, the design being in 

 the light shade. In a typical example of this work a rather large, 

 conventional pattern cut from birch bark or paper is laid on the 

 bark and a line is drawn around it. This is still done at Grand 

 Portage, where old methods of work are continued. The design is 

 etched on the inner surface of the freshly cut bark, cutting through 

 the lt sap-bark," after which, if desired, the work may be laid aside. 

 When it is to be finished the bark is moistened with hot water, and 

 on the portion which is to be in light color the thin tissue of bark is 

 removed in small particles or shreds with a sharp knife. Thus if 



