hairs are cut through between the stitches allowing the loose ends to stand erect forming a bed of bristles (fig 2, d).

Of edging devices two are common. One (fig. 3, a), the plain edging, has a mass of hairs stitched directly along the edge of the buckskin entirely concealing it, the other, the zigzag edging, used also in covering seams, has the hairs sewed on in zigzags over the edge (fig. 3, b).

Recently the Huron have taken to ornamenting birch bark boxes with the moose hair designs, the same patterns and method of attachment being employed as on buckskin. The finish and workmanship of these articles is most ingenious.

While dealing with the use of moose hair as a means of decoration, mention should perhaps be made of the bristle and metal danglers commonly employed as a fringe or edging for embroidered surfaces. Danglers or pendants of the same kind are to be found among the plains tribes. With the Huron there are two varieties. One consists of little clusters of moose hair, horse, or caribou bristles,

white or red, with a cone of tin around the base (fig. 4), the series usually being arranged in a compact fringe. The other (fig. 5) is similar to the first in all respects except that a few beads are

attached to make it longer, and the individual danglers are set farther apart. The danglers occur chiefly on the epaulets of coats, as an elaborate substitute for a simple fringe, along the seams or on the flaps of men's leggings, and sometimes on flat surfaces of fancy articles of buckskin or undressed caribou skin, as in figure 5.

Moose hair in its natural white color is also used by the modern Huron as a false embroidery decoration on finger rings and bracelets made of splint and horse hair. The foundation of the ring consists of a narrow splint around which either black or red dyed horse hair is tightly wrapped. A few white moose hairs are inserted under the horse hair wrapping, going over and under it and exposing one or more stitches to bring out some fancy figure. The technique is identical with that common among the plains tribes,1 who decorate the quills of feathers in their headdresses with horse hair wrapping and turkey beard insertion. A similar ornamental device is common on the rims of bark baskets among the northwestern Canadian tribes, and I have seen it on quilled Penobscot pipe stems.

DESIGNS.-We find here that, like many primitive people, the Huron have associated their decorative figures with familiar objects which they seem to resemble, and have accordingly given them a certain class of names. The important feature of these design names is that they are for the most part taken from the plant kingdom. Thus we have among them, representations of balsam fir, barberry, flox, marguerite, clover, and parts of plants such as roots, trunks, stumps, crossed branches, vegetation which conceals the roots, buds, fruit, and the part that covers the base of the branch, all of which are more or less conventionally realistic. Besides these, two others, not plant names, the star and the cat's paw, occur. Figure 6 shows these elementary figures, some with slight variations in their forms.

The larger designs are used independently but more frequently are combined to make up a complete figure resembling a tree or

1 The technique is found on specimens from the Osage in the Heye collection, Univ. of Pa., and the Winnebago and Sauk and Fox in the American Museum of Natural History, N. Y., collected by Mr A. B. Skinner.

2 Cf. Teit, The Shuswap, Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History, N. Y., vol. 11, no. 7, pp. 480-7, for discussion by Dr Boas.

FIG. 6. Moose hair embroidery figures: a, balsam fir; b, star; c, d, cat's paw; e, marguerite; f, flox; g, barberry; h, wild chicory; i, forget-me-not; j, clover; k, branch with fruit or bud; l-o, dead or leafless branches; p, bent branch; q, broken branch or stump; r, crossed branches; s, roots and vegetation around base of tree.

plant. This complex pattern is decidedly a characteristic of the Huron moose hair decorations. The zigzag should perhaps be included in these patterns for it has a definite decorative function as a border although it lacks a realistic interpretation. The zigzag, it appears, is a particularly prominent decorative motive in all eastern Algonkian and Iroquois art. Of the flowers themselves however, the Huron claim the balsam fir, cat's paw, and star to be the oldest. Most of the others, it is thought, are later developments, but at any rate they have been employed commonly as decorative motives since early in the nineteenth century. It will be noticed in comparing the figures of the star, marguerite, and flox, that the difference is determined by the technique in the center, the star having a coil of the simple line, the marguerite having the bristle, and the flox the overlay. In the mind of the Indian artist the idea in these designs is purely realistic, the various elements going to make up the whole plant or tree, as it may be. But strangely, no violence, according to the native eye, is done to the realism by combining such things as a balsam fir trunk and branches with a cat's paw (pl. 1, fig. 4). The main idea is said to be to produce variety and a pleasing effect with the few patterns at hand. In regard to the use of different colors there seems to be no regular attempt to reproduce the flowers in their natural hues, with the exception of the clover and forget-me-not. In fact, as will be seen, most of the figures appear in unnatural colors, the balsam fir, for instance, being blue, red, or white as often as green. Not infrequently one figure contains two different colors. The only conventional use of colors, as far as I could observe, seems to be the employment of green for branches and roots.

A more detailed description of a few actual designs taken from specimens will serve better to explain the use and significance of the designs. The figures and their interpretations have been given separately in figure 6. Very characteristic figures are to be found on the vamps of moccasins. The oval forward part of the vamp is always decorated with two or three parallel curves, comprising mixed simple lines and zigzags. The colors employed are usually blue and white, the whole being considered as a Huron tribal mark

of identity (pl. 1, figs. 1, 2, 3, 4). In the enclosed space appears a flower design which is often varied to suit individual fancy. Fig. 3, pl. I, is an old and typical moccasin pattern, representing the balsam fir, with three green branches alternating with two leafless ones, all having their stems and roots hidden in vegetation. Moccasin 4, pl. I, is similar to the preceding in all except the cat's paw at the top. Fig. 1, pl. I, with balsam fir, is also of the same general type varying the leafless branches with dead ones and having the

FIG. 7. - Design from a pouch.

addition of a short branch

stump near the top of the figure on the left. The significance of an enclosure or a fence is sometimes assigned to the zigzag, as here, for example, where it is made to surround a complete tree. The roots and branches in this one are curved. In fig. 2, pl. I, we have a similar design except that flox replaces the balsam fir. Moccasin patterns do not vary much from the types shown, the chief variations being in cat's paw, star, marguerite, and balsam fir center designs. The moccasin patterns

are the pride of these Indians and display the best qualities of their art. Figure 7, from a leather pouch, may be taken as a typical example of the more elaborate complete figure. The design represents a balsam fir tree with a star above it. Beginning at the top beneath the star we have dead twisted branches, verdant branches, two sets of leafless branches, and the last two repeated with a pair of broken branches between them, until the bottom is reached