North American Indians of the plains / by Clark Wissler.

  • Clark Wissler
Date:
1912
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: North American Indians of the plains / by Clark Wissler. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    70/160 page 62
    The Parfleche. A number of characteristic bags were made of rawhide. The most conspicuous being the par¬ fleche. 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. 19, and its completed form in Fig. 20. The side outlines as in Fig. 19 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. 19, and the contents arranged in the middle. The large flap is then brought over and held by lacing a', a. The ends are then turned over and laced b', b. The closed parfleche may then be secured by both or either of the looped thongs at c', c. Primarily, parfleche were used for holding pemmican (p. 26) though dried meat, dried berries, tallow, etc., found their way into them when convenient. In recent years, they seem to have more of a decorative than a practical value; or rather, according to our impression, they are cherished as mementos of buffalo days, the great good old time of Indian memory, always appropriate and acceptable as gifts. The usual fate of a gift parfleche is to be cut into moccasin soles. With the possible exception of the Osage, the parfleche was common among all these tribes but seldom en¬ countered elsewhere. Rawhide Bags. A rectangular bag (Fig. 21) was also common and quite uniform even to the modes of binding. They were used by women rather than by men. The larger ones may contain skin-dressing tools,
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