.MTM1OA.MTE0ODQw

85 image

Ojibway Cedar bark mat (Haupt Coll. vdel.) length 27½ inches width 17 "

It ? probably becomes less durable mat is and made of strips of cedar bark "Thinga Occidentalis" (Arbor Vitae) The bark is in the spring, stripped off and torn into shreads about half or three quarters of an inch wide. and then are woven in and out with a right angular mesh to for the mat. The selvage is made by plaiting the ends of the strips together. The length and width of the mat depends upon the [?] of the weaves but they are usually about the size of the "Anakoro". The one which we show in the drawing is purposely not finished at the right hand edge to show the strips, it is however finished as a matter of fact This specimen as the dimension there is of small sized. and was [?] with some other things from the last resting place of a child on the banks of the Mississippi River in Minnesota Rolled in a scroll with a miniature birch bark canoe and a dish of the same with the paddle and [?] within the box [?] the [?] and this mat The object of having the mat there was to furnish the spirit of the child a resting place. in the long Journey to the happy hunting ground and to beguile it on the way the toy was added. As more than six months had elapsed since the interment and by that time the spirit had reached its home, we felt no compunctions of conscience in adding the specimens to our Ethnological collection. The [cerder?] mat is still made by the Ojibway at White Oak Point, Minnestoa to a limited degree, but owing to the fact this when dry the strand are very fragile, they are becoming obsolete.