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Ojibway Moccosin and leggin. (Haupt Coll. & del.) length 10 inches width 4½ " height 8½ "
In winter the collar piece is elongated is much elongated and the thong is longer. This forms really a meccesin and leggin and on the kind used in winter when the snow shoe is worn. Unlike the Dakota the Ojibway removes his moccesin at night when he sleeps in his wigwam as he has a fire as wood is abundant and he does not need the extra covering. In this specimen the beads are omitted and a double run of sinew colored one red the other yellow is sewed at the line of union of the upper and instep piece. In wearing such a meccesin the elongated collar is wrapped about the ankle and leg and the thongs crossed and wound about and tied. Although so spparently complicated in structure the squaws become very deft? in making them. One of the wives of "Charley Star" an Ojibway of the Lac du Flambeau tribe constructed a complete pair of meccassins sans the beads for a companion X of the writer in less than an hour in which time it would puzzle a good shoemaker to make any kind of a durable foot covering. X
The Snow shoe is in Ojibway country indespensabily necessary and is in winter and away from the beaten track of the permanent village worn by young and old alike the young boy so soon as he can toddle afoot holding his mother's skirts wore his snowshoes. The writer had an amusing experience in the Suganr Camp of "hawagriete" at Lac du Flambeau. Entering the camp he sat down and observed at his side a pair of diminutive snow shoes and picked them up to examine the workmanship while so doing a small indian boy probably four years of age who had taken refuge behind his father scrambled out of his hiding place and found his snow shoes and brought them over to the writer to be examined too and so amused were we at this that we gave the little fellow a looking glass which we carried for trading with the natives. This in turned pleased the lad he looked at his own dirty little face and then went round the camp showing the other indians how they looked finally he got out his fur cap from a pile of clothing thrown neglectedly in a corner and put it on his head to view the effect in the mirror. It must have been interesting as the glance never
X Mr Frank T. Blackmons alias "Charley Crane."