For colouring moose hair or porcupine quills for fancy work, the women
obtain their dyes in the following ways: From the juice of boiled
cranberries they derive a magenta dye. From alder bark, boiled,
beaten, and strained, they get a dark, slate-coloured blue which is
mixed with rabbits' gall to make it adhere. The juice of bearberries
gives them a bright red. From gunpowder and water they obtain a fine
black, and from coal tar a stain for work of the coarsest kind. They
rely chiefly, however, upon the red, blue, green, and yellow ochres
found in many parts of the country. These, when applied to the
decoration of canoes, they mix with fish oil; but for general purposes
the earths are baked and used in the form of powder.

From scenes such as I have described the summer traveller obtains his
impression of the forest Indians. Too often their life and character
are judged by such scenes, as if these truly represented their whole
existence. In reality, this is but their holiday season which they are
spending upon their tribal summer camping ground. It is only upon
their hunting grounds that one may fairly study the Indians; so,
presently, we shall follow them there. And when one experiences the
wild, free life the Indian lives--hampered by no household goods or
other property that he cannot at a moment's notice dump into his canoe
and carry with him to the ends of the earth if he chooses--one not only
envies him, but ceases to wonder which of the two is the greater
philosopher--the white man or the red; for the poor old white man is so
overwhelmed with absurd conventions and encumbering property that he
can rarely do what his heart dictates.


FAMILY HUNTING GROUNDS