Then when He came, being asked
if they saw him, they said, "Certainly," and also replied to the
question of the shoulder-strap or sled cord, "A piece of rawhide." In
saying which, they lied, like the rest, for they had seen nothing, and
got nothing for their pains.
When their father returned home the next evening he brought with him
many of the pretty little shells from which _weiopeskool_ (M.),
or wampum, was made, [Footnote: In Passamaquoddy wampum is called
_waw-bap_. It is said that a single bead required a full day's work
to make and finish it. It is not many years since it was made much more
expeditiously in certain New York villages.] and they were soon engaged
_napawejik_ (in stringing them). That day poor little
Oochigeaskw', the burnt-faced girl, who had always run barefoot, got a
pair of her father's old moccasins, and put them into water that they
might become flexible to wear. And begging her sisters for a few wampum
shells, the eldest did but call her "a lying little pest," but the
other gave her a few. And having no clothes beyond a few paltry rags,
the poor creature went forth and got herself from the woods a few
sheets of birch bark, of which she made a dress, putting some figures
on the bark. [Footnote: Probably by scraping. Birch bark
(_moskwe_) peeled in winter can have the thin dark brown coat
scraped away, leaving a very light yellowish-brown ground.
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