Net Charms in Cree and Ojibwe Language, Culture, and Worldview
GEORGE FULFORD University of Winnipeg
This paper is dedicated to my dear friend Cath Oberholtzer, who died on August 18, 2012.1 Her work provides a foundation for my own exploration of various threads of ethnographic, linguistic and arachnological evidence that together contribute to understanding the semiotic signi cance of net charms (the precursors of dream catchers) in East Cree, Swampy Cree and Ojibwe language and culture.2 The metaphorical signi cance of knots and string was a focus of much of Cath’s research. It occupied a chapter of her PhD thesis (1994), three articles (1993, 1995, 1996) and a recent book (2012). In all of these works Cath explored the symbolic, mythic, and material signi cance of knots and string, most especially in the amulets suspended from cradle boards which she called net charms and which have entered the lexicon of popular North American culture as “dream catchers” but which are termed asabikeshiiwas- abiig ‘spider nets’ in Ojibwe (Baraga 1878:179; Wilson 1874:363; Lienke
1. First and foremost, I would like to acknowledge Cath Oberholtzer’s important work on net charms, which continues to inspire me. Special thanks to Louis Bird for the wisdom and insight he shared in his telling of the Ahap story and so much more. Many thanks to Jennifer Brown, Chris Buddle, Dick Preston, and two anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful comments on earlier drafts of this paper. Kevin Brousseau, Mary Ann Corbiere, Charles Fiero, Bill Jancewicz, and Mark Ruml provided invaluable help in ascertaining the correct spelling and meaning of the words for “spider” and “spiderweb” in Ojibwe, East Cree, and Swampy Cree. Finally, thanks to Dana Sandu for her skillful rendering of net charms in several of the diagrams in this paper. 2. Expanding on Hobsbawm and Ranger’s (1983) idea of an “invented tradition,” Cath stressed that contemporary dream catchers are a “reinvention” of more traditional net charms used by Cree and Ojibwe peoples to ward off various illnesses. The dream- catcher phenomenon, she speculated (2012:70), dates back no earlier than the 1960s while net charms likely have pre-contact origins.
67 68 GEORGE FULFORD
1977:121; Charles Fiero, personal communication) or simply ahnapiy ‘nets’ or ahaapiish ‘little nets’ in Swampy Cree and East Cree (Ellis 1995:445; Brousseau, personal communication).3 My paper is organized into ten sections. The rst discusses Cath Oberholtzer’s contributions to the study of Cree material culture. Follow- ing this, I examine the metaphorical importance of conjoinment and string, as expressed in the East Cree word for “knot” and “great grandparent,” which has cognates in Swampy Cree and Ojibwe. I explore how the root for ‘string’ also appears in East Cree, Swampy Cree, and Ojibwe words for spider webs, nets, and net charms. These schemas converge in Swampy Cree elder Louis Bird’s interpretation of an origin story about how Ahap the giant spider lowered the rst humans from the sky to the earth on a silken lament. The association of being lowered on a string and the act of being born is made explicit in Louis’s deeply poetic analysis of the story. Moving to Douglas Ellis’s analysis on a different version of the same story, I discuss the signi cance of a formulaic ending used in such stories. This ending likens narrative episodes to lengths of string. A discussion of the animacy of the East Cree, Swampy Cree, and Ojibwe words for “nets,” “knots,” and “string” follows. I then examine how the structure of two kinds of orb-weaving spider webs is replicated in the form of net charms documented in various museum collections. Following this, I discuss how the moss bags in which Crees and Ojibwes traditionally tie their babies are symbolically like spider egg sacs, and associate the “ballooning” behavior of spiders to the symbolic importance of string in the Ahap story. I conclude by attempting to draw these diverse lines of thinking together to develop a general statement about Cree and Ojibwe language, culture, and worldview.
3. Ojibwe words in this paper are transcribed using Nichols and Nyholm’s (1995) orthography. The southern coastal dialect of East Cree is used in this paper and is tran- scribed from Junker et al. (2012). Swampy Cree words are based on Ellis (1995) with two notable exceptions. Long vowels marked by Ellis using the circum ex have been transcribed using double vowels. Since /e/ is only long in Swampy Cree it is marked by a single character. Second, where Ellis uses /c/ to mark alveopalatal affricates, I have used the symbols ߧchߨ This has been done to eliminate the use of diacritics and provide a degree of consistency in the transcription of Ojibwe, East Cree and Swampy Cree words. It should be noted that Ellis’s lexicon is based mainly on Moose Cree and that /n/ is substituted for /l/ to render most Swampy Cree words from Moose Cree. NET CHARMS IN CREE AND OJIBWE LANGUAGE, CULTURE, AND WORLDVIEW 69
CATH OBERHOLTZER’S ETHNOGRAPHIC AND MUSEUM RESEARCH
Cath comprehensively documented East Cree artifacts in North American and European museums. In uenced by exhibitions involving collaboration between museums and First Nations communities, she felt a responsibility to include ethnographic eldwork in her museum research. Her goal was to involve First Nations people in interpreting the artifacts she was document- ing. The importance of this practice is widely understood today, but in the 1990s, when Cath was doing the bulk of her research, it was not. Cath visited various communities on the east and west coasts of James Bay to glean Cree people’s insights into the artifacts she photographed. She documented (1995:195–6, 1996:66, 2012:43) how, when showing women from these communities images of dream catcher-style net charms from museum collections, she received quite different responses depending on where they were from. East Cree women from the upper east coast of James Bay (from Eastmain north) said they did not traditionally use such net charms. Instead they used a knotted thread or tiny shnet called nituchikan4 which may have been used to prevent a baby’s spirit from wandering too far from its body. Cath speculates (1995:202) that knotted strings were symbolically associated with game trails (the knots representing an animal’s footprints and the string representing its path in the snow). She says this symbolism is also attached to the cord used by hunters to drag beavers and other small game. This cord is known in East Cree as niimaapaan ‘my string’. East Cree women on the lower east coast of James Bay, like Swampy Crees on the west coast of James Bay and Ojibwes from the upper Great Lakes area to their south, told Cath that they traditionally used spider-web style net charms to protect their babies. They did not use knotted thread or shnet-style amulets for this purpose. These observations are borne out by Cath’s reading of the ethnographic literature on the subject, as well as by artifacts in museum collections (Oberholtzer 1995:195). A similar
4. Cath (2012: 43) transcribes this word as natutshikan, but this spelling seems idio- syncratic (no entry for this term can be found in the online East Cree dictionary (Junker et al. 2012). In the south coastal dialect of East Cree entries do appear in the dictionary for words with the root naata- meaning ‘to fetch’ and nitu- meaning ‘to heal or cure’. While either root could be used for the protective amulets Cath discusses, the most likely term for them is nituchikan ‘curing device’, which I use throughout this paper. 70 GEORGE FULFORD o bservation about the distribution of shnet and spider-web styles of net charms is made by Kevin Brousseau (personal communication).
THE IDEA OF CONJOINMENT
In both her PhD dissertation (1994:191) and her recent book (2012:56), Cath quoted Frank Speck (1935:245) who, quoting an East Cree phrase, wrote that “from great grandparents to great-grandchildren we are only knots on a string.” Regrettably, Speck does not provide the original wording in East Cree. However, it is clear that this statement is based on the East Cree stem aaniskutaapaan which is used in the words for ‘a knot’, ‘great grandparent’, and ‘great grandchild’ (Junker et al. 2012). The correspondence of meanings in these three East Cree words is linked to the twin ideas of “conjoinment” (expressed by the root aanisku-) and the action of “pulling” (expressed by the stem -taapaan). Taken together, the roots in this word represent the action of making a knot by pulling together and conjoining the ends of a length of string.5 This idea is metaphorically extended to encompass great grandparents and great grandchildren as symbolic “knots” marking the maximal span of conjoinment between living relatives. This in turn evokes the ideas of generational continuity and the umbilical cord which literally and metaphorically enables this.
THE AHAP STORY
In her dissertation Cath noted the resemblance of net charms to spider webs. She brie y discussed the prominence given to spider silk in a version of the Swampy Cree story of Ahap (1995:200). Longer versions of this story, told by Simeon Scott, were recorded by Ellis (1989:5–10; 1995:2–13). Louis Bird (2002) tells an abbreviated version, and also provides an extensive commentary on its meaning. Louis’s story, which corresponds closely to Mr. Scott’s, describes the descent of the rst humans on a silken thread from a place in the sky to the earth. They are lowered to earth by a giant spider referred to alternately as Ehep or Ahap.6
5. The Swampy Cree word conveying these meanings is aniskotaapaan while in Ojibwe it is aanikoobijigan. All forms are animate. 6. The full version of Louis Bird’s story can be found on the Our Voices website at http://www.ourvoices.ca/index/ourvoices-story-action/id.0024. Variations told by Simeon NET CHARMS IN CREE AND OJIBWE LANGUAGE, CULTURE, AND WORLDVIEW 71
In his commentary on the story Louis notes that string is a symbolic link between humans and the sky-world, where life begins and ends. “The string,” he says, “can be very powerful and strong if you do the right thing. And if not you can be very weak also.” “The string,” he continues, “is used to lift you away from here to go back to where you originally came from. So the string is . . . a connector which lowered [you] down and supposed to pull you up again after, when you listen to those stories.” According to Louis, Swampy Cree elders telling the Ahap story implic- itly understand the association between the words niihtaapihkenikiiw ‘he is lowered on a string’ and nihtaawikiiw ‘he is born’. He says the story of Ahap lowering the rst person(s) to the earth is an allegory for the descent of a baby from mother’s womb and that the string is a symbol for the umbilical cord:
Niihtaapihkenikon is a word. Niiht-, ‘to lower’. Niihtaapihken- ‘with the string’. Niihtaapihken. So when you are born, you are lowered into the ground from this string that’s attached to your mother. It’s a string, the kini- htaawikan. As if to say that you are lowered and you come. You begin by being lowered from this. And then attached. Kii-niihtaapihkenikiiw maaka Ehepa [‘he was lowered on a string by Ehep’]. The small kid is born by nihtaawikiiw. As if he is lowered with this string. That’s the only connection there is [between] the words nihtaawikewin [‘being born’] and niihtaapih- keniwin [‘being lowered on a string’].7
Scott are recorded in Ellis (1995:2–13) while excerpts are found in Ellis (1989). Louis variously uses the terms “Ahap” and “Ehep” in his telling of the story. “Ahap” bears the closest resemblance to the Swampy Cree stem ahnapi- and the Ojibwe stem asab- which refer to spider nets. Kevin Brousseau (personal communication) notes ehepikw is widely used for “spider” among speakers of the South East Cree dialect, though ahapihchesuu ‘net maker’ is sometimes used by people on the coast. 7. No single matter has caused me greater angst, frustration and soul searching in writing this paper than understanding the apparent semantic connection between nihtaawikewin ‘being born’ and niihtaapihkewin ‘being lowered on a string’ in the Ahap story. Ellis (1995:503, 505) distinguishes the initial roots of these words on the basis of vowel length, which triggers their difference in meaning. It is impossible that Louis Bird did not hear this difference. It is equally impossible that he naively projected the same meaning onto them. And so I am led to conclude that in telling and interpreting the Ahap story Louis was drawing on the rhetorical process of alliterative wordplay which Brinton (1882:21) characterized as a key feature of myth-making and which Jakobson (1960:357–8) aligned with “the poetic function” of language. As Jakobson pointed out, this function is the basis for verbal artistry. It is based on seeing similarity among words which, when framed in ordinary discourse, would be perceived as being different. As such, the Ahap story and Louis Bird’s interpretation of it, are a form of poetic exegesis. 72 GEORGE FULFORD
EPISODES OF STORIES AS LENGTHS OF STRING
Another compelling association with string in Swampy Cree culture is the use of the formulaic ending ekwaani eskwaapekahk tipaacimoowin ‘that is the length of this story’. It is used to mark the end of a story. Simeon Scott uses this ending in one of his versions of the Ahap story (Ellis 1995:12). According to Ellis, the verb (which Scott uses in the conjunct form) consists of the roots iskw- ‘to be so long’ and aapihk ‘line-like, cord-like’. “The total stem,” Ellis observes (1995:xxvi), “is used of a line or cord and means ‘be of such a length (line or cord)’. As each episode is completed, the gure is that of a line or cord (the series) having reached such a length, to be carried further by the sequel.”
THE ANIMACY OF NETS, KNOTS AND STRING
In Cree, Ojibwe and other Algonquian languages nouns are of one of two grammatical genders, animate or inanimate. The semantic basis for animacy is usually clear. A grey area was identi ed by Baraga (1850:33) and is cited by Goddard (2002:195–6). According to Baraga these words “signify things that have no life, but are employed by the Indians [sic] like substantives that signify living beings.” As it happens, asab ‘net’ is on Baraga’s list. The cognates ahaapiish (East Cree) and ahnapiy (Swampy Cree) are, not surprisingly, animate too. While ‘net’ is animate in East Cree and Swampy Cree, the words for ‘string’ and ‘knot’ are inanimate. The same is true in Ojibwe. However the East and Swampy Cree words for great grandparent, which in all other respects are the same as the words for ‘knot’, are animate. In Ojibwe the word for ‘great grandparent’ is also animate. And while it is formed from the same initial root as the Cree words, the Ojibwe word for ‘knot’ is formed from a different one. What might such differences mean? As I have already discussed, the words for ‘knots’ and ‘great grand- parents’ are comprised of the same roots in East Cree and Swampy Cree. The distinction in meaning between knots and great grandparents in these languages is triggered by the difference in animacy (knots being inanimate and great grandparents being animate). Here is a case of the use of gender contrastively. In Ojibwe the word for ‘knot’ is gaashka’oojigan while the word for string is biiminakwaanens (Nichols and Nyholm 1995:203, 260). Both are NET CHARMS IN CREE AND OJIBWE LANGUAGE, CULTURE, AND WORLDVIEW 73 inanimate. The initial and nal roots of these words are quite different from those of the East and Swampy Cree words. The roots in the Ojibwe word aanikoobijigan ‘great grandparent/great grandchild’ (Nichols and Nyholm 1995:189) are more clearly related to those in the East Cree and Swampy Cree cognates aaniskutaapaan and aniskotaapaan. Such similarities and differences in the morphological structure of the three languages suggest a kind of linguistic drift. The East Cree word for ‘spider’ is ahiipihchesuu (Junker et al. 2012) while in Swampy Cree it is ahnapihkesiiw (Ellis 1995:2–3, 391 fn. 8) and in Ojibwe it is asabikeshiinh (Nichols and Nyholm 1995:255). The root for ‘net’ is the basis for the word for ‘spider’ in each language, in both cases involving derivation from an animate intransitive verb (asabike), meaning ‘she or he (who) makes a net’ The spider is literally ‘a net maker’. If we think of knots and string as the components of nets and webs, then an interesting semantic association with power emerges in these East Cree and Swampy Cree words (it is more obscure in Ojibwe). The knots that literally hold together the string in webs and nets are inanimate. But when these knots are animate, they represent temporally distant relations (i.e., great grandparents and their great grandchildren). These are the “knots” of a “web” that binds members of a family together. In this sense birth is literally and metaphorically “descent on a string.”
THE ‘NET MAKER’
In this section I move from the realm of etymology to that of entomology. Both Louis Bird and Simeon Scott identify Ahap as an orb-weaving spi- der whom they call ahnapihkesiiw ‘the net-maker.’ Of the several hundred orb-weavers (i.e., from the families Araneidae and Tetragnathidae) found in Canada only six are de nitively found in the boreal forest region of northern Canada (Tetragnatha extensa, Tetragnatha versicolor, Tetragnatha elgonata, Araniella displicata, Araneus nordmanni, and Araneus trifolium). Like many other orb-weavers, all six are predatory and primarily noctur- nal, spin spiral webs on lines that radiate from the center, display marked sexual dimorphism (females are typically larger than males) and can exhibit cannibalistic behaviour (when this happens females consume males, often during mating). Females deposit their eggs in a sac, which is attached to the side of a twig. The spiderlings hatch the following spring, long after their parents have died. To provide protection, mothers encase their egg sac 74 GEORGE FULFORD in silk. (Milne and Milne 1980:867–8, 880–1, 883–4 and 891; Dondale et al. 2003:45, 71–3, 76–8, 83–5, 191–9, 219–21 and 233–4). A classic description of how orb-weaving spiders construct their webs was provided by McCook (1881). Witt and Reed (1965) provide a more recent description. A beautiful time-lapse video which demonstrates orb- weavers spinning their webs aired on the third episode of the BBC series Life in the Undergrowth (Attenborough 2005). All three sources agree about the method of web construction. The rst step in building a web is for the spider to spin a bridge line, which she attaches to the leaf or twig on which she is resting.8 The free end of the line is either oated through the wind to a suitable anchor point, or carried there by the spider herself. Once attached and reinforced a second- ary line is attached to the primary one. It runs down from the center of the primary line to an anchor point below it to form a Y-shaped structure. The place where the primary and secondary lines connect, which is at the center of the “Y,” becomes the hub of the web. The spider attaches more anchor lines radiating outward from this hub. Once a suf cient number of these have been spun the spider then moves in a spiral outwards from the hub, spinning and attaching a scaffold line to each anchor line until she reaches the outside of the temporary web. She then spins a stronger and more tightly spaced permanent web, moving in a spiral from the periphery to the center and, for the sake of economy, consuming the silk from the temporary web as she goes. The function of spider webs is to catch insect prey such as mosquitoes, ies, and moths. This is done with the aid of sticky droplets placed along the radial strands of silk. There is much debate about whether the form of webs can be used to determine the particular genus or species of the spi- ders which spin them. Witt and Reed (1965) noted that the form of webs of individuals within a particular genus or species could vary according to the age and health of the spider. Eberhard (1990) discussed variability
8. I have used the pronoun “she” because female orb-weavers generally build larger and better webs than males. For the sake of convenience I have used “she” in reference to spiders throughout this paper. NET CHARMS IN CREE AND OJIBWE LANGUAGE, CULTURE, AND WORLDVIEW 75 in web forms related to prey type and wind conditions. Because they are external to the organism and individually constructed each evening webs are subject to considerable variability related to microhabitat and the daily ux of events occurring therein. Of the six spider genera commonly found in the boreal forest, is it possible to identify a “most likely” candidate for ahnapihkesiiw in the Ahap story? Tetragnatha extensa and Araneus nordmanni are good candidates as they are the most common spiders to be found in the boreal forest (Chris Buddle, personal communication). Araneus nordmanni webs tend to be ver- tically oriented and quite large (sometimes several feet) while those of T. extensa are horizontal and closer to the size of a net charm. As illustrated in Figure 1, T. extensa positions herself “stick-like” in the hub of her web to await prey. On the other hand, A. nordmanni hides in a den or retreat built a short distance from the web, emerging when an insect becomes trapped in the web. And nally, perhaps most importantly, the central hub of T. extensa is much more open than that of A. nordmanni (perhaps for economic reasons, since extensa tends to rest in the hub). An open hub is a common trait of webs for many species within the genus Tetragnatha. It is also a de ning feature of certain kinds of net charms.
Figure 1. Typical Tetragnata and Araneus webs. Traced by the author from photo- graphs by Linsey (2004) and the U.S. National Park Service (n.d.). Not to scale. 76 GEORGE FULFORD
STYLES OF NET CHARMS
The differences between the hubs of T. extensa and A. nordmanni do corre- late to differences between two broadly different traditional styles of Ojibwe and Cree net charms from early-twentieth-century ethnographic collections documented by Cath. One of these styles is represented in a specimen col- lected by Frances Densmore in 1920 from an Ojibwe community in Min- nesota. A Cree specimen was collected by Sam Waller from Moosonee at about the same time. I identify these as Type 1 net charms and they are illustrated in Figure 2. Their hubs resemble the closed hub of A. nordmanni spiderwebs. In the Ojibwe specimen four equally spaced anchor strings are looped around a circular hoop fashioned from what appears to be a piece of wild grapevine. In the Cree one there are six anchor strings (the material from which the hoop is made is obscured by a leather binding). In both specimens the anchor strings cross over each other in the center. A long scaffolding string, looped around each radius of the anchor lines for support, spirals out from the hub and terminates close to the wooden hoop. The other two traditional net charms illustrated in Cath’s book (Ober- holtzer 2012:55) are beaded and come from an Ojibwe community in the Rainy River region of northwestern Ontario. I have designated these Type 2 net charms. Since both are similar in construction, just one is reproduced. It
Figure 2. Type 1 net charms (Ojibwe to the left and Cree to the right). Not to scale. Traced by author from illustrations in Oberholtzer (2012:54) and (1993:319). NET CHARMS IN CREE AND OJIBWE LANGUAGE, CULTURE, AND WORLDVIEW 77 is on the left side of Figure 3. Unlike Type 1 net charms, the anchor lines of this one do not extend from one side of the external hoop to the other. Instead they form eight radii linking an open central hub to the external wooden hoop. The hub is comprised of a scaffolding thread tied in a circle and holding eight beads. One end of each of the eight anchor lines is tied between two beads on the central hub. A total of 10 scaffolding threads radiate out from the hub to the hoop. The number of beads on each scaf- folding threads increases as one moves away from the hub. The line nearest the hub has eight beads and the one nearest the hoop has 96. The Type 2 net charm illustrated in Figure 3 consists of two decorative motifs. The four scaffolding threads closest to the hub form a circle. Radiat- ing outwards from this are two cruciform motifs comprised of alternating areas of dark brown (colored black in the tracing) and light blue (colored white) beads. In a super cial way the Type 2 beaded net charm looks like the Type 1 string ones. All have circular hoops divided into anchor lines that join the hoop to the hub and provide attachment points for the scaffold lines. But the beaded charm has an open hub that resembles the web of T. extensa, whereas the string charms have a closed hub which seems to resemble that of A.
Figure 3. Type 2 (left) and Type 3 (right) net charms. Not to scale. Beaded charm traced by Dana Sandu. String charm traced by author. 78 GEORGE FULFORD nordmanni. In fact, these two kinds of net charms have been constructed in quite different ways from how orb-weaving spiders construct their webs.9 Type 3 net charms are hybrids of Types 1 and 2. An example from Lienke (1977:Figure 1) has been traced and appears on the right side of Figure 3. It is a string charm with an open hub. A long scaffolding line spiraling outwards from the hub is attached to 13 radiating anchor lines. A fourth style of net charm is illustrated in Cath’s PhD dissertation (Oberholtzer 1995:Photograph 11). It is East Cree and is reproduced on the left side of Figure 4. It closely resembles the string-style Ojibwe charm illustrated on the left side of Figure 2.
Figure 4. Type 4 (left) and Type 5 (right) net charms. Not to scale. Traced by Dana Sandu.
9. Despite differences in the central hubs of their webs, the web-building techniques of T. extensa and A. nordmanni are quite similar. The main difference is that the spiral threads of an extensa hub are more widely spaced and less densely interconnected than those of a nordmanni hub. The two styles of traditional net charms, on the other hand, utilize a rigid hoop and anchor strings to support either radial or concentric circles of scaffolding thread which may (or may not) incorporate beads. NET CHARMS IN CREE AND OJIBWE LANGUAGE, CULTURE, AND WORLDVIEW 79
Finally, a fth style of net charms is illustrated throughout Cath’s Dream Catchers book. These have an open hub, but there are no scaffolding lines radiating out from it as they are not structurally necessary. Instead, the string is tied off in equidistant loops along the inside of the peripheral hoop. After the inside of the hoop has been lled, the process is repeated with the string being tied off in the middle of each of the previously knot- ted loops. As the string is tensioned a graceful pattern of semi-circular radii appear. They extend from the inside of the hoop to a round hub in the cen- ter, where the end of the string is knotted off. All but one of the numerous illustrations of this style of charm in Cath’s book are modern. They are best characterized as dream catchers rather than net charms. However, an unattributed “Cheyenne hair ornament” is illustrated (Oberholtzer 2012:83); its construction is identical to that of the contemporary dream catchers. A tracing of it is reproduced on the right side of Figure 4. According to Cath, museum collections of traditional net charms are very limited. So too is the ethnographic literature pertaining to them. Based on her published research, it is not possible to ascertain if beads were ever used to adorn the string or hybrid styles of net charms. Nor is it possible to determine if beaded-style charms are a post-contact phenomenon. If they are, then it is possible that the Type 3 style might have been a stringed precursor for beaded charms. On the other hand, it is possible that natural products such as seeds, shell and native copper could have been used in place of glass beads in the pre-contact period.10
MOSS BAGS AS COCOONS
Another association between orb-weaving spiders and traditional Ojibwe and Cree net charms relates to the so-called “moss bag” that is still used in some communities to encase babies and af x them to cradle boards. The key to understanding its symbolic signi cance lies, according to Cath, in the Ahap story when “Spider lowers the founding couple in ‘a bag like container’.” The spider’s silken line, she suggests, is “mirrored in the earth world through the lacing of the infant’s [moss] bag” (1997:269–70).
10. For a summary of the use of natural materials in adornments see Quimby (1960:55, 88, 102, and Figure 34) and Quimby (1966:81ff). 80 GEORGE FULFORD
The symbolism of spider silk does extend to the moss bag, but per- haps in an even more enveloping way than Cath imagined. It is, I think, the moss bag itself—not just the laces which enclose the baby in it—that is associated with otahnapihkesiiw. Dondale et al. (2003:73) provide a brief description of the cocoons which T. extensa mothers spin around their egg sacs. These cocoons are globular in shape, encased in grey tufted silk, and one side is usually attached to a plant stem. Lissner (2011) suggests that Tetragnatha egg sacs resemble leaf mold or bird droppings, which he speculates may have evolved as a form of camou age serving to protect the eggs from predators. Photographs on the ARKive website and a brief written description on the Animal Diversity website indicate that Araneus egg sacs resemble those of Tetragnatha.11 Mother spiders of both genera remain near their egg sacs until the onset of cold weather, when they die.
BALLOONING BEHAVIOR AMONG SPIDERS
When Araneus and Tetragnatha spiderlings emerge from their egg sacs in the spring they display a remarkable form of aerial dispersal called “bal- looning.” It is described by Myers et al. (2013) as follows:
The offspring emerge in spring and release ne threads of silk from their spinnerets to be carried off by the wind to new locations . . . Wherever each spider drops from the sky will be where its new life begins.
Szymkowiak et al. (2007:76–9, 82–3, 95–6) provide a detailed over- view of the literature pertaining to ballooning. They note that it occurs among Araneus and Tetragnatha genera (as well as many others) and is most common among spiderlings, although small-sized adults adopt it occa- sionally too. In the northern hemisphere ballooning usually takes place on hot summer days when weather conditions produce gentle wind gusts and thermal uplifting. In such conditions spiderlings rise 6 to 15 meters above the ground and in relatively unobstructed spaces can travel as far as 2 to 5 kilometers. Unless spiderlings rise above the treetops, short ights are most likely in densely forested areas. However, with optimal conditions over grasslands, in the arctic, or along coastal areas spiderlings can be lifted
11. http://www.arkive.org and http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu. NET CHARMS IN CREE AND OJIBWE LANGUAGE, CULTURE, AND WORLDVIEW 81 several thousand meters by thermal currents and travel several hundred kilometers downwind. Spiderling ballooning provides additional insights about the Ahap story. From a spider’s perspective, the most appropriate mode of descent from the egg sac might be to drift earthward on a string. From a human perspective, the most appropriate mode would be to descend on the umbili- cal cord. Fortuitously, both are designated by closely related stems in Cree. In fact, multiple levels of association such as these clearly enhance the ef cacy and power of the Ahap story.
CONCLUSION
In the Ahap story the ballooning behavior of spiderlings is symbolized by the lowering of the rst humans from the sky. Recall Louis Bird’s com- mentary about how, in the Ahap story, spider silk is “a connector which lowered [you] down and supposed to pull you up again after.” As Louis goes on to suggest, the spider’s lowering string symbolizes the umbilical cord uniting a newborn baby and mother. And as Cath Oberholtzer observed, the mythical net maker’s string also represents the laces that snugly encase human infants in their moss bag while the moss bag symbolizes the womb. I think that the womb and moss bag also nd counterparts in spiders’ egg sacs and their protective woven cocoons. The journey of the rst humans from heaven to earth in the Ahap story is thus an allegory for birth in both humans’ and spiders’ worlds. Regarding the symbolic signi cance of net charms, it is clear that the webs spun by Araneus and Tetragnatha spiders are modelled in at least two of the styles of traditional net charms made by Ojibwes, Swampy Crees, and East Crees living on the southeast coast of James Bay. For East Crees living north of Eastmain the symbolic ef cacy of spiders seems to have been displaced by the concept of aaniskutaapaan, which is based on the symbolism of generational continuity. This is most clearly expressed in nituchikan-type amulets consisting simply of knotted strings. Those modeled on shing nets may be a transitional form of apotropaic device incorporating symbolic aspects of the spider web and knotted string styles of net charms. The symbolism of the knots and string in East Cree and Swampy Cree net charms (the situation is less clear in Ojibwe) is also tied to the archetypal spider. In her role as net maker, she creates thousands of knots 82 GEORGE FULFORD
(metaphors for past and future generations) extending from the center of her web to its periphery, and then back again. In this sense her web provides a graphic symbol of the mythic story of life. This is what I think Cath Oberholtzer saw encoded in the symbolism of knots and strings in the net charms she studied.
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