DCHP-1 Online

fire-bag Hist.

• n. a soft leather pouch, usually decorated, used by the Indians of the old Northwest to carry flint-and-steel, tinder, tobacco, etc.

  See also: skipertogan  smoking bag  

  • 1819  (1939)  The Indian . . . tying up his Fire bag very composedly gave two or three hems. . . .
  • 1879  The native carries a fire-bag--a long leather bag, containing pipe, tobacco, knife, flint and steel, and . . . the inner bark of the grey willow.
  • 1957  "An Indian never admits anything, even if you catch him with your scalp on his medicine pole and your teeth in his fire bag."