DCHP-2

parfleche < Cdn F parflèche < F parer parry + flèche arrow, from its use as a shield DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

• 1a n.

  a sheet of rawhide, especially buffalo hide, from which the hair has been removed.

  See also: parchment def. 2  

  • 1827  (1912)  . . . we embarked with crews and cargoes as follows: viz . . .1 pack Parfleches . . . .
  • 1830  (1948)  [There is] also the necessity while the Buffaloes are fat to make appichimons[,] Parfleches & Lodges so as to make themselves independent. . . .
  • 1957  He found another squaw pounding and stretching a parfleche to soften it. . .

• 1b n. — Figurative use.

  • 1957  The old man's face was a parfleche of seams.

• 2 n.

  a container made from a sheet of rawhide, usually buffalo hide, folded into a kind of envelope and laced to make an efficient bag.

  • 1829  (1948)  Copy of Requisition forwarded to Mr J Work . . . 60 Parfleches [saddle bags]. . . .
  • 1887  (1888)  A real parfleche is merely a hide, with holes punched all round its edges, into which all your small oddments are bundled. . . .
  • 1929  A horse was worth about twenty made-beaver; a good robe, two; a dressed hide, one; a parfleche full of fine fat, dried buffalo ribs and bosses weighing around forty pounds, one made beaver. . . .
  • 1963  But in the lodges that are entered for the best tipi contest, the traditional prevails and here are to be seen priceless treasures; decorated parfleches (rawhide bags made something like an envelope). . . .