Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1981, Blaðsíða 240

248
A pair oí Hide Shoes
seem to indicate that they must have been put there by someone
standing on firm ground at the edge of the bog, as it ran at the
time of deposit. Both KARL ÁNONLI, who found the shoes, and
JOHAN MOAN who took care of them realised that they had never
seen shoes of this type before. And when we have studied the shoes
more closely, we must certainly agree that this is a rare and remar-
kable find (fig. 2, 3,)4).
The Leksvik shoes are made from one piece of hide, probably cow
or calf. A more detailed investigation of the material shows that the
hide wass »raw-tanned« according to a method used in the Nor-
wegian countryside in the past.5) First, the hide was soaked, in order
to loosen the hair. After the hair and any remains of meat had been
removed, the hide was put into a river pool, and covered with birch
bark. After lying here for some time, it was tanned, the tanning
agents in the bark having permeated the pores of the hide. When
it had been taken out of the pool, the hide underwent a primitive
finishing prooess, which included stretching and bending, so that it
would become reasonably pliable. After this the finished hide was
ready for cutting and sewing. As shoes without hair were commonly
used during summer, it seems likely that ours were intended for use
during the warm season.6)
The design of the shoes is the simplest possible: one end of the hide
was slashed, and the edges were stitched together with a thong passing
through cut slits, thus forming a primitive kind of heel. The oppo-
site end, where the tip of the shoe was to be, was notched, and the
edges were trimmed so that this part of the hide could be turned up
and around the foot, the edges meeting in the middle, above the
instep. Here it was held together by lacing through cut loops running
the length of the shoe from the tip to the opening for the ankle.
The thong keeping the hide together above the instep continues
through cut slits on both sides of the ankle, and it was presumably
wound several times around the ankle and the lower part of the leg.
Thus we may briefly describe this type of shoe in the following
way: it is made from one piece of hide, cut to provide a primitive
fit. It was held around the foot by means of a long starp or thong
passing through cut loops and slits from the tip of the shoe and over