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Several weeks before Christmas, Mary Alice and I traveled to Ephrata to watch two of our great grands in a Christmas program at their church. On the four-hour ride home, Mary Alice said she would like to stop at the mall in Shamokin Dam.
Now, I cringed.
I had been hoping to get home before dark since it was rainy and very foggy. However, being the nice guy I am, we stopped. We pulled onto the parking lot and began to search for a parking place. Although I grumbled under my breath, Mary Alice heard me and said, "It won't kill you, and I won't be long."
I followed her into the store and tried to get into the Christmas spirit. While heading for men's jeans, we passed the pocketbook section. Mary Alice began to look at the many racks of pocketbooks and mentioned that she needed a new one. I couldn't believe how many different types they had in stock. A clerk walked toward me and asked if I needed help.
I replied that I was just waiting for my wife. After I mentioned that the store had a lot of pocketbooks, the clerk told me that they were called purses, and there were not many left. Okay, now I knew we were shopping for a purse and not a pocketbook.
There were purses in all sizes and shapes, with some large enough to have been in the luggage department. In my opinion, they were all expensive, even though marked down. There were purses made of leather, beads and brocade.
Webster states, "A purse is a small bag for carrying money; a woman's handbag, pocketbook, or purse." Our word purse comes from the Greek word bursa, which originally meant skin leather, hence it came to be used for wineskin bags.
From the earliest of times, humans have always carried some type of bag, which was known by many names: almoner, pouch, purse, reticule, gipser, wallet or handbag. The almoner was worn by nobles, used especially for alms. In the Middle Ages, purses were usually attached to a belt or girdle to carry valuables. At first, these purses were attached by a strip of rawhide or other materials that were easily cut by thieves.
Later, they were held with metal attachments to prevent being stolen. Sometimes, they were attached to the belted undertunic so that they would not be visible.
Both men and women carried purses or pouches, which were usually made of leather, silk, wool or linen and often embroidered, fringed, or tasseled. In the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, these purses became unnecessary because clothing became so bulky that it was easy to insert many pockets, which would hold valuables and personal items. Our word pocket comes from middle English and means a pouch or small bag.
Around 1780, bags and purses began to reappear because clothes were made to be fitted and slender. For women, purses became fashionable and were attached to their waistbands by brooches. Later, this brooch became a decorative silver or gold pin.
I thought to myself that it's a good thing this purse fashion doesn't catch on for men. Later, when driving home, I got to thinking that when I go muzzleloading hunting I do carry a purse known as a possible bag. The early frontier men and mountain men, who headed west in search of their fortunes also carried these bags.
The mountain men were usually dressed in leather from head to foot: buckskin shirts. leggings, moccasins, coonskin caps with plume-like tails, and pouches, horns and haversacks suspended over the shoulders by several straps. In the man's hands, with the butt end of a straight narrow stock resting on the ground, would be a heavy rifle, the muzzle of which reached to a level with his shoulders, and at least four-fifths of the rifle would have consisted of the barrel. A belt of leather was around his waist, in which was stuck a knife, with a strong blade and a buckhorn handle, and perhaps a tomahawk.
Fringes hung from the arms, hems and leggings of the buckskin clothes. These fringes were not for decoration but for a very important purpose. When mountain men became wet, they did not have a change of clothing to put on. The buckskins were soft, strong, and durable but when wet, they stretched and took forever to dry.
The purpose of the fringes was to quickly wick out the water.
These mountain men carried their most valuable possessions in their purses. Possibly, the most fascinating piece of hunting equipment was the old-time hunting bag, which hung from a shoulder strap. This bag contained all the articles needed in loading and maintaining a rifle, in addition to many necessities of backwoods life.
The earliest bags were made of buckskin, with fringed trimmings, but in later years, calf skin was favored. The bag was equipped with a charger, powder horn, crude knife, turkey call, bone whistle, lead balls, chunks of tow for cleaning the bore, patches of homespun linen and pieces of buckskin for clothing repairs, awls, flint, steel, spare gun flints, powder, funnels, and countless other items, such as lead and bullet mold.
Although a bag was removed, it was always within easy reach. If it was necessary to leave an area fast, the purse was the first thing grabbed, even before the rifle, for without the purse, the rifle would have been useless.
Without a doubt, the hunting bag resembled the shoulder bag worn by the women of today. I peeked in my wife's purse and found it was jammed full of items that she believed could be needed someday. Among these items, I found a tape measure, level, magnifying glass, and a sewing kit. I really laughed when I saw two toothbrushes.
Men carried these pouches -- or purses -- until the American Civil War. Imagine a Civil War soldier carrying a percussion rifle, with a bag slung over his shoulder. In time, the repeating rifle and the famous Colt Six gun came into use, and the soldier (or explorer) no longer needed to carry a purse.
His extra rounds of ammunition were carried in little loops on his belt.
Today, most hunters carry extra rounds in their pockets. However, I have checked many hunters that do carry purses, but they are now called fanny pack. Hopefully, this pack contains survival items such as: matches, compass, whistle, mirror and the most important item: a candy bar or two.
Bill Bower is a retired Pennsylvania Game Commission Wildlife Officer. Read his blog and listen to his podcasts on the outdoors at www.onemaningreen.com.