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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



frames and apparatus that they themselves have made, and pre- 

 pare it ... to be woven, or sewed, or embroidered. They make 

 up the bag, or mat, or garment, or sail of a whole piece, and wear 

 it out in use, the same woman in each case following the material 

 from the cradle to the grave." The subsidiary textile arts are of 

 much importance in savagery, and they are of great antiquity, 

 remains having been found in very old deposits. 



In her tanning and skin-dressing work the savage woman's 

 problem was to remove the dermis from the hide, and leave the 

 hair adhering to the epidermis, with only a thin portion of the 

 true skin. If the work were creditably done, the surface of the 

 robe, " frequently more than thirty square feet in extent, had to be 

 uniform in thickness throughout, and she should not cut through 



Fig. 5. Eskimo Fat Scraper of Walrus Ivory, made to fit the Fingers. 



(After Mason.) 



the epidermis once. The whole must be as pliable, too, as a wool- 

 en blanket : the problem was to reduce a hide of varying thickness 

 and twice too thick everywhere to a robe of uniform thickness 

 throughout without once cutting through the outer part of the 

 skin. Her tools for this varied with the locality. The Eskimo 

 women scrape off the fat with a special tool made of walrus ivory 

 or bone and plane down the dermis with a stone scraper. The 

 Indian women cut off bits of meat and fat and remove the dermis 

 with a hoe or adze. In the good old days of savagery the Eskimo 

 woman made her fat scraper of walrus ivory or antler ; her skin 

 scraper was of flinty stone set in a handle of ivory, wood, or horn, 

 whichever material was easiest to procure. But later on, it may 



