bushnell: the chitimacha Indians 305 



of four poles, two being set in the ground, parallel and some 

 three or four feet apart, the others being arranged in a horizontal 

 position attached to the former. Within the rectangular space 

 thus formed the skin is stretched and securily fastened. The 

 frame holding the skin is not stood in a vertical position, but 

 at an angle of about thirty degrees. A small fire of palmetto 

 wood is made on the ground below it so that much smoke is 

 produced. Some of the brain of the animal is then rubbed over 

 the upper surface of the skin, which is thoroughly scraped with 

 a chisel-shaped implement made of a piece of hard wood beveled 

 at one end. After this surface has been sufficiently scraped the 

 skin is turned over and the other side is treated with brains and 

 rubbed and scraped in the same manner. During the entire 

 process the skin is kept quite warm by the fire beneath it, and 

 smoke is allowed to rise against it. After the scraping and rub- 

 bing, which has resulted in the removal of all hair and wool 

 from one side and all particles of flesh from the other, the skin 

 is quite soft and white. Sufficient oil, from the brain which has 

 been rubbed into the skin, remains to keep it pliable. No other 

 method of dressing skins is known to this man. 3 



Pottery vessels have been made and used within recent years, 

 and are remembered by my informant. A blue clay found 

 near his village was used for the purpose. Mixed with it nat- 

 urally, was a sufficient quantity of sand, and neither sand nor 

 pulverized shell was added. The clay having been obtained 

 was worked in a wooden mortar, water being added to make a 

 pasty mass. When the clay was of a proper consistency it was 

 modelled into the desired vessel, which was then put in a shady 

 place and allowed to remain two or three weeks before being baked. 

 Tobacco pipes were, and are now, made in this manner. Before 

 being placed in the fire, and after having become thoroughly 

 dry, the vessel was smoothed by scraping with a shell or thin 



3 This method of preparing skins is more suggestive of the north than of the 

 south, and differs greatly from the custom of the Choctaw who live just north 

 of Lake Pontchartrain in St. Tammany parish. Bushnell, The Choctaw of 

 Bayou Lacotnb, St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana. Bulletin 48, Bureau of Ameri- 

 can Ethnology, Washington, pp. 11-12, 1909. 



