1888.] PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 61 



It was now ready to have the hair shaved frcin it, and it was inter- 

 esting to see how the parts of the animal are converted into instru- 

 ments to be used again in converting other of its parts into material to 

 supply the wants of the Indian. This seems to obtain in all of the 

 simple manufactures of the aborigines, and deer are slain with arrows, 

 the heads of which are attached to the shaft with sinews from the body 

 of one of their own species ; indeed, the hunter himself may be clothed in 

 buckskin. My tanner obtained his scrapers from the bones of the fore- 

 limb of the deer he had killed, and the ulna and radius of this limb are 

 wonderfully well-fitted to perform the work of this natural spokeshave. 

 These bones, as we know, are in a deer, as in many other hoofed animals 

 quite firmly united together, having a form well known to the comparative 

 osteologist. The shaft of the ulna, which is closely approximated to the 

 shaft of the radius, has its posterior edge thin and sharp, which is still 

 further improved by the tanner scraping it with his knife. The olecranon 

 process, with the deep sigmoid notch, forms an excellent handle at one 

 end, while the enlarged distal end of the radius, with the carpal bones, 

 which are usually left attached, forms a good one at the other. More- 

 over, the curvature of the shafts of this consolidated bone is favorable 

 for the use of our Indian tanner, who, in using this primitive instrument, 

 seizes it at either end in his hands, and works with it in shaving off 

 the hair much in the same manner as one of our carpenters uses a 

 spokeshave, only here the sharp edge of the ulna bone takes the place 

 of the knife edge in doing its special work. (See plate.) 



Before proceeding further, I should mention that after removing 

 the hide, on the first day, he placed the skinned head of the deer, with- 

 out the lower jaw, in the ashes of a low camp-fire, where the brains 

 were able to become semi-baked during the first night, as these parts, 

 too, are utilized in the tanning process. 



Next to shaving off the hair, the hide is thrown over the small log he 

 had arranged against the tree in the morning, being held in place by 

 catching the skin of the head between the notch and the limb, the skin 

 of the hinder parts being always nearest the ground, and as the work 

 proceeds it is deftly shifted about by the tanner. 



Now all the hair except on the lower parts of the legs and the tail, is 

 rapidly scraped off with these bone scrapers, including the black epi- 

 dermis. 



Some tanners use a deer's rib, or a beef's rib, and others a dull 

 hunting-knife, but the bones of the deer's forearm is the usual instru- 

 ment, and it is quite remarkable to observe how handily it is managed, 

 and how rarely a hole is cut in the skin. The shaving is carried to the 

 very edges of the hide all around, and even the backs of the ears are 

 carefully scraped, the entire operation lasting from two to four hours, 

 depending upon the size of the deer. After my Navajo had got well 

 started into this part of his work, I was successful in obtaining a good 



