62 THE NAVAJO TANNER. 



photograph of him, a copy of which is herewith presented in fig. 2 

 (see plate), showing him in the act of drawing down his scraper. 



In appearance the hide now has the same form as when removed from 

 the animal ; the hair side is clean and white, the body side devoid of 

 all superfluous tissue, the backs of the ears still showing the black epi- 

 dermal layer of the skin, as it is only from these parts where it is not 

 scraped off with the hair; the hair also is left on the skin of the lower 

 halves of the four limbs. 



A thorough washing is now given it in several changes of clear, cold 

 water, though sometimes in the last wash the water may be made 

 slightly tepid, and in this it is allowed to stand while the tanner pre- 

 pares the brains of the animal soon to be used in another stage of his 

 work. 



Picking up the deer's skull from the ashes where he had left it the 

 night before, he took an ax and split it along the bifroutal suture, 

 cleaving the skull partly in two ; then chipping off the parietal bones he 

 was enabled to lift out the brains nearly entire. Thev were at once 

 transferred to a basin of tepid water, where by gentle manipulation the 

 little slivers of bone (which had gotten into it while splittiug the crani- 

 um), the blood, etc., were effectually removed. Next they were placed 

 in a small quantity of tepid water in another basin and put upon a low 

 fire, where they were allowed to simmer for over an hour. At the end 

 of this time the water then being not so hot but that one could comfort- 

 ably hold his baud in it, had come to be of a muddy color, and our tan- 

 ner, using the fingers of one hand as a sieve, lilted out from the water 

 the little particles of brain in a small pile upon the paim of his opposite 

 hand; then, by rubbing this together between tne palms of his hands, it 

 was soon reduced to a pasty mass. This process was continued until 

 all the brains were thus reduced and dissolved, and then the water in 

 which they were had about three times its quantity of clear tepid water 

 added to it, nearly filling the small basiu. The fluid had every appear- 

 ance of, and quite agreed in consistency with, a big bowl of ordinary 

 bean soup, and it was now ready for use, being left just near enough 

 to the camp-fire to keep it warm, and no more. 



Returning to the skin, it was now removed from the water where it 

 had been left, carefully rinsed, and wrung out with the hands in a man- 

 ner much as we see washerwomen wring out clothes, and carried over 

 to the tree where the scraping process had been done. Here the tanner 

 selected a small limb, about 5 or 6 feet from the ground, and passed the 

 head and neck of the hide under and over it, and tnen carefully folded 

 this latter part lengthwise along the middle ot the body surface of the 

 hide, and twisted the whole over and over till he came to the fore- 

 legs. It will be seen that the limb was firmly infolded within a loop of 

 the hide, and by pulling heavily upon it I saw that toere was no such 

 thing as its slipping, in a similar manner the skin of the forelegs was 

 folded lengthwise inside the hide; then the borders of the abdominal in] 



