568 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1889. 



iuay form a blade, which is ground sharp and then finely serrated. A 

 strap-like loop is tied around the bone, and when the tool, which is adze 

 and chisel combined, is grasped, the hand is preveuted from slipping 

 along the bone by the loop passing under the wrist and supporting the 

 hand. The adherent muscle is quickly separated from the skin and 

 forms a sort of vellum, which may be dried and serve as wrappers for 

 bundles of furs or dry meat. The fleshy side of the skin is rubbed with 

 a mixture of decomposed brains and liver and laid away for several 

 hours. The process of rubbing is next resorted to, resembling the act 

 of rubbing linen in the laundry between the hands. When the desired 

 pliability is gained, the superabundant fat and moisture are removed 

 by calcareous earths, bone dust, or flour, to act as absorbents. The skins 

 are now ready for any purpose. (Plate LXVIII, Figs. 1, 2, 3.) 



Lieut. G. T. Emmons, U. S. Navy, says that the Chilkat women pro- 

 cure the hair of the Rocky Mountain goat for their sacred blankets by 

 rolling up the hide until it sweats and the pores are opened. A woman 

 then sits on the ground, lays the skin on her lap, and with her hands 

 scrapes off the hair in great flakes, without the use of a beaming-knife 

 of any kind. This, of course, is the simplest form of depilation. The 

 next is that practiced by the Indians of northern California, who em. 

 ploy a rib of the elk, without any modification whatever. 



The manner of preparing buckskin by the Nisqually and Columbia 

 River Indians is as follows: Immediately after the animal is killed the 

 skin, having all the hair scraped off, is stretched tight on a frame. It is 

 there left until it becomes as dry as parchment, then it is rubbed over 

 with the brains of the animal, which impart oil to it. It is then steeped 

 in warm water and dried in the smoke, two women stretching it all the 

 time it is drying. It is then again wet and wound tightly around a 

 tree, from which it is again taken, smoked, and drawn by the women as 

 before. When nearly dry it is rubbed with the hands, as in washing, 

 until it is soft and pliable, and then it is ready for use. 



Mr. Forest stated to me that he had put on a suit twenty-four hours 

 after the animal had been running in the forest. (Wilkes.) 



The Crows, like theBlackfeet, are beautifully costumed, and perhaps 

 with somewhat more of taste and elegance, inasmuch as the skins of 

 which their dresses are made are more delicately and whitely dressed. 

 The art of dressing skins belongs to the Indians in all countries; and 

 the Crows surpass the civilized world in the beauty of their skin-dress- 

 ing. The art of tanning is unknown to them, when civilized habits 

 and arts have not been taught them ; yet the art of dressing skins, 

 as we have it in the civilized world, has been (like hundreds of other 

 ornamental and useful customs which we are practicing) borrowed from 

 the savage without our ever stopping to inquire whence they come 

 or by whom invented. 



The usual mode of dressing the buffalo and other skins is by im- 

 mersing them for a few days under a lye from ashes and water until 



