570 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1889. 



the woman just above the wrist. When the hide was dry the woman 

 stretched it again upon the ground, aud proceeded to make it thinner 

 and lighter by using another implement called the weubaja, which she 

 moved towards her after the manner of an adze. This instrument was 

 formed from an elk horn, to the lower end of which was fastened a piece 

 of iron (in recent times) called the weu-hi. (Plates XC and XCI.) 



When the hide was needed for a summer tent, leggius, or summer 

 clothing of any sort, the weubaja was applied to the hairy side. When 

 the hide was sufficiently smooth grease was rubbed on it, and it was laid 

 out-of-doors to dry in the sun. This act of greasing the hide was 

 called wawexigxi, because they sometimes used the brains of the elk or 

 buffalo for that purpose. 



Dougherty stated that in his day they used to spread over the hide 

 the brains or liver of the animal, which had been carefully retained 

 for that purpose, and the warm broth of the meat was also poured over 

 it. Some persons made two-thirds of the brain of an animal suffice for 

 dressing its skin. But Prank La Fleche says that the liver was not 

 used for tanning purposes, though the broth was so used when it was 

 brackish. 



When the hide had been dried in the sun it was soaked by sinking 

 it beneath the surface of any adjacent stream. This act lasted about 

 two days. Then the hide was dried again and subjected to the final 

 operation, which was intended to make it. sufficiently soft and pliant. 

 A twisted sinew about as thick as one's finger, called the " wexikinde," 

 was fastened at each end to a post or a tree about 5 feet from the 

 ground. The hide was put through this aud pulled back and forth. 

 This act was called waxikmde. On the commencement of this process, 

 called ta"pe, the hides were almost invariably divided longitudinally 

 into two parts each, for the convenience of the operator. When finished 

 they were again sewed together with awls and sinews. When the hides 

 were small thev were not so divided before they were tanned. 



The skins of elk, deer, and antelopes were dressed in a similar 

 manner. (J. O. Dorsey, An. Kept. Bur. Ethnol. 1881-'82, p. 310.) 



Dressing skins by the Sioux Indians is thus described by a noted 

 traveler: "They had killed a large elk, the skin of which the women 

 were employed in dressing. They had stretched it out by means of 

 leather straps on the ground near the tent, and the women were scrap- 

 ing off the particles of flesh and fat with a well-contrived instrument 

 made of bone, sharpened at one end, and furnished with little teeth 

 like a saw, and at the other end a strap, which is fastened around the 

 waist. The skin is scraped with the sharp edge of this instrument 

 until it is perfectly clean. Several Indians have iron teeth fixed to 

 this bone." (Maximilian's Travels.) 



Again : " We looked at the women as they worked ; for the shoes 

 they made they had softened the leather in a tub of water and 

 stretched it in the breadth and length with their teeth. In another 



