574 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1889. 



want of such let her which is the strongest, they make shoes of deeres skinnes very 

 handsomely and commodious, and of such deeres skinnes as they dresse bare they 

 make stockings that comes within their shoes, like a stirrup stockinge and is fastened 

 above at their belt which is about their middell. A good well growne deere skin is of 

 great account with them and it must have the tale on, or else they account it de- 

 faced. The tale being three times as long as the tales of our English Deere, yea foure 

 times solonge. This when they travell is raped round about their body and with a 

 girdle of their making bound round about their middles to which girdle is fastened a 

 bagg in which his instruments be with which hee can strike tire upon any occasion. 

 Of their several arts and employments ; as lirst in dressing all manner of skinnes, 

 which they do by scraping and rubbing, afterwards painting them with antique em- 

 broyderings in unchangeable colors, sometimes they take oft" the haire especially if it 

 bee not killed in reason. (Wood's N. England Prospect. Prince Pub. Soc. I. Page 

 101.) 



DETAILS OF SKIN-DRESSING AMONG THE NAVAJOS. 



When the author at first contemplated this paper he found that the 

 accounts of the most careful observers were not quite up to his require- 

 ments. He therefore wrote to his friend Dr. R. W. Shufeldt, U. S. 

 Arm t \, begging him to define the process as minutely as possible. The 

 result was most satisfactory and was published in the Proceedings of 

 the Museum for 1888. As much of Dr. Shufeldt's paper as is necessary 

 to complete this narrative is here reproduced, together with the illus- 

 trations. The reader should note especially the similarity of the hair 

 scraper to those from Point Barrow, Labrador, the Interior Basin, and 

 the graves of Madisonville, Ohio. (Plates LXI to LXVII.) 



Dr. Shufeldt employed a Navajo to do the work for him. In a day 

 or two this Indian returned with a fine doe, an adult specimen of 

 Cariacus macrotis. He had skinned the legs of the animal from the 

 hoofs up as far as the ankles, which he disarticulated partially, so the 

 limbs could be tied more compactly together, and thus be less liable 

 to either frighten his horse or catch in the low timber as he returned 

 home with his game. 



"The deer which had been captured for me had already been evisce- 

 rated and the skin divided from its chin to its tail, the entire length of 

 the under side of the animal. Iu a moment with a sharp hunting-knife 

 he divided the skin on the inside of the thighs, from the ankles to the 

 abdominal division, making similar incisions on the inside of the fore- 

 limbs. The legs were quickly skinned, the small tail split up on its 

 under side and the vertebne removed, while with his knife the hide 

 was started on both sides from the abdominal and throat incision and 

 quickly removed in the direction of the animal's back. Thus it was 

 that the skin was removed from the entire body and up to the ears first; 

 then as he arrived at the latter, their cartilages were cut through close 

 to the skull, leaving the great ears of this species of deer attached to 

 the hide. When he arrived at the eyes, these were skinned round, 

 much iu the same way as a skilful taxidermist manages the eyes in any 

 vertebrate specimen he may be preparing. Upon arriving at the muzzle 



