578 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1880. 



"Upon asking hiin why he put it only on the hair side, he gave me 

 to understand that the pores were on that side, and consequently the 

 brains could get into the skin more effectually, and upon inquiring why 

 he put them on at all, he said, 'To make it soft.' Buckskin that is 

 tanned without using brains is harsh and stiff' afterwards, and still 

 worse in these particulars if it happens to get wet at any time. 



" The Navajoes often use beef brains for this purpose, especially when 

 their game is taken far from camp and they do not care to pack the 

 deer skulls home on their ponies. In early days they employed deer 

 brains as a rule, but in some cases the brains of the buffalo, when that 

 animal existed in their country. 



"Finally, as the last step of the process, he commenced, by folding 

 in the edges of the skin all round continuously, to make it up into an 

 ellipsoidal ball, quite firm, though not tightly rolled. He then wrapped 

 it up in the buffalo robe and allowed it to remain out in the sun for 

 about fifteen minutes for the purpose, he said, ' of letting the brains go 

 well into him.' 



"Once more in its wet and limp condition it is thoroughly opened, 

 and this time spread out over the top of a sage bush near by with the 

 outer surface exposed to the sun and sufficiently from the ground to 

 prevent the dogs from getting at it, or its being soiled through accident. 

 It was now about 3 o'clock in the afternoon, and very warm, and the 

 skin at once commenced to show the effects of it as the first stages of 

 drying set in. Nevertheless, I was informed that the hide would now 

 be allowed to remain there and dry until dark, when it would be placed 

 up on top of the " hogan " for the night, or in the event it rained, to be 

 taken in and hung up on the mside. Next morning I was on the ground 

 at 9 o'clock, and was thoroughly surprised at the appearance of the 

 hide when it was brought out and shown me. Although I was familiar 

 with the making of buckskin, not only as practiced by the Navajoes, 

 but by the Sioux and other North Americau Indians, I never happened 

 to have seen it in this particular stage, that is, right after the drying on 

 the second day. 



" I found that it had again shrunken so as to be not more than one- 

 third of its original size, or just after it had been removed from the 

 animal. It was hard and appeared almost brittle, as though it might 

 be broken in two ; moreover it was semi-transparent, and easily trans- 

 mitted the light through it, or even prominent objects might be out- 

 lined through it in favorable lights. In color it was of a deep, muddy 

 amber, or a semi-trauslucenc Roman ocher, and one would never have 

 suspected in the world that it was either a deer hide, or that in a few 

 short hours it be converted into the softest and most durable fabric in 

 the country — a tanned buckskin. 



By the exercise of considerable ingenuity and careful bending he now 

 forced the skin into a large camp-kettle containing water from which 

 the chill had been taken off by the addition of a little warm water, aud 



