xlvi INTKODUCTION. 



better than quote Catlin's " North American Indians" 

 (vol. i. page 45) :— 



" 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-dressing. The art of tanning 

 is unknown to them, so far as civilized habits and arts 

 have not been taught them ; yet the art of dressing 

 skins, so far as we have it in the civilized world, has 

 been (like hundreds of other ornamental and useful 

 customs which we are practising) borrowed from the 

 savage ; without our ever stopping to inquire from 

 whence they come, or by whom invented. 



" The usual mode of dressing the Buffalo and other 

 skins, is by immersing them for a few days under a lye 

 from ashes and water, until the hair can be removed ; 

 when they are strained upon a frame or upon the 

 ground, with stakes or pins driven through the edges 

 into the earth ; where they remain for several days, with 

 the brains of the Buffalo or Elk spread upon and over 

 them ; and at last finished by ' graining,' as it is termed, 

 by the squaws, who use a sharpened bone, the shoulder- 

 blade or other large bone of the animal, sharpened at 

 the edge, somewhat like an adze, with the edge of which 

 they scrape the fleshy side of the skin, bearing on it 

 with the weight of their bodies, thereby drying and 

 softening the skin, and fitting it for use." 



The Kaffir is a splendid dresser of Leopard, Antelope, 

 and other skins, and for suppleness is unrivalled by 

 continental dressers. 



The Germans are unsurpassed in the dressing of 

 Squirrel, Cat, and Beaver ; of which the first is certainly 

 a speciality. Nearly the whole town of Weissenfels in 

 Saxony thrives on this trade ; the soft white pelts, clean 

 fur, skill in matching the colours, and manufacture, 



