grained Parchment, or Shagreen. 319 



pure water, and fuffered to remain there for feveral days, till 

 they are thoroughly foakedj and the hair has dropped off. 

 They are then taken from the tub, one by one, extended on 

 boards placed in an oblique dlreftion againft a wall, the cor- 

 ners of them, which reach beyond the edges of the board, 

 being made faft, and the hair with the epidermis is then 

 fcraped off with a blunt iron fcraper called urak. The fkina 

 thus cleaned are again put in pure water to foak. When all 

 the (kins have undergone this part of the procefs, they are 

 taken from the water a fecond time, fpread out one after the 

 other as before, and the flelh fide is fcraped with the fame 

 kind of inftrument. They are carefully cleaned alfo on 

 the hair fide, fo that nothing remains but the pure fibrous 

 titfue, which ferves for making parchment, confilling of coats 

 of white medullary fibres, and which has a refemblance to a 

 fwine's bladder foftened in water. 



After this preparation, the workmen take a certain kind 

 of frames called p'dlzi, made of a ftraight and a femi-circular 

 piece of wood, having nearly the fame form as the fkins. On 

 thele the Ikins are extended in as fmooth and even a manner 

 as polfible by means of cords ; and during the operation of 

 extending them they are feveral times befprinkled with 

 water, that no part of them may be dry, and occafion an 

 unequal tenfion. After they have been all extended on the 

 frames, they are again moifl;ened, and carried into the houfe, 

 where the frames are depofited clofe to each other on the 

 floor with the flelh fide of the flcin next the ground. The 

 upper fide is then thickly beftrewed with the black exceed- 

 ingly fmooth and hard feeds of a kind of goofe-foot, {cheno- 

 podiiDti alhu',71*) which the Tartars call alabuta, and which 

 grows in abundance, to about the height of a man, near the 

 gardens and farms on the fouth fide of the Volga ; and that 

 they may make a ftrong impreflion on the fkins, a piece of felt 

 is fpread over them, and the feeds are trod down with the feet, 

 by which means they are deeply imprinted into the foft lk.ins. 



• This chenopodium is often ufcd as food by the German coloniks on 

 the Volga, on account of the frequent failure of thtir crops. They employ 

 ir cither as a fubfiitute for greens, or pound the feeds, and, With the ad- 

 diuon of a little meal, furia tliein into bread. 



F f 2 The 



