ETHNOLOGICAL MATERIAL 



185 



posts at which they are sufficiently numerous to furnish all the 

 leather needed in that locality. 



With no other tools than a knife and the leg bones of the 

 animal killed, and no other tanning agent than its brain, an 

 "old wife" can convert a green mooseskin, weighing fifty 

 pounds, into light serviceable leather in five days. The finished 

 product is soft and pliable, nearly as thick though far inferior 

 in wearing quality to cowhide. 



The process, though simple, requires a good deal of labor. 

 The fresh skin is trimmed and stretched in an oblong frame, 8 

 or 10 feet across, which is made by lashing four poles together. 

 Every particle of flesh is then scraped or rather gouged from 

 the inside. This is done with a graining tool made from a leg 

 bone by cutting off one end and sharpening the shaft. This 

 instrument applied for a few minutes to a green hide by a skil- 

 ful "old wife," will save the future taxidermist hours of labor 

 with the steel scraper. 



When the skin is half dried the hair is scraped off. A horn 

 or bone instrument may be used for this purpose, though the 

 skins which I have seen dressed were trimmed with an adze 

 made from an old hatchet blade, set transversely in a clumsy 

 wooden handle which was about 18 inches in length. 



The skin may now be dried as parchment and used in making 

 carioles, etc.; if it is to be made into leather it is sprinkled with 

 a little oil. Fish oil is preferred as it is most readily absorbed. 

 It is then smoked slightly on the outside and soaked over night 

 in water containing the brains of an animal from which the skin 

 was taken, or from any other freshly killed. It is soaked the 

 next day in water, then pulled before the fire until dry and soft. 

 Finally the leather is smoked over a fire of rotten wood, until 

 it takes on a light yellowish brown color; if ordinary dry wood 

 is used it becomes black instead of brown. 



Deer. A deerskin is treated in a similar manner until it is 

 ready to be dried; it is thinned down by shaving on the grained 

 side. The instrument used is the beaming tool. 1 It resembles 

 a carpenter's drawing knife but is pushed away from, instead 

 of drawn towards, the operator. While it is being scraped the 

 skin is held upon a peeled log which is 5 or 6 inches in diameter 

 and as many feet in length. The leather is made much thin- 



1 See p. 177, ante. 



