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DRESSING AND MAKING UP OF SKINS. 



Dressing Deerskins. 



The Labrador Eskimo also dress and smoke caribou skins 

 after the Indian method. The following description, obtained 

 from a half-breed woman, illustrates the method in use in 

 Labrador and Ungava. 



For a scraper they use the lower leg-bone of the deer, culling 

 the bone like a spoke-shave blade (a typical Indian implement) ; 

 sometimes only the end is used (referring to the vertical scraper). 

 The skin is laid on a round stick which is stood against a tree or 

 anything solid. The outside of the deerskin is scraped first 

 (with the grain in deerskin, against the grain in sealskin), because 

 in deerskin the "film" (inner membrane) is left on. After the 

 hair is cleaned off, the skin is washed and hung in the air long 

 enough to dry. Then a paste is made of a portion of the brains 

 of the deer, marrow from the bones, and dry fiour, and smeared 

 all over the skin on the outside. This is allowed to dry until it is 

 a little stiffened. Then the skin is pulled from hand to hand, by 

 two or three persons, until it is quite dry. If not soft enough, 

 another paste is applied, and it is pulled again. Sometimes five 

 or six pastes are used for heavy skins. If a white skin is desired, 

 it is hung up during extremely cold weather outside and "frost- 

 dried." A coloured skin is smoked. 



Smoking Deerskin. 



In smoking caribou skin, the skin is sewn overedge length- 

 ways, and a small opening left at the neck. (Nowadays a drill 

 or canvas neck is attached to the skin to keep it from being 

 injured by the heat of the fire.) Wherever there is a slack place 

 in the skin, a string is attached and it is hung from overhead. 

 Sticks are placed crossways of the skin-bag formed by the sewn- 

 up skin, in order to keep it open and allow the smoke to circulate. 

 A thin skin can be smoked in three hours; a good "smoke" takes 

 about five hours. Rotten wood placed in a pot or other receptacle 

 makes the best fire for smoking. 



