SHAGREEN. 315 



MRS. F. 



No; real shagreen is the skin of the wild ass, prepared in 

 a peculiar manner. 



HENRIETTA. 



\Vill you have the kindness to tell us how it is done, and 

 where it is made 1 ? 



MRS. F. 



The principal manufactories of it are at Astrachan, and in 

 Persia. All skins of horses or asses prepared so as to appear 

 grained, are called by the Persians sogri, by the Turks sagri. 

 The skins are soaked in pure water for several days; then 

 stretched upon boards, and the epidermis or outer skin scrap- 

 ed off. The operation is then repeated, and the skin again 

 extended upon wood. The upper side is besprinkled with 

 the black, smooth, hard seeds of the Chenopodium album. 



ESTHER. 



That is a common plant in waste ground, as well as in the 

 garden. The people about here call it " fat hen," and give 

 it to their pigs to eat. 



MRS. F. 



That these seeds may make a deep impression upon the 

 skins, a piece of felt is spread over them, and the seeds trod- 

 den down with the feet; and thus a strong indenture is made 

 in the soft skin, which is then left to dry, and the seeds are 

 shaken off. After this process is completed, the skin is once 

 more scraped, and again put into water. As the seeds occa- 

 sion indentation in the surface of the skin, the intermediate 

 spaces, by the operation of scraping and smoothing, lose 

 some of their projecting substance; but the parts which have 

 been depressed or indented by the seeds, and which, conse- 

 quently, have lost none of their substance, now swell up 

 above the scraped parts, and thus form the grain of the 

 shagreen.* '. " 



* London Encyclopaedia, art. SHAGKEEIT. 



