64 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 4;i 



Regarding another industry Dumont says: '' They also spin \vithont 

 spinning wheel or distaff the hair or rather wool of the bison, of 

 which they make garters (jarretlercs) and ribbons."'" The belts worn 

 by men, which Du Pratz refers to as having been manufactured by 

 the women, were probably of the same material,^ though in another 

 place he refers to the fur of the opossum (" wood rat ") as being spun 

 and used to make garters, '' which they afterwards dye red." ' 



The best account of the manner of dressing skins is by Dumont, 

 and is as follows: 



Wheu they have the skin of a bison, deer, or other animal they be.^in by 

 malviug many holes all around it with a Ignite, after which they steep it i:i water 

 for two or three days. Then they streteli it on a wooden frame where they 

 fasten it with cords, l)indin,!j; it strongly, and they make the hair fall from it. 

 Afterward they rub and scrape this skin, in order to soften it, with a flint 

 which has been forced into a cleft in one end of a stick of wood, and in order 

 to make it soft and white they make use of the cooked brain of. a deer. After 

 this operation the skin is as soft and as white as our calf or sheep skins can 

 be made. It is on the skins thus dressed that they daub or paint all kinds 

 of figures, the designs for which they trace in accordance with their fancy, 

 employing for these paintings red, yellow, black, green, blue, without making 

 use of oil to dilute the colors, but only of the glue which they extract from 

 these same skins. The skins thus daubed serve the French as coverings for 

 gaming tables. The savages also have sufficient skill to dress and prei)are 

 bison skins in the same manner on. one side only, carefully preserving the hair 

 or wool on the other. These latter serve as bed quilts and are very warm. It 

 is also in the skins dressed in this manner that the savages lie, as I have said, 

 during the winter, and I can certify that they are fully as good as a good 

 mattress. 



It is true that although these are well dressed and very white they can not 

 be wet, for as soon as they are wet when they afterward dry they shrink in 

 such a manner that neither leggings, nor stockings without feet, nor shoes, 

 drawers, or other kind of clothing can be made of them. In order to make use 

 of them for these purposes it would be necessary for them to be dress(>d with 

 oil, but tlie savages do not know how. They have only discovered how to make 

 them supple, and here is the way they do it : 



They first dig a hole in the earth about 2 feet deep, having at the t(ii> a 

 diameter of 6 inches and a little less toward the bottom. They fill this hole with 

 cow dung, rotted wood, and maize ears and plac-e over it two rods in tlu' sliajie 

 of a cross, the four ends of which are planted in the eai*th so as to form a 

 kind of ci'adle on wliicli tliey stretch the skin which tliey wisli to tan. They 

 then set fire to the combustible substances in the hole and fasten the skin 

 down all around by means of many little i)egs whicli they plant in tlie earth 

 and which hold it. Then they cover it with enrlli above and along the edges, 

 so as to close the passage to the smoke. Then, the materials in the hole becom- 

 ing consum(>d witliout throwing out flame, the thick smoke which conies out of 

 it, especiallj owing to the cow dung, not finding any exit, attaches itself to the 

 skin, which it boucanes (smoke dries) and dyes it of a yellow color. After this 

 first dressing, it is turned on the other side and a second given to it, and when 



"Dumont, M<^m. Hist, sur La LoTiisinno, i, 1.^4-1.'55. Foi" V\i Pratz's roforence to this 

 see p. 8(5. • 



>> T>u I'ratz, Hist, do La Louisiaiic, ii, 1S4. 

 <^ Ibid., 04. 



