TURNER.] PREPARATION OF SKINS. 295 



hours or days elapse and the superfluous matter is scraped off. The 

 skin is then S(;raped and rubbed between the hands, the harder ijortions 

 with a scraper resembling a small scoop, until all the skin is worked 

 into a pliable condition. If the skin is yet too oily a quantity of pow- 

 dered chalk, clay, calcined bone, or even flour, is thoroughly rubbed 

 over it to absorb any fatty matter yet remaining. 



The skins having the hair on, for clothing, or those intended for 

 buckskin, are treated in this manner. Those intended for parchment 

 are siniply rubbed with a quantity of fat, and then allowed to dry in 

 that condition, being of a yellowish or pale glue color. 



Where a gieat number of skins have to be prepared, and some of the 

 more energetic men have as many as two or three hundred bixckskius and 

 parchment skins for the spring trade, a constant application to this 

 labor is necessary in order to prepare them in season. This, in a man- 

 ner, accounts for the number of wives which an energetic or wealthy 

 man may have in order that the products of the chase falling to his 

 share may be promi^tly attended to. 



When the skins intended for sale are selected they are bundled up 

 and covered with parchment skins or the subcutaneous tissue. 



The skins intended for use among themselves are generally inferior 

 grade.s, such as those cut in the skinning process, or else those obtain- 

 ed in the earlier or the later jiart of the season. 



A species of gad fly infests the deer, puncturing the skin on both 

 sides of the spine, and depositing within the wound an egg which in 

 time is transformed into a grub or larva. These larvae attain the size 

 of the first joint of the little finger, and at the opening of the spring- 

 weather work their way through the skin and fall to the ground, where 

 they undergo metamorphoses to become perfect insects. 



A single animal may have hundreds of these grubs encysted beneath 

 the skin, which, on their exit, leave a deep supi)urating cavity, which 

 heals slowly. The skin forming the cicatrices does not have the same 

 texture as the untouched portions. 



When the skin is dressed it reveals these scars, and of coiu:se, the 

 value of the skin is diminished according to their number. The In- 

 dian often endeavors to conceal them by rubbing flour or chalk over 

 chem. 



The season when the skins are in the best condition is from Septem- 

 ber to the middle of December. The freshly deposited eggs have not 

 yet produced larva- of sufficient size to injure the skin, and the wounds 

 produced by those dropping out in the month of May have healed and 

 left the skin in condition. 



Certain skins intended for special purj^oses must be smoked. The 

 process of smoking tends to render it less liable to injury from mois- 

 ture. Thepyroligueous vapors act as antiseptics and thus at least 

 retard decomposition of those articles most exposed to wet. The tents 

 and footwear are always tanned with the smoke and this process is 



