DRESSING THE BUFFALO RUG. 293 
_ Indian boasts of, as being his peculiar, if not 
his sole vocations. 
What little of manufacturing is done among 
the Indians is also the work of the women. 
They prepare the different articles of apparel. 
In embroidering moccasins and their leath- 
ern petticoats, etc., their greatest skill, parti- 
cularly among the northern tribes, is exhibit 
ed. But the most extensive article of their 
manufacture is the buffalo rug, which they not 
only prepare for their own use, but which 
constitutes the largest item of their traffic with 
the Indian traders. These are dressed and 
cured exclusively by the squaws. 
To dress a buffalo rug, the first step is to 
‘flesh’ the skin, or neatly scrape from the inner 
surface every carneous particle. This is gene- 
tally done with an instrument of bone, cut 
something in the shape of a small adz, with 
a serrate “edge. For this operation the skin 
is sometimes suspended in a frame upon the 
branch of a tree, or a fork of the lodge— 
though more commonly, perhaps, stretched 
with pegs upon the smooth ground, with the 
flesh-side up. After it dries, the spongy sur- 
face of the skin is neatly curried off with an- 
other adz-shaped bone or handle of wood, 
with a flat bit of iron transversely set for the 
blade, which is edged after the manner of a 
currier’s instrument. The surface is then be- 
smeared with brains (which the Canadians 
call mettre & la cervelle), and rolled up with the 
flesh-side in, in which condition it is left for 
two or three days. The brains of the same 
