SwANTON] INDIANS OF THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES 443 



The best description seems to be that of Dumont de Montigny, who 

 had the Natchez especially in mind: 



They begin by making many holes all around [the edge of the skin] with 

 a knife, after which they steep it in water for two or three days. Then they 

 stretch it on a wooden frame where they fasten it with cords, binding 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. On the skins 

 thus dressed 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 the 

 glue which they extract from these same skins. The skins thus painted serve 

 the French for gaming tables. The savages also have sufficient skill to dress 

 and prepare bison skins in the same manner on one side only, carefully pre- 

 serving the hair or wool on the other. These latter serve as bed quilts and are 

 very warm. On the skins dressed in this manner the savages also lie, as I 

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

 a good mattress. 



But though these [blankets] are well dressed and very white they cannot 

 be wet, for as soon as they dry after being wet, they shrink so that neither 

 leggings, nor stockings without feet, nor shoes, drawers, or other kinds of 

 clothing can be made of them. In order to make use of them for these 

 purposes it would be necessary to dress them with oil but the savages do not 

 know how. They have discovered merely how to make them supple which is 

 by the following method : 



They first dig a hole in the earth about 2 feet deep, with a diameter of 

 6 inches at the top and a little less toward the bottom. They fill this hole 

 with cow dung, rotted wood, and maize ears and place over it two rods in 

 the shape of a cross, the four ends of which are planted in the earth so as 

 to form a kind of cradle on which they stretch the skin they wish 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 pegs driven into the ground. 

 Then they cover it with earth above and along the edges, so as to keep in the 

 smoke. The materials in the hole becoming consumed without throwing out 

 flame, the thick smoke that comes out of it, especially owing to the lack of 

 any exit the cow dung fastens itself to the skin which it smoke-dries (houcanes) 

 and dyes of a yellow color. After this first dressing, it is turned over on the 

 other side and a second is given to it, and when it is thus prepared it is used 

 for all kinds of purposes. No matter how much it is washed or lathered, pro- 

 vided one takes care to let it dry in the shade, it never hardens and is 

 always as soft and supple as chamois. (Dumont, 1753, vol. 1, pp. 146-149; 

 Swanton, 1911, pp. 64-65.) 



Du Pratz has a short description of the process which is, as we 

 should expect, very similar. Instead of a flint dressing implement, 

 he mentions the flat bone of a bison, perhaps the shoulder blade (Le 

 Page du Pratz, 1758, vol. 2, p. 167; Swanton, 1911, p. 65). 



