SwANTON] miDIAJ^S OF THE SO UTHE ASTERN UNITED STATES 447 



From a Choctaw near Philadelphia I obtained a shorter account : 



When a hide was to be dressed it was laced to a wooden frame by means of 

 cords all around the edges. Sometimes a family had two frames, a large one 

 for big skins such as those of the bear and deer, and a smaller one for the 

 smaller animals such as the mink, opossum, and raccoon. Or the frame might 

 be made so that its size could be altered. It was usually movable but in any 

 case was ordinarily located near the spring. Assuming that the frame was 

 movable, after a skin had been fastened in place, it was set in the sunshine 

 and the flesh removed by means of a large scraper shaped like a knife. Then 

 the skin was worked with a dull hardwood scraper made crescent-shaped so as 

 not to cut the skin. This work must be done a certain length of time after the 

 hide had been removed from the animal, not while it was still green and flabby 

 nor after it had hardened. After it had been worked for a time in the sun, 

 it was moved into the shade and worked as long again. This was to make it 

 supple and bring out the grain, and the process required from three to flve 

 hours. When they were through and the skin was fairly dry they rolled it up 

 and put it into a shed. If it got too damp, they brought it back into the sun- 

 shine and sometimes they had to work it over again. (Swanton, 1931 a, pp. 

 41-42.) 



Still another relatively modern account is from Skinner's notes 

 taken among the Seminole of Florida in 1910 : 



In pFeparing deerskin leather, the hide is first dried in the sun until it is 

 stiff and hard; it is then thoroughly soaked in water and wrung out by pass- 

 ing it about a tree, tying the ends together, and running a stick through the 

 knot to afford better leverage while wringing. While the skin is still d^amp 

 it is thrown over the smooth upper end of an inclined log set in the ground, 

 and the hair is scraped off with a beaming tool. While the skin is drying, it is 

 rendered pliable by rubbing it over the edge of a spatula-like stick set up 

 in the ground. Next deer brains are mixed with water until the liquid is thick 

 and soapy, and the skin is then soaked therein. Great pains are taken to satu- 

 rate the hide thoroughly ; it is then wrung, soaked again and again, and dried. 

 Sometimes this ends the process, when the skin is dyed a deep reddish brown by 

 the use of oak-bark and is used without further preparation. Usually, how- 

 ever, the leather is finished by smoking. The skin is sewed up in bag-like form 

 and suspended, bottom up, from an inclined stick. The edges are pegged down 

 about a small hole in which a smouldering fire burns. The smoke and fumes 

 are allowed to impregnate the hide thoroughly, and then the tanning is com- 

 pleted. 



The Seminole prepare brains for preservation by smearing them over long 

 wisps of Spanish moss and allowing them to dry. These brain-cakes which 

 are molded in circular form, with a hole in the center, are suspended in quan- 

 tities from every cook-house, and have the quaint appearance of festoons of 

 doughnuts. Deer and pig brains are most commonly used for tanning, but bear 

 brains are considered the most valuable. (Skinner, 1913, pp. 72-73.) 



It was perhaps beaming implements rather than drawknives that 

 Gushing found at Key Marco : 



Several draw-knives made from split leg-bones of the deer sharpened to 

 beveled edges from the inside; some ingenious shaving-knives, made from the 

 outer marginal whorls of the true conchs — the thick indented or toothed lips of 

 which formed their backs or handles, the thin but strong whorl-walls being 



