81 & Method employed at JLstracanfor making 
are several times besprinkled with water, that no part 
of them may be dry, and occasion an unequal tension. 
After they have been all extended on the frames, they 
are again moistened, and carried into the house, where 
the frames are deposited close to each other on the floor 
with the flesh side of the skin next the ground. The up- 
per side is then thickly bestrewed with the black exceed- 
ingly smooth and hard seeds of a kind of goose-foot, ( che - 
nopodium album,)* which the Tartars call alabuta , and 
which grows in abundance, to about the height of a man, 
near the gardens and farms on the south side of the Vol- 
ga ; and that they may make a strong impression on the 
skins, a piece of felt is spread over them, and the seeds 
are trod down with the feet, by which means they are 
deeply imprinted into the soft skins* The frames, with- 
out shaking the seeds, are then carried out into the open 
air, and placed in a reclining position against a wall to 
dry, the side covered with the seeds being next the wall, 
in order that it may be sheltered from the sun. In this 
state the skins must be left several days to dry in the sun, 
until no appearance of moisture is observed in them ; 
when they are fit to be taken from the frames. When 
the impressed seeds are beat off from the hair side, it ap- 
pears full of indentations or inequalities, and ha s acquired 
that impression which is to produce the grain of the sha- 
green, after the skins have been subjected to the last 
smoothing or scraping, and have been dipped in a ley, 
which will be mentioned hereafter, before they receive 
the dye. 
The operation of smoothing is performed on an in- 
clined bench or board, which is furnished with an iron 
9 This chenopodium is often used as food by the German colonists on the 
Volga, on account of the frequent failure of their crops. They employ it either 
as a substitute for greens, or pound the seeds, and, with the addition of a little 
