BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY


 Regarding another industry Duinont says: Tlhey also spin without
spinning wheel or distaff the hair or rather wool of the bison, of
which they make garters (jarreti/dc's) and ribbons."a The belts worn
by men, which Du Pratz refers to as having been manufactured by
the women, were probably of the same material,/ though in another
place he refers to the fur of the opossum (" wood rat ") as being spun
and used to make garters, which they afterwards dye red." c
 The best account of the manner of dressing skins is by Dumont,
and is as follows:

 When they have the skin of a bison, deer, or other animal they begin by
making many holes all around it with a knife, after which they steep it ili water
for two or three days. Then they stretch it on a wooden framne 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. It is oil the skins thus dressed that 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 of the glue which they extract from
these samnl skins. T11i skins thus daubed serve the French as coverings for
gaming tables. The savages also have sufficient skill to dress and prepare
bison skins in tile same manner on one side only, carefully preserving the lalir
or wool on the other. These latter serve as bed quilts and are very warm. It
is also in the skins dressed in this manner that the savages lie, as I have said,
during the winter, and I can certify that they are fully as good as a good
mattress.
 It is true that although these are well dressed and very white they can not
le wet, for as soon as they are wet when they afterward dry they shrink in
such a manner that neither leggings. nor stockings without feet, nor shoes,
drawers, or other kind of clothing can le made of them. In order to make use
of them for these purposes it vwoul1I he necessary for them to le dressed with
oil, but the savages do not know how. They have only discovered how to make
them supple, and here is the way they do it:
 They first dig a hole in the earth about 2 feet deep, having at the top a
diameter of 6 inches 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 which they wish to tan. They
then set fire to the combustible substances in tlle hole and fasten the skin
down all around by means of many little pegs which they plant in the earth
and which hold it. Then they cover it with earth above and along the edges,
so as to close the passage to the smoke. Then, the materials in tle hole becom-
ing consumed without throwing out flame, the thick smoke which comes out of
it, especially owing to the cow dung, not finding any exit. attaches itself to the
skin, which it boucancs (smoke dries) and dyes it of a yellow color. After this
first dressing, it is turned on the other side and a second given to it. and when
 a Dumont, Mem. IIist. sur La Louisiann I, 154-155. For Du Pratz's reference to this
see p. 86.
 bDu Pratz, Hist. de La Louisiane, 11, 184.
 C Ibid., 94.


[ULLL. 43