Each Skin Required A Double Handful Of The
'garra,' Or Fruit Of The Acacia Arabica.
The process is simple:
the skin being thoroughly wetted, the garra is pounded into a
paste; this is rubbed
Into the hide with a rough piece of
sandstone, until it becomes perfectly clean, and free from
impurities; it is then wrapped up with a quantity of the paste,
and is deposited in a trough and kept in the shade for
twenty-four hours. It should undergo a similar rubbing daily, and
be kept in the trough to soak in the garra for four or five days.
After this process it should be well rubbed with fat, if required
to keep soft and pliable when wetted. If soaked in milk after
tanning, the leather will become waterproof. The large tanned
ox-hides used by the Arabs as coverlets are perfectly waterproof,
and are simply prepared with milk. These are made in Abyssinia,
and can be purchased at from ten piastres to a dollar each. The
Arabs thoroughly appreciate the value of leather, as they are
entirely dependent upon such material for coverlets, watersacks,
travelling bags, &c. &c. The sac de voyage is a simple skin of
either goat or sheep drawn off the animal as a stocking is drawn
from the leg; this is very neatly ornamented, and arranged with
loops which close the mouth, secured by a padlock. Very large
sacks, capable of containing three hundred pounds of corn, are
made in the same manner by drawing off entire the skins of the
larger antelopes--that of the tetel is considered the most
valuable for this purpose.
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