Dress Skins.}
In these quarters, at Spare-hours, the Women make Baskets and Mats
to lie upon, and those
That are not extraordinary Hunters,
make Bowls, Dishes, and Spoons, of Gum-wood, and the Tulip-Tree;
others (where they find a Vein of white Clay, fit for their purpose)
make Tobacco-pipes, all which are often transported to other Indians,
that perhaps have greater Plenty of Deer and other Game;
so they buy (with these Manufactures) their raw Skins, with the Hair on,
which our neighbouring Indians bring to their Towns,
and, in the Summer-time, make the Slaves and sorry Hunters dress them,
the Winter-Sun being not strong enough to dry them; and those
that are dry'd in the Cabins are black and nasty with the Lightwood Smoke,
which they commonly burn. Their Way of dressing their Skins
is by soaking them in Water, so they get the Hair off, with an Instrument
made of the Bone of a Deer's Foot; yet some use a sort of Iron Drawing-Knife,
which they purchase of the English, and after the Hair is off,
they dissolve Deers Brains, (which beforehand are made in a Cake
and baked in the Embers) in a Bowl of Water, so soak the Skins therein,
till the Brains have suck'd up the Water; then they dry it gently,
and keep working it with an Oyster-Shell, or some such thing,
to scrape withal, till it is dry; whereby it becomes soft and pliable.
Yet these so dress'd will not endure wet, but become hard thereby;
which to prevent, they either cure them in the Smoke,
or tan them with Bark, as before observ'd; not but that young Indian Corn,
beaten to a Pulp, will effect the same as the Brains.
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