XIII
Tanning Skins and Making Moccasins
Sam had made a find. A Calf had been killed and its skin hung limp ona beam in the barn. His father allowed him to carry this off, and nowhe appeared with a "fresh Buffalo hide to make a robe."
"I don't know how the Injuns dress their robes," he explained,"but Caleb does, and he'll tell you, and, of course, I'll pay noattention."
The old Trapper had nothing to do, and the only bright spots in hislonely life, since his own door was shut in his face, were visitsto the camp. These had become daily, so it was taken as a matter ofcourse when, within an hour after Sam's return, he "happened round."
"How do the Indians tan furs and robes?" Yan asked at once.
"Wall, different ways--"
But before he could say more Hawkeye reappeared and shouted:
"Say, boys, Paw's old Horse died!" and he grinned joyfully, merelybecause he was the bearer of news.
"Sappy, you grin so much your back teeth is gettin' sunburned," andthe Head Chief eyed him sadly.
"Well, it's so, an' I'm going to skin out his tail for a scalp. I betI'll be the Injunest one of the crowd."
"Why don't you skin the hull thing, an' I'll show you how to make lotsof Injun things of the hide," Caleb added, as he lighted his pipe.
"Will you help me?
"It's same as skinnin a Calf. I'll show you where to get the sewingsinew after the hide's off."
So the whole camp went to Burns's field. Guy hung back and hid when hesaw his father there drawing the dead Horse away with the plough team.
"Good-day, Jim," was Caleb's greeting, for they were good friends."Struck hard luck with the Horse?"
"No! Not much. Didn't cost nothing; got him for boot in a swap. Gladhe's dead, for he was foundered."
"We want his skin, if you don't."
"You're welcome to the hull thing."
"Well, just draw it over by the line fence we'll bury what's left whenwe're through."
"All right. You hain't seen that durn boy o' mine, have you?"
"Why, yes; I seen him not long ago," said Sam. "He was p'inting rightfor home then."
"H-m. Maybe I'll find him at the house."
"Maybe you will." Then Sam added under his breath, "I don't think."
So Burns left them, and a few minutes later Guy sneaked out of thewoods to take a secondary part in the proceedings.
Caleb showed them how to split the skin along the under side of eachleg and up the belly. It was slow work skinning, but not so unpleasantas Yan feared, since the animal was fresh.
Caleb did the most of the work; Sam and Yan helped. Guy assisted withreminiscences of his own Calf-skinning and with suggestions drawn fromhis vast experiences.
When the upper half of the skin was off, Caleb remarked: "Don'tbelieve we can turn him over, and when the Injuns didn't have a Horseat hand to turn over the Buffalo they used to cut the skin in two downthe line of the back. I guess we better do that. We've got all therawhide we need, anyhow."
So they cut off the half they had skinned, took the tail and the manefor "scalps," and then Caleb sent Yan for the axe and a pail.
He cut out a lump of liver and the brains of the Horse. "That," saidhe, "is for tanning, an' here is where the Injun woman gits her sewingthread."
He made a deep cut alongside the back bone from the middle of the backto the loin, then forcing his fingers under a broad band of whitishfibrous tissue, he raised it up, working and cutting till it ran downto the hip bone and forward to the ribs. This sewing sinew was aboutfour inches wide, very thin, and could easily be split again and againtill it was like fine thread.
"There," he said, "is a hank o' thread. Keep that. It'll dry up, butcan be split at any time, and soaking in warm water for twenty minutesmakes it soft and ready for use. Usually, when she's sewing, the squawkeeps a thread soaking in her mouth to be ready. Now we've got a Horseskin and a Calfskin I guess we better set up a tan-yard."
"Well, how do you tan furs, Mr. Clark?"
"Good many different ways. Sometimes just scrape and scrape till I getall the grease and meat off the inside, then coat it with alum andsalt and leave it rolled up for a couple of days till the alum hasstruck through and made the skin white at the roots of the hair, thenwhen this is half dry pull and work it till it is all soft.
"But the Injuns don't have alum and salt, and they make a fine tan outof the liver and brains, like I'm going to do with this."
"Well, I want to do it the Indian way."
"All right, you take the brains and liver of your Calf."
"Why not some of the Horse brains and liver?"
"Oh, I dunno. They never do it that way that I've seen. Seems like itwent best with its own brains."
"Now," remarked the philosophical Woodpecker, "I call that a wonderfulprovision of nature, always to put Calf brains and liver into aCalfskin, and just enough to tan it."
"First thing always is to clean your pelt, and while you do that I'llput the Horsehide in the mud to soak off the hair." He put it in thewarm mud to soak there a couple of days, just as he had done theCalfskin for the drum-heads, then came to superintend the dressing ofthe Buffalo "robe."
Sam first went home for the Calf brains and liver, then he and Yanscraped the skin till they got out a vast quantity of grease, leavingthe flesh side bluish-white and clammy, but not greasy to the touch.The liver of the Calf was boiled for an hour and then mashed up withthe raw brains into a tanning "dope" or mash and spread on the fleshside of the hide, which was doubled, rolled up and put in a cool placefor two days. It was then opened out, washed clean in the brook andhung till nearly dry. Then Caleb cut a hardwood stake to a sharp edgeand showed Yan how to pull and work the hide over the edge till it wasall soft and leathery.
The treatment of the Horsehide was the same, once the hair wasremoved, but the greater thickness needed a longer soaking in the "tandope."
After two days the Trapper scraped it clean and worked it on thesharp-edged stake. It soon began to look like leather, except in oneor two spots. On examining these he said:
"H-m, Tanning didn't strike right through every place. So he butteredit again with the mash and gave it a day more; then worked it asbefore over the angle of the pole till it was soft and fibrous.
"There," said he, "that's Injun tan leather. I have seen it done bysoaking the hide for a few days in liquor made by boiling Hemlock orBalsam bark in water till it's like brown ink, but it ain't any betterthan that. Now it needs one thing more to keep it from hardening afterbeing wet. It has to be smoked."
So he made a smoke fire by smothering a clear fire with rotten wood;then fastening the Horsehide into a cone with a few wooden pins, hehung it in the dense smoke for a couple of hours, first one side out,then the other till it was all of a rich smoky-tan colour and had thesmell so well known to those who handle Indian leather.
"There it is; that's Injun tan, an' I hope you see that elbow greaseis the main thing in tannin'."
"Now, will you show us how to make moccasins and war-shirts?" askedLittle Beaver, with his usual enthusiasm.
"Well, the moccasins is easy, but I won't promise about thewar-shirts. That's pretty much a case of following the pattern of yourown coat, with the front in one piece, but cut down just far enoughfor your head to go through, instead of all the way, and fixed withtie-strings at the throat and fringes at the seams and at the bottom;it hain't easy to do. But any one kin larn to make moccasins. There istwo styles of them--that is, two main styles. Every Tribe has its ownmake, and an Injun can tell what language another speaks as soon ashe sees his footgear. The two best known are the Ojibwa, with softsole--sole and upper all in one, an' a puckered instep--that's whatOjibwa means--'puckered moccasin.' The other style is the one mostused in the Plains. You see, they have to wear a hard sole, 'cause thecountry is full of cactus and thorns as well as sharp stones."
"I want the Sioux style. We have copied their teepee and warbonnet--and the Sioux are the best Indians, anyway."
"No, make them for _me_. It's my Horse," said Guy.
"No, you don't. Your Paw give that to me." Caleb's tone said plainlythat Guy's laziness had made a bad impression, so he had to standaside while Yan was measured. Caleb had saved a part of the hideuntanned though thoroughly cleaned. This was soaked in warm water tillsoft. Yan's foot was placed on it and a line drawn around the footfor a guide; this when cut out made the sole of one moccasin (A, cutbelow), and by turning it underside up it served as pattern to cut theother.
Now Caleb measured the length of the foot and added one inch, andthe width across the instep, adding half an inch, and with these asgreatest length and breadth cut out a piece of soft leather (B). Thenin this he made the cut _a b_ on the middle line one way and _cd_ on the middle line the other way. A second piece the reverse ofthis was cut, and next a piece of soft leather for inside tongue (C)was sewn to the large piece (B), so that the edge _a b_ of C wasfast to _a b_ of B. A second piece was sewn to the other leather(B reversed).
"Them's your vamps for uppers. Now's the time to bead 'em if you wantto."
"Don't know how."
"Well, I can't larn you that; that's a woman's work. But I kin showyou the pattern of the first pair I ever wore; I ain't likely toforget 'em, for I killed the Buffalo myself and seen the hull making."He might have added that he subsequently married the squaw, but he didnot.
"There's about the style" [D]. "Them three-cornered red and whitethings all round is the hills where the moccasins was to carry mesafely; on the heel is a little blue pathway with nothing in it: thatis behind--it's past. On the instep is three red, white and bluepathways where the moccasin was to take me: they're ahead--in thefuture. Each path has lots of things in it, mostly changes and trails,an' all three ends in an Eagle feather--that stands for an honour. Yekin paint them that way after they're made. Well, now, we'll sew onthe upper with a good thick strand of sinew in the needle--or if youhave an awl you kin do without a needle on a pinch--and be sure tobring the stitches out the edge of the sole instead of right through,then they don't wear off. That's the way." [E.]
So they worked away, clumsily, while Guy snickered and sizzled, andSam suggested that Si Lee would make a better squaw than both of them.
The sole as well as the upper being quite soft allowed them to turnthe moccasin inside out as often as they liked--and they did like; itseemed necessary to reverse it every few minutes. But at length thetwo pieces were fastened together all around, the seam gap at the heelwas quickly sewn up, four pairs of lace holes were made (_a, b, c,d_, in D), and an eighteen-inch strip of soft leather run throughthem for a lace.
Now Yan painted the uppers with his Indian paints in the pattern thatCaleb had suggested, and the moccasins were done.
A squaw would have made half a dozen good pairs while Yan and Calebmade the one poor pair, but she would not have felt so happy about it.
Two Little Savages Page 44