It may not be unhealthy, and
perhaps a physician of the water-cure practice might recommend it for
certain ailments, but it would never become popular as a pleasurable
pastime. At night the other two skins are put in the bed, one beneath
and the other over the sleepers, and by morning are dry. But it seems
almost a miracle that the occupants escape a severe attack of
inflammatory rheumatism. In the morning the man again peels for work,
and with a suk-koo of stone, that has a sharp edge, scrapes off every
particle of the fleshy membrane until the skin becomes soft and pliant,
and assumes a delicate cream-like color.
Only the skins of the does are used for clothing or the sleeping
blanket. Buck skins, which are much less pliable compose the
underlayers of the bed, and these are not scraped, but merely stretched
on a frame while drying. The skin of a young buck is, however,
sometimes used for making the trousers, and is nearly as fine in
texture as the skin of the doe. The skins are now nearly ready for
cutting out and sewing, but first have to be chewed, which is also
women's work.
A man can scrape two skins in a day, and some of the women--many
of them are, indeed, very skillful with their crude, home-made
needles--can make a coat in two days, and a pair of trousers in one
day. Some of the young men, whose wives are good tailors, affect
considerable ornamentation upon the inside coat; but this is usually
seen in the trimming that surrounds the lower edge and the border of
the hood.
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