TANNING A RACCOON SKIN AMONG THE OJIBWAS

about two by three feet in size, are used for storing pounded buffalo meat and other food. Small pouches are made to hold paints, mirrors, or other toilet articles. Those used for clothing are made in pairs, two for each bed in the tipi, by trimming the rawhide to proper form while still pliable, folding over the edges upon each other, and fastening them in place by means of strings of skin passed through holes near the sides. The surface is painted with designs in colors, and sometimes there is a fringe. These designs are altogether angular, no curved lines being used, only triangles, squares, or oblongs. This is interesting, because in decoration in many other parts of the world curved lines are used almost exclusively.

Round boxes, somewhat resembling a quiver in shape, are made of the same material and are used for holding feathers and war-bonnets. The parfleche of the Plains was represented in other sections by baskets of various kinds, boxes of bark or matting, or bags of grass or softdressed skin. The word, according to Mr. James Mooney, appears in the French narrative as early as about 1700, and is probably from some old French root, possibly from fleche, "arrow," in reference to the use of rawhide quivers.

Drums are often made by covering a nearly circular framework with skin, and among the Eskimo, gut is prepared for the purpose.

The rough fins of the shark are used by the Indians of the coast of British Columbia, as our carpenters use sandpaper.

The Eskimo makes his dog harness and cat's-cradle game of strips of skin, and shoes for the feet of dogs from the same material. Saddles were covered with hide by the Plains Indian, as they are now by our own people. The float used by the Eskimo to keep his speared seal from sinking, and the kite-like drag which retards the animal as it tries to escape through the water, are both made of skin. The armor of the Thlingit Indians of southern Alaska is made of thick hide, while the shield of the Kaffir and other African tribes is of the elephant's thick skin. The Alaskan Eskimo makes a football of pieces of skin with the hair shaved off, some dark, others lighter in color, sometimes arranged in artistic fashion.

In the interior of British Columbia, where the Indian people are not remarkable as skin workers, we find many things made of skin, such as robes with painted designs, chest protectors of mountain-goat and rabbit skin, deer-skin blankets, parfleches, bags, collars of buckskin ornamented with quills, moccasins, caps, drums, cradle bedding, shields, armor, quivers, saddles, and gloves. Even the backs of the bows are sometimes covered with snake skin.

To study primitive work in skin various books and articles should be consulted. The paper by the late Professor Otis T. Mason, entitled “ Aboriginal Skin-Dressing", published in the United States National Museum Report for 1889, is of interest in this connection. Professor Mason was curator of ethnology in the National Museum and was pre-eminently the first American student of primitive technology. He was not only a charming writer and speaker, but a lovable personality who never failed to improve an opportunity to urge the dignity and charm of handiwork. His book," Woman's Share in Primitive Culture," contains information on work in skin, and calls attention to the great number of women the world over who have been tanners and sewers of the skins of animals. The thirtieth bulletin of the Bureau of American Ethnology also contains short articles on the various tools used in skin work and on many objects made of skin by the American Indians.

A NEW ERA FOR TURKISH

W

WOMEN

BY SAINT NIHAL SINGH

HEN the "Young Turks "-as the progressive element in Turkey, made up mostly of young and middle-aged people, is called arose in their might to cast off the yoke of despotism, and recently installed a monarch whose powers are strictly limited by a constitution, they inaugurated a new era for the women of the land. Hitherto the fair sex had been brought up in ignorance and superstition, haunted by the shadows of polygamy and the harem. Henceforward the maids and matrons are to be educated and set free from the seclusion of their apartments and from concubinage. The ascendant party believes in reform all along the line, political, social, and intellectual, and hence is anxious for the emancipation of women. This desire is enhanced by a feeling of gratitude to the few liberal-minded, enlightened ladies the country at present possesses. Little as the world knows about it, nevertheless the modern régime in Turkey, in an important degree, is due to the wholehearted and intelligent co-operation of the wives, sisters, and mothers of the men who carried on the work of revolution right under the nose of Sultan Abdul Hamid and his host of spies. The women, secure from the molestation of the Government's secret-service agents, formed the link of communication, bearing incriminating documents on their persons from one leader to another, thus signally defeating the cleverly planned and ingeniously worked out espionage system of the deposed sovereign. Without this aid the transition of the country from tyrannical absolutism to a humane democracy would have been almost impossible; at least its final fruition might have been retarded and attended possibly with great carnage and much destruction of property. It is quite natural that the dominant " Young Turks" should appreciate this invaluable help rendered at a time of national crisis, and knowing that such capable assistance could have been given only by educated, liberal-minded women, should, on their coming into power, seek to set women free and engage in a practical propaganda to prepare them for a larger, more useful life.

An influence equally as potent as the new political conditions

in the solitary Mahommedan kingdom in Europe is working for the evolution of its women. Islam is in the throes of a revival. It is being purified. The cry is, "Back to the times of the Prophet!" But this is incongruous, since it really means that the Moslem faith must be thoroughly modernized. Since the spirit of the twentieth century is to do justice to woman, educated Mahommedans are finding texts in the Koran which prohibit plurality of wives and concubinage, give the woman the same social status as the man, and perfectly equal divorce, marriage, and property rights. Just how much of this sex equality really exists in the Moslem Sacred Scriptures, it is not for the writer to say; but he can testify, from personal investigation in Mahommedan lands, that the conscience of Islam is slowly being quickened and that it has commenced to better the state of Moslem women. Turkey, more than any other country, shows the action of this revival, especially in point of feminine emancipation.

Of course these progressive forces do not have everything their own way, but of necessity have to combat reactionary agencies, which, on account of the inertia, ignorance, superstition, and downtrodden condition of the Turkish populace, are very strong. For centuries the subjects of the Sultan have regarded woman as the inferior of man, and polygamy and the harem have been in vogue. Not only the men, but also the women are accustomed to this order of things. Being of a conservative trend of mind both resist the change. Indeed, the idea of segregation of the sexes has become so ingrained in the blue-veined that liberation from seclusion seems to signify a life of immodesty; and the fair ladies, instead of enthusiastically welcoming the change, look upon it as something unworthy of being adopted. The reform wave has to face this mountain of prejudice, and, dashing headlong against it, destroy it. In the most favorable circumstances this is bound to be a slow process.

In order to gain a clearer conception of the situation, it is necessary to understand just what the position of the Turkish woman has been in the immediate past, and what it is, to a large extent, to-day. There is no use considering her position as defined in the Koran. The issue is concerned strictly with her actual, de facto status. In surveying this situation the fact stands uppermost that the Turkish woman has been considered necessary merely as an appendage to man. In the more affluent circles her sole excuse for existence has been to cater to the sensuous in the man; in the lower ranks, to perform household drudgery. Where a man was able to afford the luxury of having more than one wife, he was allowed to do so without the least let or hindrance, and the divorce laws were so interpreted and