This was the
most difficult part of our duty: as it required much skill to take
everything necessary off and not to cut or injure the hide. It was
also a long process, as six of us had to clean an hundred and fifty,
most of which required a great deal to be done to them, as the
Spaniards are very careless in skinning their cattle. Then, too, as we
cleaned them while they were staked out, we were obliged to kneel down
upon them, which always gives beginners the back-ache. The first
day, I was so slow and awkward that I cleaned only eight; at the end
of a few days I doubled my number; and in a fortnight or three
weeks, could keep up with the others, and clean my proportion-
twenty-five.
This cleaning must be got through with before noon; for by that time
they get too dry. After the sun has been upon them a few hours, they
are carefully gone over with scrapers, to get off all the grease which
the sun brings out. This being done, the stakes are pulled up, and the
hides carefully doubled, with the hair side out, and left to dry.
About the middle of the afternoon they are turned upon the other side,
and at sundown piled up and covered over.
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