MOROCCO, in commerce, a fine kind of leather, prepared of the skin of an ani mal of the goat kind, and imported from the Levant, Barbary, &c.
The name was probably taken from the kingdom of Morocco, whence the man ner of preparing it was borrowed, which is this : the .skins being first dried in the hair, are steeped in clear water three days and nights ; then stretched on a tan ner's horse, beaten with a large knife, and steeped afresh in water every day till they be well come : then they are thrown into a large vat in the ground full of wa ter, where quick lime has been slaked, and there lie fifteen days ; whence they are taken and again returned every night and morning. Then they are thrown into a fresh vat of lime and water, and shifted night and morning for fifteen days lon ger ; then rinsed in clear water, and the hair taken off on the leg with the knife, returned into the third vat, and shifted as before for eighteen days ; steeped twelve hours in a river, taken out, rinsed, put in pails, where they are pounded with wood en pestles, changing the water twice ; then laid on the horse, and the flesh tak en off; returned into pails of new water, taken out, and the hair side scraped ; re turned into fresh pails, taken out, and thrown into a pail of a particular form, having holes at bottom : here they are beaten for the space of an hour, and fresh water poured on from time to time; then being stretched on the leg, and scraped on either aide, they are returned into pails of fresh water, taken out, stretched, and sewed up all round in manner of bags, leaving out the hinder legs as an aperture for the conveyance of a certain mixture.
The skins thus sewed are put into luke warm water, where dog's excrement has been dissolved. Here they are stirred with long poles for half an hour, left at rest a dozen, taken out, rinsed in fresh water, and filled by a tunnel with a pre paration of water and sumac, mixed and heated over the fire till ready to boil ; and, as they are filled, the hind legs are sewed up to stop the passage. In this state they are let down into the vessel of water and sumac, and kept stirring for four hours successively ; taken out and heaped on one another; after a little time their bides are changed; and thus they continue an hour and a half, till drained. This done, they are loosened, and filled a second time with the same preparation, sewed up again, and kept stirring two hours, piled up, and drained as before. This process is again repeated, with this difference, that they are now stirred only a quarter of an hour ; after which they are left till next morning, when they are taken out, drained on a rack, unsew ed, the sumac taken out, folded in two from head to tail, the hair aide outwards, laid over each other on the leg, to per fect their draining, stretched out and.
dried ; then trampled under foot by two and two, stretched on a wooden table, what flesh and sumac remains scraped off, the hain side rubbed over with oil, and that again with water.
Then they are wrung with the hands stretched, and pressed tight on the table with an iron instrument like that of a currier, the flesh side uppermost ; then turned, and the hair side rubbed strongly over with a handful of rushes, to squeeze out as much of the oil refraining as pos sible. The first course of black is now laid on the hair side, by means of a lock of hair twisted and steeped in a kind of black dye, prepared of sour beer, where in pieces of old rusty iron have been thrown. When half dried by hanging in the air, they are stretched on a table, rubbed over every way with a paumelle, or wooden-toothed instrument, to raise the grain, over which is passed a light couche dwater, then sleeked by rubbing them with rushes prepared for the pur pose. Thus sleeked, they have a second couche of black, then dried laid on the table,rubbed over with a paumelle ofcork, to raise the grain again; and, after a light couche of water, sleeked over anew ; and, to raise the grain a third time, a pail melte of wood is used.
After the hair side has received all its preparations, the flesh side is paired with a sharp knife for the purpose ; the hair side is strongly rubbed over with a wool len cap, having before given it a gloss with barberries citron, or orange. The whole is finished by raising the grain lightly, for the last time, with the pau melle of cork ; so that they are now fit for the market.
.Manner of preparing red Morocco. Af ter steeping, stretching, scraping, beat ing, and rinsing, as before, they are at length wrung, stretched on the leg, and passed after each other into water, where alum has been dissolved. Thus alumed, they are left to drain till morning, then wrung out, pulled on the leg, and folded from bead to tail, the flesh inwards.
In this state they receive their first dye, by passing them one after another into a red liquor, prepared with lac, and some other ingredients, which the maroqui neers keep a secret. This they repeat again and again, till the skins have got their first colour ; then they are rinsed in clear water, stretched on the leg, and left to drain twelve hours ; thrown into water, into which white galls pulverized have been passed through a sieve, and stirred incessantly for a day with long poles ; taken out, hung on a har across the water all night, white against red, and red against white, and in the morning the water stirred up, and the skins returned into it for twenty-four hours.