Which being done.

[karitaru]

Hi, can you please help me with the meaning of "which being done" in the following passage? I couldn't find it anywhere in the net.


"It was a creature of exceeding great size, being compassed about with a loose skin, sometimes of one color, sometimes of many, the which it was able to cast at will; which being done, the hind legs were discovered to be armed with short claws like to a mole's but broader, and ye forelegs with fingers of a curious slimness and a length much more prodigious than a frog's, armed also with broad talons for scratching in ye earth for its food."

Thank you.

 

[Raymott]

Hi, can you please help me with the meaning of "which being done" in the following passage? I couldn't find it anywhere in the net.


"It was a creature of exceedingly great size, being encompassed [?] about with a loose skin, sometimes of one color, sometimes of many, [STRIKE]the[/STRIKE] which it was able to cast at will; which being done, the hind legs were discovered to be armed with short claws like to a mole's but broader, and ye forelegs with fingers of a curious slimness and a length much more prodigious than a frog's, armed also with broad talons for scratching in ye earth for its food."

Thank you.

This is not a sentence by a native speaker - or it's very old. 'Ye'?

The underlined part means: "When the skin had been cast off..."
"The casting off of the skin which, being done, revealed the hind legs ..."
"...the skin which, [having] been cast off, revealed the hind legs..."

 

[karitaru]

Thank you so much.
Reading your post twice, it makes so much more sense now.
This is by the way a description of a human being in they eyes of animals.
So loose skin means cloths.
At first, I thought the first "which" indicated color, in the sense that he can change his color at will. But what you say about casting the "skin" makes more sense.