ETHNOLOGY. 



461 



well secured against surprise, and is by nature altogether one of the 

 most defensible places I have seen/' 



When the lines of Fort Sill were being laid out in 1869, some officers 

 of the command were discussiug the capacity of the Indian for construct* 

 ing defenses, and to settle the question a sketch of the works was made. 

 It was found upon examination that no better disposition of the earth- 

 works, for purposes of defense, could have been made by the most skill- 

 ful military engineer. Es-sad-dowa, the old chief of the Wichitas, had 

 previously informed me that each of these earthworks surrounded one 

 of the peculiarly constructed grass houses of that people, and that at 

 this town a big battle was fought with the Pawnees thirty years ago. 

 He said arrows would not peuetrate the woven walls of the houses, unless 

 shot at close range, aud they were almost bullet-proof; but when this 

 village was built only a few of the Indians of that section had guns, 

 and it was therefore built as a defeuse against assailants armed with 

 bows and arrows, lances, and tomahawks. The interior of these 

 circular works appeared to be about a foot and a half lower than 

 the level of the plateau, but Es-sad-dowa informed me that originally 

 the depression was three feet. The bank which surrounded the depres- 

 sion seemed to vary from a foot to a foot aud a half in height, but he 

 Figure l. assured me that 



it was originally 

 about two feet; 

 this would make 

 about five feet of 

 earthen protec- 

 tion for the de- 

 fenders of the 

 house, as shown 



in Figure 1. He further said that the houses were all wet on the ap- 

 proach of an enemy in order to prevent the thatch being fired by brands 

 attached to arrows. The women and children were protected, also, by 

 the embankment. Es-sad-dowa stated that this mode of constructing 

 houses for defense was known to the Wichitas from their earliest tra- 

 ditions, and that this town was probably the last of the kind that 

 would be built, as they were originally designed to answer the wants of 

 a people who had no horses. " Now," said he, " what could we do with 

 our horses (they have large herds) in places like this ? The people who 

 came to fight us would come mounted. We could not keep our horses 

 in our houses, and if we sent them off with a small party they might 

 be overtaken and captured. It would be better to abandon the town, 

 lead the horses up a canon in the mountains, and defend the entrance, 

 When the Pawnees came. we had to send our horses off to the Coman- 

 ches, all but one or two in each house for the survivors to escape on, if 

 defeated, and to follow up and observe the enemy if he retreated." 

 These are nearly his words as I translated them. The Pawnees were 



