LIFE IN THE FAR WEST 133 



with their feet towards it, the inmates sleep on skins 

 and buftalo rugs, which are rolled up during the day, 

 and stowed at the back of the lodge. 



In travelling, the lodge-poles are secured half on each 

 side a horse, and the skins placed on transversal bars 

 near the ends, which trail along the ground two or 

 three squaws or children mounted on the same horse, or 

 the smallest of the latter borne in the dog travees. A 

 set of lodge-poles will last from three to seven years, 

 unless the village is constantly on the move, when they 

 are soon worn out in trailing over the gravelly prairie. 

 They are usually of ash, which grows on many of the 

 mountain creeks, and regular expeditions are undertaken 

 when a supply is required, either for their own lodges, 

 or for trading with those tribes who inhabit the prairies 

 at a great distance from the locality where the poles are 

 procured. 



There are also certain creeks where the Indians resort 

 to lay in a store of kinnik-kinnik, (the inner bark of the 

 red willow,) which they use as a substitute for tobacco, 

 and which has an aromatic and very pungent flavour. 

 It is prepared for smoking by being scraped in thin 

 curly flakes from the slender saplings, and crisped before 

 the fire, after which it is rubbed between the hands, 

 into a form resembling leaf-tobacco, and stored in skin 

 bags for use. It has a highly narcotic effect on those 

 not habituated to its use, and produces a heaviness 

 sometimes approaching stupefaction, altogether different 

 from the soothing effects of tobacco. 



Every year, owing to the disappearance of the buffalo 



