356 INDIANS. 



principles. The Ute Indians (a mountain and not a 

 plains tribe) make surrounds of antelope, and are said to 

 be very successful. 



In addition to the work required in war and hunting, 

 the male Indian finds employment in some attention to 

 his horses, in making saddles, bridles, lariats, everything 

 necessary for his own equipment. 



The work of the Indian woman is almost incessant 

 during daylight. Fortunately for her there is little 

 resinous wood on the plains, and their aboriginal in- 

 habitants have as yet devised no means of making a light 

 sufficient to work by at night. Once in a while they 

 obtain a few candles from a trader or a military post ; but 

 these are kept for grand occasions, and are more for 

 ornament than use. The woman makes all the clothing 

 for herself, husband, and family, whether of buckskin or 

 cloth. Until within a few years the needle was a piece 

 of sharpened bone, the thread a fibre of sinew. Now 

 nearly all the sewing is done with civilised appliances. 

 She cooks the food, brings all the wood and water 

 used in trie lodge. This last is not a hard task ; for they 

 do not bathe or wash the face and hands except on rare 

 occasions, and then they go to the stream. Bloody, 

 greasV, or otherwise filthy hands are wiped on the leg- 

 gings or other part of the clothing. I have never seen 

 an article of clothing washed in an Indian camp. 



I have already said that all the packing of household 

 goods, striking and pitching lodges, as also the packing 

 and unpacking of animals, is done by women. But her 

 hardest work is at the time of the fall hunt. If the buffalo 

 are moving, the success of the hunt may depend upon 

 the rapidity with which she performs her work on a 

 batch of dead buffalo. These animals spoil very 

 quickly if not disembowelled. The bucks do not, there- 

 fore, wish to kill in any one day more than the squaws 

 can skin and cut up that same day. No sooner are the 

 buffalo dead than the squaws are at work. 



