72 THE DRAMA OF THE FORESTS 



rushes, and finally, where the beds were to be laid, a heavy 

 mattress of balsam twigs laid, shingle-fashion, one upon 

 another, with their stems down. Thus a springy, comfortable 

 bed was formed, and the lodge perfumed with a delightful 

 forest aroma. Above the fireplace was hung a stage, or frame- 

 work of light sticks, upon which to dry or smoke the meat. 

 Around the wall on the inner side was hung a canvas curtain 

 that overlapped the floor, and thus protected the lodgers from 

 draught while they were sitting about the fire. The doorway 

 was two feet by five, and was covered with a raw deerskin 

 hung from the top. A stick across the lower edge kept the skin 

 taut. A log at the bottom of the doorway answered for a door- 

 step and in winter kept out the snow. Now the lodge was 

 ready for occupation. 



As there are six different ways of building campfires, it 

 should be explained that my friends built theirs according to 

 the Ojibway custom; that is, in the so-called "lodge fashion", 

 by placing the sticks upright, leaning them together, and cross- 

 ing them over one another in the manner of lodge poles. When 

 the fire was lighted, the windshields formed a perfect draught 

 to carry the smoke up through the permanently open flue in the 

 apex of the structure, and one soon reahzed that of all tents 

 or dwellings, no healthier abode was ever contrived by man. 

 Indeed, if the stupid, meddlesome agents of civilization had 

 been wise enough to have left the Indians in their tepees, instead 

 of forcing them to five in houses — the ventilation of which was 

 never understood — they would have been spared at least one of 

 civihzation's diseases — tuberculosis — and many more tribes- 

 men would have been alive to-day. 



On entering an Indian tepee one usuaUy finds the first space, 

 on the right of the doorway, occupied by the woodpile; the 

 next, by the wife; the third, by the baby; and the fourth, by 

 the husband. Opposite these, on the other side of the fire, 

 the older children are ranged. To the visitor is allotted the 



