YI 



The old-time Sioux was one of the earliest of the sad- 

 dle-riding Indians. He was to be met witli on the North- 

 ern plains some forty years ago. He managed his pony 

 with a stick or the hereditary jaw-rope, and this when 

 not in use he was wont to throw over the pony's neck, 

 whence it would shortly fall and trail along the ground. 

 But the pony never minded so small a thing. So well 

 was he used to a rope thus trailing that he never blun- 

 dered on it. This seems odd ; but if you will study the 

 clever way in which a horse will avoid the stones in the 

 road he is travelling over, by stepping slightly within or 

 beyond them, or on this or that side of them, all the while 

 apparently paying heed to other things, you will see how 

 naturally he may avoid treading on a trailing rope. A 

 horse is apt to get his leg caught in a bridle, because it 

 has two reins buckled together, but scarcely in a halter- 

 rope if he breaks loose from you. 



The home-made saddle of the old-time Sioux was con- 

 structed of a wooden or sometimes an elkhorn framework. 

 The side pieces were well apart, and were held to the 

 arches by the most ancient practice of shrinking rawhide 

 upon them. No one who has not used it has any idea of 

 how firmly rawhide will hold two such pieces together. 

 A broken wagon-tongue wrapped with rawhide is as good 

 as new — better. The pommel and cantle of the Sioux's 

 saddle were very much alike ; both rose perpendicularly 

 from the arch of the tree to a height of sometimes eighteen 



