TRAVAUX SADDLES 4^ 



parts of the Cumberhintl ^Mountains. They are of domes- 

 tic manufacture, and are simply constructed of bent sap- 

 lings lashed with green withes. As a rule, a cow or 

 young steer is hitched singly into these sleds, which run 

 with light loads all over the country — on mud roads in 

 summer, and but for a short while on snow in midwinter. 

 I have talked with old men in Eastern Kentucky who had 

 never seen a wheel. That sounds odd, but it is true. 



The Blackfoot makes the neatest trappings for the tra- 

 vaux ponies and pack-saddles. The pony is fitted with a 

 huge leathern bag, heavily fringed and gaudy with red and 

 blue flannel strips and beads of many colors. Over this 

 goes the pack-saddle, ^vhich is not very dissimilar to tlie 

 riding-saddle ; but it is of coarser build, and has a perpen- 

 dicular pommel and cantle. In the pommel is a notch to 

 receive one end of the tepee-poles, which are sometimes 

 bound together two or three on each side, and, trailing 

 past either flank of the pony, are held in place by two 

 pieces of wood lashed to them just behind his tail and a. 

 bit farther back. In the socket so made rides the par- 

 fleche, a sort of rawhide trunk, and this receives the camp 

 utensils — plunder, children, sometimes an old man or wom- 

 an, puppies, and all the other camp impedimenta — while 

 a squaw rides behind the pack-saddle on the pony, indif- 

 ferently astride or sidewise, with her feet on the poles, 

 and perhaps a youngster bestrides its neck. Thus laden, 

 the wonderful little beast, which is rarely up to fourteen 

 hands, plods along all day, covering unheard-of distances, 

 and living on what bunch-grass he can pick up in spare 

 mouients, with a mouthful of water now and again. 



There are apt to be several ponies to carry the plunder 

 of the occupants of one tepee, and often one of them is 

 loaded down with the rougher stufl^, while a second may 

 be decked out with the finery and carry only one squaw — 



4 



