I04 THE TRAVOIS 



we may reckon well that some good matron 

 grudged the loss, at moving time, of tent poles, 

 the cutting of which had cost her heavy labour, 

 done as it was without steel tools like ours. 



She saw the tent poles left behind when the 

 milch-pony herd moved off. She told the 

 herders to lash a pair of her poles, one on 

 either side of each pony's neck with the ends 

 traihng astern. The next idea was to lash a 

 couple of cross bars across the trailing poles 

 behind the pony's hocks, and that was enough 

 to keep them at a proper angle. It was easy 

 then to lash a skin robe in position between the 

 trailing poles and the two cross bars, making a 

 sort of basket, something to carry the old 

 mother, who must otherwise be left behind to 

 perish. Here then was transport which en- 

 abled the tribe to march with its tent poles, old 

 folk and baggage. One can imagine how the 

 medicine men protested against so shocking a 

 violation of the laws of nature, which decree 

 that the aged shall be left as a meal for our 

 hunting companions, the range wolves. But 

 here the priests would find themselves opposed 

 by the common sense of every man and woman ; 

 so they would doubtless yield with an ill 

 grace, after enacting a law that this new means 

 of transport was a special privilege for aged 



