BUSHNELL] VILLAGES WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI 19 
people. On these poles, skins are laid, at the height of twelve or 
fifteen feet, thus forming a spacious court, or tent. The provisions 
consist both of dried and of fresh meat, as it would not be practicable 
to prepare a sufficient quantity of fresh meat, for such a multitude, 
which, however, consists only of men. At these feasts, the guests 
converse only on elevated topics, such as the public interests of the 
tribe, and the noble exploits of their progenitors, that they may 
infuse a publick and an heroic spirit, into their young men. Dancing 
always forms the concluding ceremony, at these festivals; and the 
women, who are not permitted to enter the place where they are cele- 
brated, dance and sing around them, often keeping time with the 
music within.” (Harmon, (1), p. 362.) It is to be regretted that 
these early accounts are often so lacking in detail, and that so much 
is left to imagination. In this instance the form of the large struc- 
ture was not mentioned, but it was probably extended, resembling to 
some degree the Midé lodge of the Ojibway. Among the latter the 
large ceremonial lodge was covered with mats, sheets of bark, or 
sometimes with skins or boughs of pine or spruce. Like customs may 
have prevailed among the Cree. 
Proving the wandering, roving dispositon of the Cree, and the con- 
sequent lack of permanent villages, Maximilian wrote from Fort 
Union, at the mouth of the Yellowstone, during the latter part of 
June, 1833: “The Crees live in the same territory as the Assiniboins, 
that is, between the Saskatschawan, the Assiniboin, and the Mis- 
souri. They ramble about in small bands with the others, are poor, 
have many dogs, which carry their baggage, but only a few horses. 
They live, like the Assiniboins, in leather tents, follow the herds of 
buffaloes, of which they sometimes kill great numbers in their parks. 
The Crees are reckoned at 600 or 800 tents.” (Maximilian, (1), pp. 
199-200.) 
The dog travois, such as was used by the Cree and mentioned in the 
preceding account, was of very ancient origin, having been seen and 
described by the first Spanish explorers to traverse the prairie lands 
of the Southwest. In Relacion Postrera de Sivola, prepared in the 
year 1541, appears this interesting note: 
“These people have dogs like those in this country, except that 
they are somewhat larger, and they load these dogs like beasts of 
burden, and make saddles for them like our pack saddles, and they 
fasten them with their leather thongs, and these make their backs 
sore on the withers like pack animals. When they go hunting, they 
load these with their necessities, and when they move—for these In- 
dians are not settled in one place, since they travel wherever the cows 
[buffalo] move, to support themselves—these dogs carry their houses, 
and they have the sticks of their houses dragging along tied on to 
