80 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL 77 
and pillows, and served as seats by day and as beds by night. In 
the building of an earth lodge the cutting and putting on of the 
sods was always done by women, and as this part of the task had to 
be accomplished rapidly to prevent the drying out of the sods, which 
must hold well together, kindred helped one another. The erection 
of this class of dwelling required considerable labor, hence only the 
industrious and thrifty possessed these lodges.” (Fletcher and 
La Flesche, (1), pp. 97-98.) 
Although the earth-covered lodge, as just described, was used in 
the permanent villages, nevertheless in the same villages were to 
have been seen many of the conical skin tipis. Both types of habita- 
tion were standing at the Omaha village in 1871 when the photo- 
graph, now reproduced in plate 27, was made by W. H. Jackson. 
Near each earth lodge, “ generally to the left of the entrance, the 
cache was built. This consisted of a hole in the ground about 8 feet 
deep, rounded at the bottom and sides, provided with a neck just 
large enough to admit the body of a person. The whole was lined 
with split posts, to which was tied an inner lining of bunches of 
dried grass. The opening was protected by grass, over which sod 
was placed. In these caches the winter supply of food was stored; 
the shelled corn was put into skin bags, long strings of corn on the 
cob were made by braiding the outer husks, while the jerked meat 
was packed in parfleche cases. Pelts, regalia, and extra clothing 
were generally kept in the cache; but these were laid in ornamented 
parfleche cases, never used but for this purpose.” (Op. cit., p. 98.) 
On pages 95 and 96 of the work just cited appears a very inter- 
esting description of the making and raising of a skin tipi. “ For- 
merly the cover was made of 9 to 12 buffalo skins tanned on both 
sides. To cut and sew this cover so that it would fit well and be 
shapely when stretched over the circular framework of poles required 
skilful workmanship, the result of training and of accurate measure- 
ments ... The tent poles were 14 to 16 feet long. Straight young 
cedar poles were preferred. The bark was removed and the poles 
were rubbed smooth. The setting up of a tent was always a woman’s 
task. She first took four poles, laid them together on the ground, 
and then tied them firmly with a thong about 3 feet from one 
end. She then raised the poles and spread their free ends apart and 
thrust them firmly into the ground. These four tied poles formed the 
true framework of the tent. Other poles—10 to 20 in number, ac- 
cording to the size of the tent—were arranged in a circle, one end 
pressed well into the ground, the other end laid in the forks made 
by the tied ends of the four poles. There was a definite order in 
setting up the poles so that they would lock one another, and when 
they were all in place they constituted an elastic but firm frame, - 
