86 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [RULL. 77. 
hunt shall take place. These important questions being settled, all 
are in readiness, and “ The day assigned for their departure having 
arrived, the squaws load their horses and dogs, and take as great a 
weight upon their own backs, as they can conveniently transport, and, 
after having closed the entrances to their several habitations, by 
placing a considerable quantity of brushwood before them, the whole 
nation departs from the village.” And thus they continue to move 
until word is brought that herds of buffalo are near, then they 
encamp at the nearest watercourse. The skin lodges, having been 
conveyed by means of the travois, are soon set up, to be occupied 
during the period of the hunt. These “are often fancifully orna- 
mented on the exterior, with figures, in blue and red paint, rudely 
executed, though sometimes depicted with no small degree of taste.” 
The buffalo skins obtained during the summer hunt were known as 
summer skins, and were used especially for the covering of their 
lodges and also for their garments. After a successful hunt all parts 
of the buffalo were carried to the camp and the vertebrae were 
crushed “by means of stone axes, similar to those which are not un- 
frequently ploughed up out of the earth in the Atlantic states.” 
After the summer hunt “ The nation return towards their village 
in the month of August, having visited for a short time the Pawnee 
villages for the purpose of trading their guns for horses. They 
are sometimes so successful, in their expedition, in the accumulation 
of meat, as to be obliged to make double trips, returning about mid- 
day for half the whole quantity, which was left in the morning. 
When within two or three days journey of their own village, runners 
are dispatched to it, charged with the duty of ascertaining the safety ° 
of it, and the state of the maize. 
“On the return of the nation, which is generally early in Septem- 
ber, a different. kind of employment awaits the ever industrious 
squaws. The property buried in the earth is to be taken up and 
arranged in the lodges, which are cleaned out, and put in order. The 
weeds which during their absence had grown up, in every direction 
through the village, are cut down and removed. A sufficient quan- 
tity of sweet corn is next to be prepared, for present and future use.” 
Being now plentifully supplied with food, unless for some unfore- 
seen cause having an ample quantity of buffalo meat and corn, 
together with the other products of the gardens, they would “ con- 
tent themselves in their village until the latter part of October, when, 
without the formality of a council, or other ceremony, they again 
depart from the village, and move in separate parties to various - 
situations on both sides of the Missouri, and its tributaries, as far 
down as the Platte. Their primary object at this time, is to obtain, 
on credit from the traders, various articles, indispensably necessary 
