BUSHNELL] VILLAGES WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI 119 
places for themselves, which was so much the better for me as I 
was placed between them. The medicine pipe, with a bowl cut out 
of some red stone, went round briskly, and the time that was em- 
ployed in distributing the meat intended for the meal I spent in 
taking a good view of the Indian dwelling. Sixteen long poles, 
made of slender pine trees, were so placed as to form a circle of 
sixteen or eighteen feet in diameter, their tops being bent over and 
fastened together. Around this framework was thrown, like a 
mantle, the tent leather, consisting of a great number of buffalo- 
hides, tanned white, and neatly sewed together for the purpose 
with sinews. The leather did not reach quite to the top, but left 
an opening, by which the smoke could escape; but there were two 
prolongations of the tent leather, something like flags, which were 
supported by particular poles, so as, in stormy weather or contrary 
winds, to form a very tolerable chimney. The tent was fixed so 
firmly to the ground with pegs that the tightly stretched sides would 
admit neither the rain nor the snow, when it melted from the heat 
of the fire; and the inhabitants had not only a secure refuge, but 
a tolerably comfortable dwelling. The various possessions of the 
Indians were hung round on the tent poles, where they only took up 
room that could easily be dispensed with, and kept out the cold 
that could have most readily found an entrance at those places. On 
the space round the fire, buffalo-hides were spread for beds at night, 
and when rolled up in the day made convenient seats; the fire, in 
a kind of pit half a foot deep, and two and a half in diameter, was 
a mass of glowing embers, with a number of logs blazing on the 
top, and diffused a most pleasant warmth over the small space. 
Near the fire a branch of a tree was stuck into the ground, and 
another placed horizontally across it, and running the whole breadth 
of the tent, from which hung the most indispensable of household 
utensils in the form of a great kettle, whilst the rest of the pole 
was covered with wet and torn mocassins and gaiters, in a manner 
that was certainly more convenient than ornamental . . . Besides the 
wild half-naked forms of the Indians, a number of dogs, young and 
old, made part of the company assembled in Wa-ki-ta-mo-nee’s tent. 
The attention of the mistress of the family, a very dirty old squaw, 
was exclusively devoted to the vast kettle and its bubbling contents; 
a row of roughly-cut wooden platters stood before her, and by 
means of a pointed stick she fished up from the cauldron large joints 
of bear and half turkeys, and loaded each of the platters with a huge 
portion of the savoury smelling food.” (Mdllhausen, (1), I, pp. 
171-175.) The second tent, so he wrote, “ was more spacious ” than 
the one which he had entered, and described. This is an interesting 
description of a small winter camp of the Oto as it stood in the midst 
71934°—22—_9 
