BUSHNELL] VILLAGES WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI 181 
Indians appear seated or reclining.” It undoubtedly served as a 
gathering place, out of doors, and gave protection from the rays 
of the sun. 
Waco. 
On August 23, 1853, the expedition under command of Lieut. 
A. W. Whipple camped at some point in the southwestern portion 
of the present McClain County, Oklahoma, and that evening were 
visited by two Indians, “the one tall and straight, the other ill- 
looking. Their dress consisted of a blue cotton blanket wrapped 
around the waist, a head-dress of eagles’ feathers, brass’ wire brace- 
lets, and moccasins. The outer cartilages of their ears were cut 
through in various places, and short sticks inserted in place of rings. 
They were painted with vermilion, and carried bows of bois d’are 
‘three feet long, and cow-skin quivers filled with arrows. The latter 
were about twenty-six inches in length, with very sharp steel heads, 
tastefully and skillfully made. The feathers with which they 
were tipped, and the sinews which bound them, were prettily tinted 
with red, blue, and green. The shafts were colored red, and said to 
be poisoned.” (Whipple, (1), p. 22.) Unable to converse with the 
two strangers, the interpreter proceeded to interview them by signs. 
“The graceful motions of the hands seemed to convey ideas faster 
than words could have done, and with the whole operation we were 
highly amused and interested. Our visitors now said that they 
were not Kichais, but Huécos, and that they were upon a hunting 
expedition.” Referring to the same two Indians another member 
of the expedition wrote: 
“The newcomers belonged to the tribe of Wakos, or Waekos, 
neighbours of the Witchita Indians, who live to the east of the 
Witchita Mountains, in a village situated on the bank of a small 
river rising in that direction. They were now on a journey to the 
Canadian, to meet a barter-trader there, but having heard of our 
expedition, had turned out of their way to pay us a visit. The 
Wakos and Witchitas differ only in name, and in some slight varie- 
ties of dialect; their villages are built in the same style, and are 
only about a thousand yards from one‘another. Their wigwams, of 
which the Witchitas count forty-two, and the Wakos only twenty, 
look a good deal like haycocks, and are constructed with pliable 
poles, eighteen or twenty feet long, driven into the ground in a 
circle of twenty-five feet diameter; the poles are then bent together 
and fastened to one another at the top, and the spaces between filled 
with plaited willow twigs and turf, a low aperture being left for a 
door, and one above for a chimney. A place is hollowed out in the 
centre for a fireplace, and around this, and a little raised, are 
placed the beds of the inhabitants of the hut; which, when covered 
