218 NOTES TAKEN. 
mies at court; philanthropy for the dusky children of the 
plains, with whom they are brought daily in contact. 
September 10th to 30th.—Having obtained the necessary 
supplies, we marched this morning at sunrise, and crossing the 
Brazos, encamped at noon about fifteen miles below Fort 
Belknap, where a selection had been made for the Indians of 
a fine body of land with plenty of wood and water. Near this 
point was a Caddo village of about one hundred and fifty 
lodges. These were constructed by erecting a frame-work of 
poles, placed in a circle in the ground, the tops united in an 
oval form, strongly bound with withes, and thatched with long 
grass. They were about twenty-five feet in diameter at the 
base and twenty feet high, making a very comfortable shelter, 
and looking in the distance like hay or grain stacks, 
Each person had a bunk raised from the ground and covered 
with skins, as a couch, and the fire was built in the contre, the 
smoke escaping from the apex of the cone, 
Our quondam acquaintance, Jim Shaw, came down and 
encamped near us, remaining during our stay. 
Jim led a Gypsy life, with his wife and two children, living 
entirely in tents, but providing many comforts for them 
unknown or unthought of by other Indians. 
I visited his camp several times, and was surprised to find 
some domestic appendages which I did not expect to see with 
them, moving as they did from place to place, viz., two cats 
and some barn-yard fowls. 
He seemed very fond of his family, and anxious. that his 
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