350 
THE headman’s family. 
ii height of some fifteen in the centre, and which de- 
creased dome-like as it neared the ground-part of the 
sides. In the centre of the curved ceiling there was 
quite a large aperture, and directly underneath this 
were piled a number of hearth-stones, over and about 
which a lately-built fire was smoking itself into a state 
of fitful ‘Hdaziness” in honour of our discovered ap- 
proach and subsequent arrival. 
Two boys, of about the ages of eight and ten, were 
seated upon their haunches near it, ■watching its growing 
power, and adding dry fragments of fuel as occasion 
called for. Like those who accompanied us, they were 
dressed in tanned (?) skins, with the hair inside, and, 
though of very small stature, were still rigged in every 
respect like their more elderly companions : they even 
had the two knives stuck in sockets worked in their 
trousers below the knee. 
We soon found that we were in the house of the man 
of the smooth-bore rifle, and that these little fellows 
were his youngest children, while the other two whom 
w’C had fii'st met were his elder ones, — the four con- 
stituting the male portion of his family. Where were 
the fair sex, — those fireside-ornaments? AVe looked 
around and asked in vain, — the only satisfaction we 
obtained being a wave of the headman’s hand toward 
the mountains; and this we took to infer that they 
had been sent back into the country for safe-keeping. 
As the fire now blazed up brightly and lit up the 
gloomy recesses of the extensive apartment with its 
uncertain light, we made the discovery that there were 
two rooms in one; that is, the fire was built in the 
