'74 
FOREST AND STREAM 
[Feb. 2, 1907. 
Putting Up an Indian. Lodge. 
While in buffalo days some of the wild In¬ 
dians of the plains occupied permanent dwellings 
during a part of the year, there were others 
who lived wholly in movable lodges. 
These were made of buffalo skins tanned white 
and sewed together. They were of different 
sizes, the poor occupying smaller lodges, while 
the wealthy man, he who owned many horses, 
very likely had a large family and required a 
larger lodge. The size of a man’s lodge was 
to some extent an indication of his wealth. Two 
horses were needed to drag the poles of a large 
lodge and one to carry the lodge itself; three 
horses for the transportation of the dwelling 
alone, to say nothing of the other property and 
the different members of the family. 
A lodge of moderate size required eleven skins 
and eighteen poles were needed to set it up. A 
sixteen skin lodge required twenty-two poles. 
The larger the lodge the greater was the num¬ 
ber of poles needed. From the fact that they 
used an unusual number of poles in setting up 
their lodges, it resulted that the Cheyennes had 
well stretched, nice looking lodges. 
The Northern Cheyennes declare that an odd 
number of hides was always used for the best 
lodges, and the number might range from eleven 
to twenty-one. The skins were sewed together 
with sinew thread. First, of course, the hides 
must be tanned; the hair removed and the skin 
softened. Then the Cheyenne woman held a sew¬ 
ing “bee” which was not unlike the “bees” of 
our ancestors in the early days of this country. 
She invited* her friends to come and help her 
sew her lodge, and provided them with refresh¬ 
ments. Among them was always one woman 
especially skillful in cutting out the lodges, and 
she fitted the skins together before the women 
began to sew them. 
All this is introductory to the story of the 
raising of the lodge which is figured in our sup¬ 
plement this week. There we see at work put¬ 
ting up her lodge Stands Out, a tall, handsome, 
self-respecting Cheyenne woman, no longer in her 
first youth, for she is the mother of grown up 
children. 
Before the lod^e is erected she has carefully 
gone over it to see that it is in good order. It 
may have been worn against the saddle, or a 
lash rope may have cut a hole in it, or it may 
have been torn; and if there are holes they must 
be patched before the lodge is put up, other¬ 
wise it will leak to the discomfort of some one. 
If holes are found, Stands Out cuts a piece of hide 
of the proper size and with the awl and sinew 
mends them. A hole is punched by the keen 
awl, the sinew thread, moistened in the riiouth, 
is pointed and passed through this hole as a 
shoemaker passes his waxed end through leather 
and the .patch is sewn on. So, one by one, all 
holes and rents are repaired until the lodge is 
everywhere tight and rain proof. ■ 
The first operation of erecting the lodge is 
to tie together the three poles which form the 
lodge’s foundation. These are lashed together 
at the proper distance from their butts by one 
end of a long rope and the three poles are 
erected and the butts spread so as to form a 
tripod. The long line, one end of which lashes 
them together, hangs down and several feet of 
it tests on the ground. After the three poles 
have been properly spread, all the remaining 
poles save three are leaned up against the forks 
of the first three in such a way that they are 
evenly distributed, their butts forming a short 
ellipse on the ground. It is generally believed 
that the poles form a circle, but this is not true; 
the figure is elliptical and the length of the ellipse 
is from windward to leeward. 
The poles having been properly arranged, 
Stands Out takes hold of the line which hangs 
down from the three important poles, steps out¬ 
side the circle of the lodge 'poles and walks 
around them from east to south to west to north, 
holding the line in her hand and throwing it up 
as she moves, so that it slips up as far as pos¬ 
sible, and tightly holds all the poles at the point 
where they cross each other. The result of this 
act is that all the poles are strongly bound to¬ 
gether. Then she enters between the poles, pulls 
the line as tight as she can, drives a stout pin 
into the ground near the fire, and ties the line 
firmly to this, thus anchoring the lodge poles 
from the center and relieving the strain on any 
set of them in case a hard wind comes up. 
Of the whole number of poles to be used in 
the lodge three still remain on the ground. One 
of these is used to raise the lodge lining. In¬ 
side the lodge lining at the back of the smoke 
hole, two stout leather thongs are fastened to 
the lodge covering and these are firmly bound to 
this pole at just the proper height. By this 
means, when the pole with the lodge covering is 
raised, and the pole is laid up in its proper place 
against the forks of the other poles, the smoke 
hole is at just the right height above the ground 
and the border of the lodge covering all about 
nearly reaches the ground. The woman now 
walks about the poles, and spreads the lodge 
covering over them, shaking it out and flapping 
it in the direction she wants it to go, somewhat 
as a bed maker flaps a sheet, until its nearly 
vertical borders meet in front. These borders 
are then pinned together, as high up as she can 
reach, by means of little wooden skewers which 
pass through holes in the margin of the lodge 
covering. Stands Out cannot reach up as far 
as the lower edge of the smoke hole, so she gets 
a travois and leaning it up against the lodge 
climbs up and stands up on that,, and finishes the 
pinning. Next conies the final arrangement of 
the butts of the poles, so that the lodge covering 
shall be evenly supported and stretched on all 
sides, and then the driving of the pins into the 
ground to hold the lodge covering down. Now 
the small ends of the two other poles are passed 
into little loops or pockets at the points of the 
wings, and these are extended in the proper 
direction. 
Stands Out now digs a hole in the ground in 
the middle of the lodge for her fire, and if pos¬ 
sible she gets a few stones as big as one’s fist 
and puts them in a circle around the fireplace. 
Then she hangs the door, tying it by its strings 
to one of the pins which holds the front of 
the lodge together and her house is completed. 
It has taken a long time to describe this opera¬ 
tion, but it does not take Stands Out a long time 
to perform it. She works briskly, never makes 
a false move and wastes no energy. She has 
built her house, and when the fire is kindled and 
the lining put up, it will be warm and comfort¬ 
able on the coldest winter day. 
Quail Drowned Out. 
New Bern, N. C., Jan. 19 —Editor Forest and 
Stream: Every last one of the “57 varieties” 
of calendars I received at Christmas says that 
this is the 19th of January, but I don’t believe 
it. Possibly “you all” do—but then there are 
corroborating circumstances up “thataway,” such 
as snow and a 20-mile nor’wester with the mer¬ 
cury down around 14 degrees Fahr. Here, in 
North Carolina it is the 19th of April. You have 
had some rain, too, up there, I see, during the 
last three weeks: Here we have had but gne 
drizzly day since Dec. 31, and are going about 
with our beaks open and wings drooping from 
the heat. Day after day the sun shines out of a 
clear sky, the surface of Neuse River (except 
on two occasions) has been like unto a mirror, 
and the girls are driving about (three in a 
buggy) .wearing shirtwaists and no hats. But 
that isn’t' what I started to tell you about, for 
this is a sporting article, if you please. 
In a somewhat recent issue your (naturally) 
optimistic correspondent from Raleigh states 
what he doubtless believed to be the conditions 
regarding the quail supply in this State, to which 
is appended the following- editorial qualification: 1 
"In some sections, however, the quail seem to be 
fewer in number, and it is thought by some peo¬ 
ple that the young birds were drowned out by 
the summer rains.— Ed.” 
This statement is entirely too conservative; there 
is no doubt whatever on the subject in the minds 
of not merely “some,” but of many people. 1 he 
young quail were drowned out and their bodies 
were found almost everywhere. To believe this 
one has only to see, as I have seen, the record 
of the summer rainfall, kept by J. B. Hill, the 
special observer of the U. S. Weather Bureau 
for this section. Rain fell on 24 days in June, 
25 days in July and 25 days in August, the total 
precipitation being nearly 40 inches! On the 
14th of June the rainfall amounted to 4.21 
inches! On the previous day it had been 1 62 
inch and on the day following it was r.24 inch. 
Then came six more in succession with .29, 1.15, 
1.19, 1.89, .22 and -.92 inches! In July nearly 
a foot of rain fell,. 3.09 inches falling in parts 
of two days. 
This abnormal precipitation extended over a 
very large area in eastern North Carolina, and 
when one reflects that (according to Traut- 
wine) ■ the weight of one inch of water on one 
acre of ground is 101 tons, it is sm^ll wonder 
that the little quail, as well as the crops,' were 
drowned out. But even if the usual number of 
quail had lived to maturity, the heat and dryness 
of November, December and January have been 
such as to make hunting laborious and exhaust¬ 
ing, and not many, even of the *oid birds of 
which the coveys are mainly composed, have 
been bagged, this season in eastern Carolina. 
J. L. Kearny. 
A Wildcat in the Highlands. 
West Park, N. Y., Jan. 21 .—Editor Forest and 
Stream: A wildcat'was shot here yesterday 
under most unusual circumstances. A neighbor 
of mine, Mr. S. W. Freleigh, heard a great com¬ 
motion among his hens about half-past twelve in 
the morning. On looking in the hen house he 
saw dead hens lying everywhere and on hear¬ 
ing a loud “thump” he saw the big wildcat stand¬ 
ing up in the corner, his front paws held up like 
a begging dog, his eyes as .big as “tea cups.” 
Mr. Freleigh shut the door and slides at once. 
While he was gone for his gun, a few paces- 
away, the cat went on killing chickens. 
While warm the cat measured four feet from 
front to hind paws. It was very poor, being but 
little more than bone and fur. Its track was 
like that of a large dog. It.was the first wild¬ 
cat seen in this vicinity for many years. No one 
dreamed of their being around except some 
children who declared they had heard a “panther 
holler.” The night watchman on the railroad 
near Mr. Freleigh said he had heard this one 
squall the night before the chicken killing. On 
looking the cat was tracked to a hollow under a 
big tree nearby from which lair it had only dome 
out once since the last snow until it made its 
noon time raid on the chickens. It killed thirty- 
nine pullets, biting them in the neck, eating none. 
I took two pictures and a chicken to “try.” I 
will report the result later. Last summer the- 
hired girl had come in in alarm one night, de¬ 
claring she had heard a wildcat. I told her there 
was none nearer than Canada or the Adiron- 
dacks and that she was the only “wildcat” I 
knew of. How little one can tell when it comes- 
to wild animals. Julian Burroughs. 
