It consisted of soft buffalo robes
laid together on the ground, and a pillow made of whitened deerskin
stuffed with feathers and ornamented with beads.
At his back was a
light framework of poles and slender reeds, against which he could
lean with ease when in a sitting posture; and at the top of it, just
above his head, his bow and quiver were hanging. His squaw, a
laughing, broad-faced woman, apparently had not yet completed her
domestic arrangements, for she was bustling about the lodge, pulling
over the utensils and the bales of dried meats that were ranged
carefully round it. Unhappily, she and her partner were not the only
tenants of the dwelling, for half a dozen children were scattered
about, sleeping in every imaginable posture. My saddle was in its
place at the head of the lodge and a buffalo robe was spread on the
ground before it. Wrapping myself in my blanket I lay down, but had
I not been extremely fatigued the noise in the next lodge would have
prevented my sleeping. There was the monotonous thumping of the
Indian drum, mixed with occasional sharp yells, and a chorus chanted
by twenty voices. A grand scene of gambling was going forward with
all the appropriate formalities. The players were staking on the
chance issue of the game their ornaments, their horses, and as the
excitement rose, their garments, and even their weapons, for
desperate gambling is not confined to the hells of Paris.
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