Songbird awakened early one morning and lost no time getting into her
moccasins and buckskin dress. Then she braided her hair and fastened it
with bits of red string.
Aided by one of the older squaws, she set the tepee in order for the
day. The home of the Quahada Chief, though larger than other dwellings
in the big village, was built like the rest.
A circular framework of poles had been erected to form a peak where they
joined near the top. There were twenty poles made of hewn cedar trees.
The poles were lashed together by hide ropes, then firmly sewed buffalo
skins, stretched tautly over them, were pegged solidly to the hard
ground. But an opening at the top of the tepee permitted the ends of the
poles to protrude.
In the centre of Songbird's home was a fire, arranged so that the smoke
would pass through the opening at the top of the tepee. On either side
of this pit hung skins on crude frames. By moving these screens the
smoke from the fire pit could be controlled when the wind shifted, thus
making an inside chimney which carried off the smoke but allowed the
warmth to spread in the tepee. Near the fire crotched sticks supported a
pole on which clothes, robes, or moccasins could be hung when wet.
The doors or openings of all the tepees in the village faced the east,
and were closed by flaps of buffalo hides on frames which enabled them
to be lifted easily, yet which stayed in place during bad weather.
Two beds, or seats, were arranged inside the dwelling. One at a side,
the other at the back. These beds were merely slightly raised platforms
on which many soft robes had been thrown. But there were pillows of
buckskin stuffed with the feathers of wild turkeys, geese, or ducks,
mixed with long, soft hair cut from buffalo hides.
Decorated skins hung slanting from the centre of the room across and
over the two beds, so that any water would be drained from the smoke
hole in rainy weather, and thus the fire was protected, as well as the
beds. The entire inside of the tepees had been painted by Moko in
designs of queer characters, or pictures of Comanches hunting or
fighting.
Mats of woven bark and plaited rushes lay on the smooth, hard dirt
floor. A border of interwoven twigs around the two beds kept cold drafts
away in winter. During the summer the edges of the tepee were lifted and
tied, thus allowing the breeze full sway.
Songbird was very proud of her home as she bustled around, sweeping the
earth floor with her broom made of coarse grass and twigs. Then with the
wing of a wild turkey, she carefully brushed the scattered ashes to the
centre of the fire-pit. Her father's best saddle hung on a post, and on
another was his big shield made of toughened buffalo hide.
She stood looking at the shield, for it was beautifully painted, and a
fringe of buckskin bordered it all around. The buffalo hide had been
shrunken over fire to make it twice as tough and thick as originally.
Moko had told her about the important ceremony which took place when a
new shield was made, and how the Medicine Man blessed it, so that it
would protect the warrior who carried it.
She had also told how the Quahadas in battle formed long lines, and the
other Indians who were enemies made a line opposite. After that, one
warrior rode out alone. Holding his shield high in the air, and
balancing his long lance, he challenged his foes to send a warrior to
meet him in single battle between the two lines of Indians.
Then the other Indians sent their best fighter, and the two tribes
waited as the horsemen dashed toward each other, their ponies' manes and
long tails flying while the silver mountings on their bridles clinked.
The warriors leaning forward, with war bonnets of tall feathers that
trailed almost to the ground, met in a crash, and then if the spear were
not of tough wood, or the shield were not strong and tightly stretched,
the tribe of the wounded warrior was humiliated as their champion fell
from his pony.
No lance had ever pierced Quannah's shield, though he had met the foes
of his tribes many times. But Songbird, small as she was, knew that the
white men did not fight with lances and shields. Moko had said that the
fire-sticks would tear the best shield the Quahadas could make, and that
the men with the fire-sticks could stand far away yet kill the Quahada
warriors before the Indians could reach their white foes.
"They will come back to-day." The old squaw, who was puttering among the
cooking utensils at the back of the tent, spoke. "May the Great Spirit
grant they bring much meat, for our dried meat must be cured before the
days grow wet and cold."
"I have two prayer-sticks," answered Songbird, proudly pointing at
little sticks fastened by cactus thorns to the wall of the tepee. "They
will bring my father and his warriors back to us safely with all the
meat and robes that are needed."
The little sticks, about as long as the hand of a grown man, were
decorated with feathers, and other objects were attached by strings of
buckskin. The feathers, from the breast of an eagle, were called "breath
feather," for when the prayers were offered to the Great Spirit for any
warrior, the "breath feather" carried it to the Great Spirit and the
warrior was protected. Songbird knew that Karolo, the Medicine Man, had
moistened the prayer-sticks with wonderful medicine, and that he had
sprinkled them with sacred pollen. Karolo had given the prayer-sticks to
Songbird to comfort her when she was alone.
"Yes," muttered the old woman, inspecting the bit of dried meat that
swung over the fire on a crotched stick, the other end of which was
thrust into the ground, "this time we need not fear, for the white men
have fled far away."
As she spoke, she sliced off some hot meat and placed it in a dish made
from the bark of a tree. Songbird seated herself on the ground. On mats
of woven grass were ladles of wild gourds, spoons fashioned from buffalo
horns, shallow baskets woven of fine grass, and bowls made of red clay.
There were sharp utensils made of flint rocks or of crude metal to cut
the food, if necessary, but mostly the breakfast consisted of pounded
berries and nuts, and the freshly roasted meat, with a mushy substance
prepared from maize.
This was a kind of corn grown by the Indians, and when dry it was soaked
in lye made from wood ashes, to remove the tough outer skin. Then the
squaws placed it in a hollowed stone, and with a round flat stone that
fitted closely into the cavity they worked and pounded until there was a
fine powder. The food was ready to be eaten at once, either dry or
moistened with water, and was very nourishing.
After breakfast, Songbird was free to roam where she pleased until such
time as her father and his men should return from the big buffalo hunt
on which they had started ten days before.
She had not told any one of her plan to slip away and ride out to meet
her father. So without loss of time she reached Star where he was
grazing among other ponies that had not been taken on the hunt.
When Star saw the rawhide rope in her hand, he lowered his head quickly,
so that she could slip the noose across his nose and back of his ears.
He was glad of a chance to run that morning, for the sun was so bright,
the air so bracing, the grass so soft and green and the sky so blue, as
he galloped across the rolling prairie with his little mistress on his
back.