lender stick of hard wood, and
pressing the point in one of the little hollows in the stick of soft
wood, he twirled the stick rapidly between the palms of his hands,
so fast and so long that presently the dust ground from the softer
stick, falling to one side in a little pile, began to smoke, and at
last a faint spark was seen at the top of the pile, which began to
glow, and, spreading, became constantly larger. He, or his
companion, for often two men twirled the stick, one relieving the
other, caught this spark in a bit of tinder--perhaps some dry punk
or a little fine grass--and by blowing coaxed it into flame, and
there was the fire.

This fire making was hard work, and the people tried to escape this
work by keeping a spark of fire always alive. To do this, men
sometimes carried, by a thong slung over the shoulder, the hollow
tip of a buffalo horn, the opening of which was closed by a wooden
plug. When going on a journey, the man lighted a piece of punk, and,
placing it in this horn, plugged up the open end, so that no air
could get into the horn. There the punk smouldered for a long time,
and neither went out nor was wholly consumed. Once in a while during
the day the man looked at this punk, and, if he saw that it was
almost consumed, he lighted another piece and put it in the horn and
replaced the plug. So at night when he reached camp the fire was
still in his horn, and he could readily kindle a blaze, and from
this blaze other fires were kindled. Often, if the camp was large,
the first young men who reached it gathered wood and perhaps kindled
four fires, and after the women had reached the camp, unpacked their
dogs, and put up their lodges, each woman would go to one of these
fires to get a brand or some coals with which to start her own lodge
fire.

In warm weather men and boys wore little clothing. They went almost
naked; yet in cold weather each man or woman was most of the time
wrapped in a warm robe of tanned buffalo skin. Even the little
children wore robes, the smallest ones those taken from the little
buffalo calves. All their clothing, like their beds and their homes,
was made of the skins of animals. Shirts, women's dresses, leggings,
and moccasins were made from the tanned skins of buffalo, deer,
antelope, and mountain sheep. Often the moccasins were made from the
smoked skin cut from the top of an old lodge, for this skin had been
smoked so much that it never dried hard and stiff, after it had