132 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [n. s., i, 1899
was bought from the owner, on the reservation, with the under- standing that it should be taken down and the materials trans- ported in Indian wagons to the railroad, thirty miles away, thence to be shipped to Omaha, to be again set up on the grounds of the Indian congress. The contract was faithfully carried out. The grass house was taken down, transported by wagon and rail, and again set up in the original materials at Omaha, the rebuilding requiring the labor of several women about one week.
The inside support was a substantial square framework of stout logs, about eight inches in diameter, planted upright in the ground, supporting cross-pieces of the same size laid in crotches at the top. Over these cross-pieces were bent long, flexible, half-round timbers, having their bases planted in the circular trench which formed the circumference of the structure, while their tapering ends were brought together at the top and bound firmly with elm bark to form the rafters. Smaller flexible poles of perhaps an inch in diameter were then bound across these at regular intervals from the ground to the top. Over this frame- work the long grass was laid in shingle fashion in regular rounds, beginning at the bottom, each round being held in place by light rods fastened with elm bark to the supporting framework and cleverly concealed under the next round of grass. Near the top, but at the side instead of in the center, was the smoke-hole. Doorways were left at opposite sides to allow the breeze a free sweep, and detached doors were made of grass over a frame of rods. Around the inside were high bed platforms, and in the center was the fire-hole, with a support from which to hang the pot. There was also a grass-thatched arbor built in the same fashion, with a sweat-lodge of willow rods. A curiously painted Indian drum, which they brought with them, hung up on the outside, the mortar and the metate near the doorway, and the bunches of corn and dried pumpkin, with the Indian owners themselves, made the Wichita camp altogether perhaps the most attractive feature of the congress.
�� �
