USG

INDIAN TRAGEDIES AND ROMANCES.

old one for his wife. If this is done the affair is ended. Othei-wise, the man has a right to kill his unfaithful squaw.

On one occasion, the young warrior with whom the wife of an old Indian had eloped was unable to pay for her. Her former master took her back, made her sit down with one foot on the other, and deliberately fired a rifle ball through both feet. This done, he grimly presented her to her lover, saying: "You may be sure she will not run off with another man."

Custom makes it perfectly proper for an Indian to make love to another man's wife, even in the presence of her husband. Whatever may be the hitter's feelings, he is bound to listen to the love making, even to the most passionate vows, without paying any attention to it. The women of the different tribes vary greatly in chastity, but the customs above described, make the husbands generally, good and kind. The only notice usually taken of a wife's infidelity is to send her back to her father's lodge and levy a fine of so many ponies on her lover, he in turn, having the same right as against any subsequent brave with whom she may take up. The unmarried women of the Chey-ennes and Arrapahoes have' a singular custom of tying a rope about their lower limbs, so as not to interfere with walking, whenever they are outside of their father's lodge. In the absence of their husbands, married women do the same thing. But for this, which custom has made their protection, no woman would be safe from the assaults which every man has the right to make. Even with it, no woman ventures far from her lodge without a companion.

The "teepe" or buffalo tent, which constitutes the permanent lodge of the Plains Indians, has already been described in our chapter on Kit Carson. Another kind of a lodge, used for temporary camps, is made of small, fresh-cut poles, the ends of which are stuck in the ground and the tops bent over and fastened together. Over this frame blankets are spread, even if the occupants have to sleep shivering on the ground without cover.