Stránka:roll 1910.djvu/148

132 BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA Drive a stout stake inside the teepee, tie the anchor rope to this and the teepee is ready for weather. In the centre dig a hole i8 inches wide and 6 inches deep for the fire. The fire is the great advantage of the teepee, and the smoke the great disadvantage, but experience will show how to manage this. Keep the smoke-vent swung down wind, or at least quar- tering down. Sometimes you must leave the door a little open or raise the bottom of the teepee cover a little on the windward side. If this makes too much draft on your back, stretch a piece of can- vas between two or three of the poles inside the teepee, in front of the opening made and reaching to the ground. The draft will go up behind this. By these tricks you can make the vent draw the smoke. But after all the main thing is to use only the best and dryest of wood. This makes a clear fire. There will always be more or less smoke 7 or 8 feet up, but it worries no one there and keeps the mos- quitoes away. You should always be ready for a storm over-night. You must study the wind continually and be weatherwise — that is, a wood- crafter — if you are to make a success of the teepee. And remember this : The Indians did not look for hardships. They took care of their health so as to withstand hardship when it came, but they made themselves as comfortable as pos- sible. They never slept on the ground if they could help it. Catlin tells us of the beautiful 4-post beds the Mandans used to make in their lodges. The Blackfeet make neat beds of willow rods carefully peeled, and the Eastern Indians cut piles of pine and fir branches to keep them off the ground. Another thing of importance : Catlin says that the real wild Indians were " cleanly." They became filthy " when half civ- ilized. Cleanliness around the camp should be a law. When I camp, even in the Rockies, I aim to leave the ground as undefiled as when I came. I always dig a hole or several if need be, and say : *' Now, boys, I want all tins and rubbish put here and buried. I want this place left as clean as we found it." This may be a matter of sentiment in the Western mountains, but in the woods near home you will find you will win many friends if you enforce the law of cleanliness. Near the end of the row above is Gray- Wolf's teepee. I came