Then the children of the Quahada Comanches went into their tepee-homes, curled up on their beds of furry robes and slept.
But Songbird knew that Quannah and the wisest and bravest men of the tribe sat in the big tepee talking very gravely, night after night, when they thought that she was sound asleep. She heard enough to understand that they did not think the white men had given up the fight, but would come again some day, and come in greater numbers to conquer the Quahadas.
Chapter XIII
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.