Two beds, or seats, were arranged inside the dwelling. One at a side, the other at the back. These beds were merely slightly raised platforms on which many soft robes had been thrown. But there were pillows of buckskin stuffed with the feathers of wild turkeys, geese, or ducks, mixed with long, soft hair cut from buffalo hides.
Decorated skins hung slanting from the centre of the room across and over the two beds, so that any water would be drained from the smoke hole in rainy weather, and thus the fire was protected, as well as the beds. The entire inside of the tepees had been painted by Moko in designs of queer characters, or pictures of Comanches hunting or fighting.
Mats of woven bark and plaited rushes lay on the smooth, hard dirt floor. A border of interwoven twigs around the two beds kept cold drafts away in winter. During the summer the edges of the tepee were lifted and tied, thus allowing the breeze full sway.
Songbird was very proud of her home as she bustled around, sweeping the earth floor with her broom made of coarse grass and twigs. Then with the wing of a wild turkey, she carefully brushed the scattered ashes to the centre of the fire-pit. Her father's best saddle hung on a post, and on another was his big shield made of toughened buffalo hide.
She stood looking at the shield, for it was beautifully painted, and a fringe of buckskin bordered it all around. The buffalo hide had been shrunken over fire to make it twice as tough and thick as originally. Moko had told her about the important ceremony which took place when a new shield was made, and how the Medicine Man blessed it, so that it would protect the warrior who carried it.
She had also told how the Quahadas in battle formed long lines, and the other Indians who were enemies made a line opposite. After that, one warrior rode out alone. Holding his shield high in the air, and balancing his long lance, he challenged his foes to send a warrior to meet him in single battle between the two lines of Indians.
Then the other Indians sent their best fighter, and the two tribes waited as the horsemen dashed toward each other, their ponies' manes and long tails flying while the silver mountings on their bridles clinked. The warriors leaning forward, with war bonnets of tall feathers that trailed almost to the ground, met in a crash, and then if the spear were not of tough wood, or the shield were not strong and tightly stretched, the tribe of the wounded warrior was humiliated as their champion fell from his pony.
No lance had ever pierced Quannah's shield, though he had met the foes of his tribes many times. But Songbird, small as she was, knew that the white men did not fight with lances and shields. Moko had said that the fire-sticks would tear the best shield the Quahadas could make, and that the men with the fire-sticks could stand far away yet kill the Quahada warriors before the Indians could reach their white foes.
"They will come back to-day." The old squaw, who was puttering among the cooking utensils at the back of the tent, spoke. "May the Great Spirit grant they bring much meat, for our dried meat must be cured before the days grow wet and cold."
"I have two prayer-sticks," answered Songbird, proudly pointing at little sticks fastened by cactus thorns to the wall of the tepee. "They will bring my father and his warriors back to us safely with all the meat and robes that are needed."