By the time the hole was ready the skin was soft. Ama brought it to the hole and said, “Now we will bury the skin for four or five weeks.”
“Bury it!” exclaimed Docas. “I thought it was ready to make into my skirt, now.”
“Not yet,” answered Ama.
For several days Docas kept asking Ama if the skin was not almost ready, but after a while he grew tired of asking and forgot all about it.
When the time was up, Ama went out to the hole one evening after Docas was asleep. She dug up the skin, cleaned it, and made it into a skirt. She put a fringe on the bottom of the skirt to finish it off. After the skirt was done she laid it by Docas’s side, where he would see it the first thing in the morning.
Such a happy boy as he was when he found his new skirt!
THE SWEAT HOUSE
MASSEA and the other Indian men were not feeling well one day. They said, “We ate too much deer. We must go to the sweat house.”
The Indians had dug a large hole in the ground and made a rude cave. They had covered this with brush, leaving only one little hole for a door. They called this place the sweat house.
