A tent cover was now fetched out of the lodge. Tents were of different sizes, from those of seven, to those of sixteen buffalo cow hides. A woman used whatever sized tent cover she owned; but a cover of thirteen skins was of convenient size.
Figure 13
Around the curved bottom of the tent cover was a row of holes, through which wooden pins were driven to peg the tent to the ground. The tent cover was bound to the four over-hanging poles, inside of the four posts, by means of a long thong woven in and out through the holes, as shown in [figure 13].
Figure 14
Bound thus to the poles, and quite enclosing the space within them, the tent cover made a kind of booth. The upper parts of the cover, including the smoke flaps, that now hung sweeping the ground, were drawn in and spread flat on the ground to make a floor for the booth; and stones laid upon them weighted the cover against the wing.
In [figure 12] the four posts, A, B, C, and D, enclose one section of the drying stage; the booth did not enclose the whole ground space of this section, but about three fifths of it.
[Figure 14], I think, will explain the arrangement of the booth. The end corners, X and Y, were bound to opposite posts, M and N, respectively, the lapping edges, at O, forming a door through which the threshers entered the booth; P and P´ were bound to posts at p and p´; the final corner, M, was left untied until the threshers had entered and were ready to begin their task. (Compare with [figure 12], in which, however, the posts are differently lettered.)