Before the Blackfeet obtained horses in the very first years of the present century, and when their only beasts of burden were dogs, their possessions were transported by these animals or on men’s backs.  We may imagine that in those days the journeys made were short ones, the camp travelling but a few miles.

In moving the camp in ancient days, the heaviest and bulkiest things to be transported were the lodges.  These were sometimes very large, often consisting of thirty cow-skins, and, when set up, containing two or three fires like this [Illustration:] or in ground plan like this [Illustration:].  The skins of these large lodges were sewn together in strips, of which there would be sometimes as many as four; and, when the lodge was set up, these strips were pinned together as the front of a common lodge is pinned to-day.  The dogs carried the provisions, tools, and utensils, sometimes the lodge strips, if these were small enough, or anything that was heavy, and yet could be packed in small compass; for since dogs are small animals, and low standing, they cannot carry bulky burdens.  Still, some of the dogs were large enough to carry a load of one hundred pounds.  Dogs also hauled the travois, on which were bundles and sometimes babies.  This was not always a safe means of transportation for infants, as is indicated by an incident related by John Monroe’s mother as having occurred in her father’s time.  The camp, on foot of course, was crossing a strip of open prairie lying between two pieces of timber, when a herd of buffalo, stampeding, rushed through the marching column.  The loaded dogs rushed after the buffalo, dragging the travois after them and scattering their loads over the prairie.  Among the lost chattels were two babies, dropped off somewhere in the long grass, which were never found.

There were certain special customs and beliefs which were a part of the every-day life of the people.

In passing the pipe when smoking, it goes from the host, who takes the first smoke, to the left, passing from hand to hand to the door.  It may not be passed across the door to the man on the other side, but must come back,—­no one smoking,—­pass the host, and go round to the man across the door from the last smoker.  This man smokes and passes it to the one on his left, and so it goes on until it reaches the host again.  A person entering a lodge where people are smoking must not pass in front of them, that is, between the smokers and the fire.

A solemn form of affirmation, the equivalent of the civilized oath, is connected with smoking, which, as is well known, is with many tribes of Indians a sacred ceremony.  If a man sitting in a lodge tells his companions some very improbable story, something that they find it very hard to believe, and they want to test him, to see if he is really telling the truth, the pipe is given to a medicine man, who paints the stem red and prays over it, asking that if the man’s