Volume 1

382 THE CHEYENNE CAMP—THEIR LANGUAGE.
hills runs N, and S. On the E. the plain is more level
for about five miles, when the view is terminated by high
hills, mostly covered with large round stones ; and indeed
the level plains are nearly covered in the same manner. It
is dangerous to chase buffalo, unless both horse and rider
are accustomed to such rough, stony ground.
The camp consisted of about
120 leather tents (exclusive
of small ones, or, as we call them, kitchens), nearly all new
and as white as linen, and pitched with great regularity at
certain distances apart, in the shape of a horseshoe—the
opening or entrance facing N. ;
the circle was unencumbered.
the large open space within
Beside each large tent was a
small one, which appeared to be the remains of an old
one
cut down—that is, the lower parts, having become rotten
and damaged by the weather, had been cut off, reducing the
former size about one-half. Such tents appear to be for the
women's necessary occupations, such as cooking, preparing
meat, dressing leather, etc. The spaces between the tents
were occupied by stages for drying meat, all covered with
buffalo flesh, the people having killed upwards of 200 of
those animals two days ago. The extensive double-row
circle of tents thus joined one another by a barricade of
thinly sliced flesh drying in the sun. The frames for drying
dressed skins and the horse and dog travailles were erected
outside the camp. All the women appeared to be hard at
work, stretching buffalo hides, dressing skins, slicing meat
to dry, and working robes with straw and porcupine quills.
The language of these people, unlike that disagreeably
harsh jargon of the Mandanes, has a pleasant sound. Some
people pretend to say it has some affinity to the Kinistineaux
tongue, particularly in the manner of counting from
one to ten, which are nearly the same words ; and it is
supposed they originated from the same stock.^ But of
this I am not a competent judge. My stay among them
was too short and precious to make any inquiries ; all I can
* This is correct ; the Cheyennes are of Algonquian stock, and thus of the
same linguistic family as the Crees : see L. and C, ed. 1893, p. 147.