The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1891-12-27

not more than three feet long, topped by a
third ridge-pole. This completes the frame
work, ana an excellent one it is; and over
1t Is spread a lot of skins, of the guanaco,
deer, horse or puma, sewn together in
squares of varying sizes and all daubed in
side with a mixture Of tallow and red ochre
which can be smelled a mile away. More
skins are tied with thongs around the sides
OF the toldo; and in cold or rainy weather
horse-hides are fastened up in front, like
curtains, and are sometimes hung inside to
partition off separate apartments, the
number, quality, and size of the skins that
are used denoting the wealth and social
standing of the inmates. Think of it, a fur
house-and such fur, too-the tawny mot
tied puma, and the beautiful and almost
priceless pale yellow streaked with white,
Of young guanaces.
One family, that is, one Indian with his
especial wives and children, seldom monop-
Ollie a whole toldo, but as civilized people
do in
SUMNER CAMPING FRoLICs,
relatives and intimate friends pool their
issues, as it were, under the same ridge
poles. OF course the highest side of the
fur house is its front, and it is invariably
set facing the east-whether from super
stition, habit or because the prevailing
winds blow from the west, L am unable to
tell you.
Later in the day a closer inspection re-
vealed to US the inner furnishings. Just
inside the entrance to each tent several
small brushwood fires were kept burning,
evidently as much for warmth and to dry
off the wet ground as for cooking purposes.
Horse hides, spread on the half frozen sod,
served for beds and seats; and | noticed
with establishment that each bed, besides
its pile of furs and blankets, had one or
more holsters, at least in shape-made of
half worn blankets, sewn together with
sinews and stuffed with wool. The blar-
kets of these people, which they call
lechus, are almost like the ponchos of b.
livia and Chilli, and l am told that they are
hand-Woven by the Araucanian women.
The extra furs, saddles, blankets, and all
belongings not in immediate use, were piled
around tue outer edges, as a barricade
against the fitful gusts of wind that per-
sisted in skurrying in beneath the Tapping
walls.
Cupboards, of course, there were none,
the dishes being piled on the ground in pro-
miscuous heaps, washed clean by proving
dogs-lean, uncanny creatures that out
numbered their masters, several to one.
There were huge trenchers, followed out
of blocks of wood, bark platters, and excel
lent spoons made by sticking a clam-shen
on a OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES branch, and
armadillo-shel bowls. BY way of a soup
dish, one might go a good deal farther and
fare worse than to use the round deep shell
of the
P~ATAGoNIAN
or ~aut-eater. Then there were bucket
shaped baskets, made of. the coarse pampa
grass so tightly braided that water can be
carried in them without leaking a drop;
asadors, or spits, Of bone and wood, and
even two or three iron kettles.
Squatted upon a horse-hide inone of these
queer homes, surrounded by an admiring
throng of %grinning women, and children
whose good graces had previously been
won by gifts of beads and red colico-we
partook of hospitality in the shape of a Gus
tard a la Pdtdgonienne, the receipt for which
please accept as a Christmas present.
Break a small hole in the point of an os-
trich egg, and after removing part of the
indigestible white, (t is the fashion here
to suck it OUT, beat the yolk thoroughly,
with a stick, a hair-pin, or whatever comes
handy, adding a little sugar is you have it,
or whisky if you like it, or plain salt and
pepper as we did. Then set the egg on end