To our inquiries concerning the river they answered without hesitation, that it was Red river; that at the distance of ten days' travelling in the manner of Indians with their lodges, (about one hundred miles,) we should meet with the permanent village of the Pawnee Piquas, that a large band of Cumancias were hunting on the river below, whom we should fall in with in two or three days. Having described to them the route we had pursued, and the great and frequented road on which we had travelled, they said, that when we were at the point where that road first crosses the river, we were three days' ride from Santa Fé, which was situated behind a low and distant range of hills, which we remembered to have seen from that place.[58] We hesitated a little to comply with the request of the chief, enforced as it was with some insolence, that we would return and encamp with his party. As, however, we wished to purchase horses and provisions, and to make the best use of an opportunity to become acquainted with the savages, we at length consented. The ground they chose for their encampment was a beautiful open plain, having the river in front, and a small creek on the left. We were somewhat surprised to witness the sudden manner in which this plain became covered with their tall conic lodges, rising "like an exhalation" in perfect silence and good order. For our accommodation, a lodge was spread, enclosing as much space as possible in a semicircular {292} area in such a manner that the skin covering afforded a shade, which was all the shelter needed. In order to enlarge this tent as much as possible, the covering was raised so high upon the poles, that its lower margin did not extend to the ground by a space of several feet. To remedy this the squaws brought bushes from a neighbouring thicket, which they placed around the base of the lodge in such a manner as effectually to exclude the sunshine. We were sorry to find afterwards, that this had been done not more from motives of hospitality, than to aid them in their design of pilfering from our baggage. [Illustration: (Skin Lodges of Kaskaias)] These skin lodges, the only habitations of the wandering savages, are carried with them complete in all their marches. Those of the Kaskaias differ in no respect from those we have already described, as used by the Otoes and others of the Missouri Indians. The poles which are six or eight to each lodge, are from twenty to thirty feet in length, and are {293} dragged constantly about in all their movements, so that the trace of a party with lodges is easily distinguished from that of a war-party. When they halt to encamp, the women immediately set up these poles; four of them being tied together by the smaller ends, the larger resting on the ground, are placed so far apart as to include as much space as the covering will surround. The remaining poles are added to strengthen the work, and give it a circular form.