At their sides the hunters carried knives and bows and arrows in leather sheaths. If they were going out to kill rabbit, ducks, geese, beaver, deer, or elk along the river bottom, they might go afoot. If they sought the wilder bighorn sheep or the buffalo, however, they brought their ponies from the lodges, where they had been quartered overnight, as that was the safest place available. Lariats, bridles, and saddles were of leather. To protect themselves from enemy attack the hunters had spears, tomahawks, shields, and lances, in addition to the ever present bows and arrows. As they threaded their way between the lodges, here and there they saw some of their women baking pottery of a mixture of clay and powdered granite or flint--Catlin says they modeled it into a thousand forms, and that some of their pottery held as much as five gallons. Other women, using bone awls and needles, were decorating girdles, fans, moccasins, and dresses with beadwork and embroidery. Clothing, especially headdress, was elaborate and spectacular on ceremonial occasions. Still other women were weaving wickerwork, both flat and in the form of baskets; making bone spoons, ladles, and other household utensils; fashioning implements for the work in their gardens; and working over hides stretched on crude frames, in the process of tanning. In the latter art all the North Dakota tribes were unusually proficient. Hides prepared by them retained their softness and resilience even after being subjected to moisture many times. Farther on, a group of boys hovered about a hoary old man who sat near the door of a lodge in the soft summer sun and told them the history and traditions of their tribe. They had just come in from the prairie outside the village, where the older warriors had been teaching them the art of war by leading them in a sham battle. The victorious side had danced the scalp dance, just as their elders did after the actual taking of scalps, and now all were gathered about this old man to hear the stories of their people. If the village was Mandan, very possibly the old man was telling them of the great tribal hero, Good Furred Robe, who is supposed to have played so large a part in establishing the Mandan way of living. The narrator would tell them, too, that the Mandan were the first people created in the world, and that originally they lived inside the earth, where they raised many vines. Of course, they were constantly striving and struggling to find a way out of this dark, underground world. Finally one of their vines pushed its way through a hole in the earth overhead, and some of their people climbed up and out into a rich, fine country. A large fat woman, trying to climb out, broke the vine, however, and the remainder of the Mandans live underground to this day.