A marked feature of Indian life was the superiority of the women in all household arts; they were trained in them from childhood. Though women performed most of the menial work and men were the providers and defenders, the women were not dissatisfied. A mother trained her daughter from childhood in tanning skins and making them into clothes and shelter; also in the knowledge of herbs and wild vegetables, which were used for eating and healing. Women considered this their special vocation and allowed no interference from the men, who were unfitted for the work. In front of the War Tepee of Running Rabbit were two women drying and curing meat. They cut it into thin slices and smoked it, hanging it on a scaffold of poles and left it to cure in sun and wind. They made pemmican from choice pieces of dried meat, pounding it with stone hammers and mixing with crushed wild cherries, together with marrowfat and tallow. For the marrow, they boiled cracked bones and skimmed off the fat. They split tongues the long way and dried them in the sun. The tongues were a great delicacy together with beaver tails. Meat was the chief article of diet for the Blackfoot; they were unhappy without it. In former years, when wild game was plentiful, they lived mostly on the flesh of buffalo and the deer species, but of late years on cattle. Their favorite way of preparing meat was by boiling, or in the form of soup. Sometimes they ate dogs at ceremonial feasts; but this was not a common custom. In the circle camp, I saw preparations for a dog feast by a band of visiting Assiniboine Indians. Near our lodge was Eagle Child, who owned a litter of fat puppies. He had a miniature tepee for them, where they slept and had shelter from the hot sun. I saw them playing daily before my door. One night all of the puppies mysteriously disappeared; Eagle Child and none of his neighbors knew what had become of them. But I finally solved the mystery. While walking among the lodges of the Assiniboines, who were on the outskirts of the big camp, I saw their women cooking over an outside fire. In the hot ashes were the remains of my puppy neighbors with their hair singed off, while some were boiling in a kettle. Nothing was wasted. At one side was a pile of little puppy legs and paws to be used for soup. CHAPTER XXXVII PAINTED TEPEES AND PICTURE WRITING The circle camp, on the prairies at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, had a strange and fascinating interest. Even after many years, the scenes are still fresh in my mind. Night and day there was generally something going on. Morning was the quietest time, when few people were stirring. Never did the meadows look fresher or lovelier than in the golden sunlight of a July morning. Flowers and grass were hung with sparkling lace and shining gems of dew.