The tent was commonly made of ten or a dozen dressed or tanned buffalo skins. It was in the shape of a sugar loaf, and was from 10 to 12 feet high, 10 or 15 feet in diameter at the bottom, and about a foot and a half in diameter at the top, which served as a smokehole (ʇihuʞaⁿ). Besides the interior tent poles (ʇici--3, figure 309) and the tent skin (ʇiha--1), the tent had the ʇi¢umaⁿhaⁿ, or the place where the skins were fastened together above the entrance (4). The ʇi¢umaⁿhaⁿ was fastened with the ʇihu¢ubaxaⁿ(5), which consisted of sticks or pieces of hide thrust crosswise through the holes in the tent skins. The bottom of the tent was secured to the ground by pins (ʇihu¢ugadaⁿ--6) driven through holes (ʇihugaq¢uge) in the bottom of the skins, made when the latter were tanned and before they had become hard. The entrance (ʇijebe) was generally opposite the quarter from which the wind was blowing. A door flap (ʇijebeg¢aⁿ--7) hung over the entrance; it was made of skin with the hair outside, so as to turn water, and was held taut by a stick fastened to it transversely. The bottom of the door flap was loose, but the top was fastened to the tent. [Illustration: Fig. 309--Exterior parts of an Omaha tent.] The smokehole was formed by the two ʇihugab¢iⁿ¢a(9), or triangular ends of tent skins, immediately above the entrance and ʇi¢umaⁿhaⁿ. When there was no wind both of the ʇihugab¢iⁿ¢a were kept open by means of the ʇihu¢ubajiⁿ(8) or exterior tent poles, which were thrust through the ujiha, or small sacks, in the corners of the ʇihugab¢iⁿ¢a. When the wind blew one of the ʇihu¢ubajiⁿ was raised to the windward and the other was lowered, pulling its skin close to the tent and leaving an opening for the escape of the smoke; but if the wind came directly against the entrance both the flaps were raised, closing the smokehole to prevent the wind from blowing down it. When the wind blew the people used nandi¢agaspe to keep the bottom of each tent skin in place. These consisted of twisted grass, sticks, stones, or other heavy objects. Figure 310 represents the tent of [P]ejequde, an Omaha. The banners or standards, which were carried by the leaders of a war party or a party going on a dancing tour, are depicted with their decorations of strips of red and blue Indian cloth. Sometimes these standards were ornamented with feathers instead of with cloth. Each standard could be used in four war expeditions. No totem posts were in use among the Omaha. The tent of the principal man of each gens was decorated on the outside with his gentile badge, which was painted on each side of the entrance as well as on the back of the tent.[1] The furniture of the sacred tents resembled that of the ordinary ones. Before the introduction of canvas tents by the whites no needles or thread were used by the Siouan tribes. The women used sinew of the deer or buffalo instead of thread, and for needles they had awls made of elk horn.