The process of laying the tent floors was the same as the Sia observe in making floors in their houses. A hoe is employed to break the earth to about eight inches in depth and to loosen all rocks that may be found (Fig. 4). The rocks are then removed and the foreign earth, a kind of clay, is brought by the girls on their backs in blankets or the square pieces of calico which hang from their shoulders (Figs. 5 and 6) and deposited over the ground which has been worked (Fig. 7). The hoe is again employed to combine the clay with the freshly broken earth (Fig. 8); this done, the space is brushed over with brush brooms and sprinkled (Fig. 9) until the earth is thoroughly saturated for several inches deep. Great care is observed in leveling the floor (Fig. 10), and extra quantities of clay must be added here and there. Then begins the stamping process (Fig. 11). When the floor is as smooth as it can be made by stamping (Pl. VII), the pounders go to work, each one with a stone flat on one side and smooth as a polishing stone. (Pl. VIII.) Many such specimens have been obtained from the ruins in the southwest. When this work is completed the floor is allowed to partially dry, when plaster made of the same clay (Fig. 12), which has been long and carefully worked, is spread over the floor with the hand, and when done the whole looks as smooth as a cement floor, but it is not so durable, such floors requiring frequent renovation. The floor may be improved, however, by a coating of beef’s or goat’s blood, and this process is usually adopted in the houses (Fig. 13), little ones watching their elders at work inside the tent. [Illustration: FIG. 7.—Depositing the clay.] [Illustration: Bureau of Ethnology. Eleventh Annual Report PLate VII STAMPERS AT WORK.] Two men only are possessors of herds of sheep, but a few cattle are owned individually by many of the Sia. The cattle are not herded collectively, but by each individual owner. Sometimes the boys of different families go together to herd their stock, but it receives no attention whatever from the officials of the village so long as it is unmolested by strangers. The Sia own about 150 horses, but seldom or never use them as beasts of burden. They are kept in pasture during the week, and every Saturday the war chief designates the six houses which are to furnish herders for the round-up. Should the head of the house have a son sufficiently large the son may be sent in his place. Only such houses are selected as own horses. The herdsmen start out Saturday morning; their return depends upon their success in rounding up the animals, but they usually get back Sunday morning. [Illustration: FIG. 8.—Mixing the clay with the freshly-broken earth.]