The skins secured during the late autumn hunt would be carried to the traders and left as payment for the goods previously obtained on credit, and also given in exchange for blankets, wampum, and various other articles. Thence they would return to their permanent village "in order to procure a supply of maize from their places of concealment, after which they continue their journey, in pursuit of bisons.... This expedition continues until the month of April, when they return to their village as before stated, loaded with provisions. It is during this expedition that they procure all the skins, of which the bison robes of commerce are made; the animals at this season having their perfect winter dress, the hair and wool of which are long and dense." (James, (1), I, pp. 200-221.) Such was the life of the Omaha a hundred years ago, and it may have been quite the same for many generations, omitting, of course, the visits made to the traders. But their systematic hunts had probably been performed ever since the Omaha reached the valley of the Missouri, and possibly long before. PONCA. That the Ponca and Omaha were formerly a single tribe is accepted without question, and that the separation took place long after they crossed the Mississippi from their ancient habitat is established by the traditions of the two tribes. Probably the two tribes in later years, after the separation, continued to resemble one another to such a degree that the villages of one could not have been distinguished from those of the other.