A couch was formed by laying down two or three winter hides dried with the hair on. These hides were placed around the fireplace at a safe distance. In the earth lodges, according to Joseph La Flèche, the Omaha used sahi, or grass mats, for seats, as is the present custom of the Winnebago; but at night they reclined on dressed hides with thick hair on them, and covered themselves with similar hides.
For pillows they used ibehiⁿ or iⁿbehiⁿ. When the vegetation was about 3 inches high in the spring, the Indians killed deer and pulled off the hair in order to remove the thin skin or tissue next to it. This latter, when thoroughly dried, is smooth and white, resembling parchment. It was used for pillows and moccasin-strings. When used for pillows the case was filled with goose feathers or the hair of the deer until it was about 2 feet long and 9 inches high. During the day, and whenever there was occasion, they were used as seats; but if none could be had, the people sat on winter robes or hides forming the couches.[1] Back of the couches and next to the interior tent-poles were placed the baggage, sacks of corn, and other household properties.
The upright tent is one form of the Dakota "wake′ya," the plural of which, "wake′yapi," undoubtedly gave rise to the familiar "wick′iup" of the plains, and also to "wä-ka′-yo" of Morgan.[2]
A board of convenient size, usually about a yard long and a foot wide, was selected to form a cradle or u¢uhe. No pillow was needed. A soft skin ([p]aq¢uqaha ¢aⁿ) covered with plenty of thick hair was laid on the board, and on it was placed the infant.
[Footnote 1: Hammocks and bedsteads were unknown prior to their introduction by the traders and other white people.]
[Footnote 2: Contributions to North American Ethnology, vol. iv., 1881, p. 114.]
[Illustration: Fig. 311.--Omaha cradle--plan.]
In the annexed figures, <i>a</i> is the ĭndua¢isiⁿkaⁿhe, the object painted on the board at the end where the infant's head is laid; <i>b</i> is the ĭndei¢idĭndiⁿ ("that which is drawn taut over the face"), the two strings of beads and sinew or thread (sometimes made of red calico alone), which keep in place the fan, etc.; the fan (ĭndeagani), which is suspended from a bow of wood, (<i>c</i>) is about 6 inches square, and is now made of interwoven sinew on which beads have been strung. Occasionally thimbles and other bright objects dangle from the bottom of the fan. The i¢a¢istage (<i>d</i>) is the band by which the infant is fastened to the cradle.