theirs with skins dressed almost white, and
ornament them afterwards with paint,
porcupine quills, and scalp locks. A Dacota
patronises only the buffalo skin: for a tradition
is afloat in the tribe that once a rash
Dacota made his wigwam of a deer's skin,
and died in consequence of his disobedience
to national customs. The Pawnee hedges
himself behind a weaving of the long prairie
grass, making a hut like a huge straw
beehive; and the Navajoe is the cynic of them
all, living in a small, conical, wretched lodge,
with a triangular opening, and no room for
the fire inside. In South America the
gracious banana has given one of its family, the
Vijao plant, as the covering of human homes.
The leaves of this Vijao are oval, membraneous,
silky, and twenty inches long by fourteen
wide. Their under surface is white and
glutinous, so that it can long turn even
tropical rains. These leaves—about a hundred
weight for each hut—are collected in the
mountains, and are spread over the timber
frame-work, as tiles; the upper overlapping
the lower. It is a commodious tent, in the
way of bricklayers and plumbers; for should
the rain come in at the roof or sides, a single
leaf will mend the hole, and repair all the
damage done. In Tierra del Fuego, the
people thatch themselves in, in very inefficient
huts—wretched, small, circular hives,
without utensils of any kind; with no beds,
no mats, no seats; just thatches raised on
sticks, with a fire in the centre, and fish or
flesh burning on the ashes, if the canoe has
gone well or the chace been lucky. The
Fuegian wigwam is the most barbarous and
wretched of all.

Tents were of early use here in England.
The ancient Britons had them of skins only,
but the Anglo-Saxons covered theirs with
cloth, or leather, as was most convenient.
The pavilions of the middle ages are known
to every reader of history or romance: these
pavilions increasing in luxuriousness and
pomp as manufactures came to greater
perfection, and wealth cast about for means of
more lavish expenditure. In fourteen
hundred and twenty when Henry the Fifth of
England met Charles the Sixth of France, he
had "a large tent of blewe velvet and green,
richly embroidered: the tent was replenished
and decked with this poysie:

'After busie laboure cometh victorious reste;'

and on the top and height of the same was
set a grate eagle of golde, whose eyes were of
such orient diamonds as that they glistened
and shone over the whole field." The French
king had a tent of blue velvet richly powdered
with the fleurs-de-luce. Henry the Seventh
also had a noble tent; and when Henry the
Eighth and Francis the First had their
memorable meeting in Ardenne, in fifteen
hundred and twenty, Henry's tent was of
rich crimson, embroidered and wrought with
ornaments of gold and crimson silk: above
the fringe certain legends running like golden
mouldings, setting forth his own rights first,
and his acknowledgment of the divine right
afterwards.

Our modern tents do not seem to be
satisfactory. They are chiefly, in shape, the
hospital, or the round tents; the hospital
being oblong marquees, the round or
circular what their name implies. The first
holds not less than eighteen or more than
twenty-four men; the second sixteen men,
lying on the ground. But we saw what that
Crimean storm did a few years ago; therefore
the modern army tents are not to be
taken as perfect of their kind. The French
tents are good; one, the walled tent, tents à
muraille, promises great things when fairly
tried. It is a new version of the Turkish
soldiers' tent, with an improved method of
ventilation, and is to be adopted at the camp
of Chalons as a preliminary test-place.
Austria had much trouble about her tents,
but she has improved since Captain Theurekauf
took them in hand. In Austria the
storm-ropes are always from the inside, as,
indeed, are all the ropes; a plan, though
directly opposed to our own, of which
Captain Rhodes decidedly approves. The reasons
given for this approval read conclusive
enough; for it is not very hard to understand
that ropes are better kept dry than
wet. Prussia does not shine greatly in this
matter; Belgium is absolutely tentless;
Sardinia adopts the best models she can meet
with, no matter of what nation; and Sweden
erects tents to hold twenty-five or thirty
men. Edgington has been a great improver
of military tents, as well as of marquees for
fêtes champêtres. He got the prize medal
in the Exhibition of eighteen hundred and
fifty-one, and deserved what he got. Mr.
George Turner has also some patents out for
tents and marquees; of which the stays and
framing is of galvanised wire cord, the pegs
of galvanised iron, the covers mineralised or
waterproof fabrics, the seams are riveted
instead of sewn, and there are portable
fireplaces for each. Thus, we have the full
impress of this nineteenth iron and scientific
century stamped in every detail.

Captain Rhodes speaks of his own tents.
A framework of ash or bamboo; the form a
curvilinear octagon; not unlike in
principle and appearance to a huge stickless
umbrella; ventilation holes at the top;
and additional covering to be made out of
the canvas packing cases: such ease and
simplicity of arrangements, that men unaccustomed
to them may strike and pack them in
three or four minutes; less space taken up
on the ground, and more accommodation
provided inside: these are the chief
characteristics of the proposed new guard and
hospital tents. A portable tunnel or endless
tent is contemplated, which the soldiers can
pitch on an instant, and which needs nothing
but light pliable ribs, canvas, ropes, leather,