Читать книгу Harper's Outdoor Book for Boys - Joseph H. Adams - Страница 8

A ridge-pole tepee is shown in Fig. 7, and is a very easy and simple one to make, for it is of one piece of canvas with two flaps sewed at each side to form the ends.

One ridge and two upright poles make the framework, and they are held in place by the canvas, which is drawn and lashed fast to stakes driven in the ground, as may be seen in the drawing. The ridge-pole is eight feet long, one and a half inches thick, and four inches wide. Two inches from either end a half-inch hole is bored to receive the iron pins that are driven in the ends of the uprights as shown at Fig. 8 A and B. The upright poles are eight feet long, and when set one foot of the lower end should be embedded in the ground. The sides are in one piece of muslin made by sewing widths of it together. The sheet measures seventeen feet long and eight feet wide; and when stretched over the ridge-pole and fastened down at both sides an inverted shape will be the result. It is ten feet across at the bottom, seven feet high, and eight feet long at each side. For the back it will be necessary to make a triangular piece of canvas the right size to fit the opening, or two flaps may be cut, divided at the middle, and tied back, or laced, to close the tent. The apron or part enclosure at the front is formed from pieces of canvas two feet wide sewed along the edges and caught together at the middle over the opening.

Ten pegs eighteen inches long and two inches wide are cut from hard-wood as shown at Fig. 8 C. These are driven in the ground at an angle and ropes attached to the lower edges of the canvas sidings are lashed fast to them. This tepee is long enough to swing a hammock from pole to pole, and on a warm summer night makes an ideal place for sleeping out-of-doors. The covering, like that of the other wigwams, may be decorated with Indian emblems, and if a party of boys are going to camp in the back yard their tepees can be inscribed with different crests and totems to indicate individual ownership.