An opening was left on the south side for an entrance, which could be readily closed with a portable door.

An opening was also left at the top for the escape of the smoke, a fire being kindled in the center inside.
[Illustration: _Drawing by Jorgensen_.
INDIAN O'-CHUM.
This style of house, made of cedar poles covered with bark, is more easily heated than any other form of dwelling known.] One of these huts would hold a family of a half-dozen persons, with all their household property, dogs included; and there is no other form of a single-room dwelling that can be kept warm and comfortable in cold weather with so little fire, as this Indian _o'-chum._ Their under-bedding usually consisted of the skins of bears, deer, antelope or elk, and the top covering was a blanket or robe made of the skins of small fur-bearing animals, such as rabbits, hares, wildcats and foxes.

The skins were cut in narrow strips, which were loosely twisted so as to bring the fur entirely around on the outside, and then woven into a warp of strong twine made of the fine, tough, fibrous bark of a variety of milkweed (_Asclepias speciosa_).

These fur robes were very warm, and were also used as wraps when traveling in cold weather.
During the warm summer season they generally lived outside in brush arbors, and used their _o'-chums_ as storage places.
CLOTHING.
Their clothing was very simple and scant, before being initiated into the use of a more ample and complete style of covering while living at the reservations.

The ordinary full complement of dress for a man (_Nung'-ah_) was simply a breech-clout, or short hip-skirt made of skins; that for a woman (_O'-hoh_) was a skirt reaching from the waist to the knees, made of dressed deerskin finished at the bottom with a slit fringe, and sometimes decorated with various fancy ornaments.