These chambers or halls were, in the times we speak of, gathering places for men exclusively.

No woman was permitted to enter, unless for the purpose of carrying food to the inmates.

Each clan had its own estufa, and the young men slept in it under the surveillance of one or more of the aged principals, until they married, and frequently even afterward.
There the young men became acquainted with the affairs of their individual connections, and little by little also with the business of the tribe.

There, during the long evenings of winter, old men taught them the songs and prayers embodying traditions and myths, first of their own clan, then of the tribe.[3] The estufa was school, club-house, nay, armory to a certain extent.

It was more.