Tent

a light habitation or place of shelter. It is composed usually of canvas or skins supported on tent poles and braced by means of cords and tent pins. American readers are apt to think of tents in connection with summer outings, but tents are of great antiquity, and still play an important part in the world. The Hebrew patriarchs from Abraham downward are represented as living in tents. Previous to the building of the temple of Solomon, the Ark was sheltered in a tent.

The Arab sets up three tripods of three poles each, the central one being the higher. Cords are carried from one to the other. The frame thus formed is covered with large strips of black felt made usually from goats' hair. The tent of a well-to-do Arab is from twenty to forty feet in length, about seven feet high in the middle and five feet high at the sides. A partition through the middle divides the kitchen and the women's quarters from that assigned to the men. When the Arab needs to move with his flocks to new pasturage, the tent is taken down readily and is readily set up. The nomadic people of Central Asia live entirely in tents. Some of these tribes make tent frames of wooden strips like laths. The strips are pegged together so loosely that each section may be closed up diamond-fashion almost like a pole for transportation. When the sections are set up together the whole is covered with heavy felt. The inhabitants of the South Sea Islands are expert in making tents of bamboo poles and large leaves. Tents of bamboo poles and matting are much used in Japan and China.

If to the tent dwellers of Asia and Europe we add the Indians of the western continent, we may say that, at the time of the discovery of America, fully one-half of the world was occupied by tent dwellers. Each American tribe had its own method of tent building. The Sioux tepee was a conical tent of buffalo hide supported on poles. The Chippewa squaw built a hemispherical tent much like a huge willow basket turned upside down.

Tents have played a large part also in military affairs. During the Civil War, a very simple tent was devised. Each soldier carried a jointed pole the size of a broom handle, and a square of canvas or water-proofing the size of a blanket provided with holes around the edge. Two comrades combining were able to set up their tent in a very few minutes. In case the weather demanded it, the tents were fastened together end to end, so as to form long alleys. The Sibley tent was a large conical affair patterned after the Sioux "tipi." The smoke from a fire at the center escaped through a hole at the top. The men slept in a ring--feet toward the fire. Large tents are still in use for circuses, revival meetings, agricultural shows, and the like. The tents of the Barnum and Bailey Circus, for instance, are commodious enough to seat 25,000 spectators.