RANGER OR GYPSY TENTS AND TRAPPERS' BIVOUACS
If you are to be truly at home in the out-of-doors, you should learn how to build a shelter for yourself. There is no genuine trapper or ranger who has not spent at least one night sleeping under the sky. We've all read stories about the weary traveler who "dug a hollow for his hips in the soft ground and slept until dawn." Even this primitive sleeping arrangement calls for some knowledge of how to adjust to the prevailing conditions. Try lying down on the bare ground to sleep. You will notice quickly enough that the hip bone on whichever side you are lying is in your way. Dig out a depression, just big enough for your hip bone, and you will immediately notice how much more comfortable you are. You can go one step further, and cushion the hole with some fine sand, or you can place some slightly crumpled paper in the hollow for insulation against the cold.
You can be even more comfortable if you put up a ranger's tent, which requires very few materials. All you need is a rectangular piece of cotton cloth, 6 or 7 feet long. To waterproof it, make a brew from the bark of an oak or birch tree, and let the cloth soak in it for two days. The ranger's tent can then be used as a raincoat too.
In one corner make an eyelet large enough to run a thick cord through. At the other three corners, sew on small leather loops that you will attach to the tent pegs.
With this cloth, a solid cord 10 to 14 feet long, and a few pieces of branches from which you can cut your own tent pegs, you will have sufficient equipment to sleep out pleasantly on even a cool summer night without having to worry about a cloudburst. Set the tent up as pictured in the illustration.
The way you pitch the tent is important. The entrance must remain open and the tent should narrow toward the rear, so you must always be careful to have the opening turned away from the windy or storm side. To keep out the cold, you can hang a raincoat or windbreaker in front of the opening, or put your rucksack in front of it. There's an even simpler way: gather some leafy limbs and branches and, after you crawl into the tent, close off the entrance with them, sticking them in the ground like a fence in front of the opening. You can also do as rangers do. In cold weather they just light a fire in front of the tent entrance and lay a few thick, dry branches on the coals before going to bed. If the tent is set up right, the wind will carry the smoke away from it.
Gypsies also use similar tents, but they make theirs somewhat larger because several persons usually share a single tent. For two people the rectangle is about 7 by 10 feet. In this case too, the size and the addition of eyelets and leather loops depend on the particular needs. With this sort of tent, set up more or less like the ranger's tent, the open sides are closed off with bushes. A long branch stuck in a loose stone wall or in a wood pile stands as a roof beam to give the tent a solid support.
A tent of this type needs a little ditch around it just as more modern tents do. This ditch catches the rain water as it runs off the sides and carries it away. Without the ditch the water would seep into the ground around the bottom of the tent, soak it, and then run inside the tent.
It is always important to stretch the sides of the tent tightly, so that there are no folds. Even tightly woven cloth that has not been waterproofed will shed the rain if it is stretched taut. An umbrella is an example of this. However, the minute you bump against the side of such a tent during a heavy rain, it will start to drip at the spot you hit. If this happens, just press your finger against the spot and draw it straight down along the side of the tent to the ground—the water will flow off without bothering you any more.
Lay dry grass, reeds or branches on the floor of the tent, or perhaps you can get an armful of hay or straw somewhere. Even a layer of newspapers is useful. This will protect you from the coolness of the ground (unless you have decided to camp in the middle of a swamp—which is not recommended).
The choice of a camping site is important. The earth should not have too much clay, or it will keep the water from being absorbed. And don't camp in the middle of a hollow where the rain water can collect. Loose, sandy ground is warm and comfortable. It is pleasant to have a wooded area or a rise in the ground to protect you from the storm side. In northern latitudes, the storm side is the west, northwest, or southwest.
THE TEPEE
A tepee is very picturesque standing in a sunny forest clearing. It is also an exceedingly practical tent, with the advantage of allowing you to have, a cooking fire inside it. And it is not particularly difficult to put up your own tepee.
First get a piece of sturdy cloth at least 7 feet by 14 feet. A larger size is all right as long as the length is twice the width. You can even make it by sewing several smaller pieces together. Then cut out a semicircle. From the cutout pieces make two smoke flaps, and sew them on at the spots shown in the illustration. Now bind all the edges of the cloth with heavy linen, or, better yet, with leather. Run a heavy cord around the bottom edge of the tepee, sewing it securely at about 4-inch intervals. Afterwards you will stick the tent pegs through the loops created this way to stretch the sides tight. The tent is not closed with buttons, but with wooden dowels and loops like those on duffle coats.
To set up the tepee, you need about ten poles as shown in the illustration, or, if you like, branches cut as straight as possible.
Draw a circle on the ground with a diameter equal to the radius of the semicircle. Then set up three poles on the circle as shown, and tie them together at the height that the peak of the tent will reach. Lean the other poles against these three, putting three aside: two for propping open the smoke flaps and one to tie the top of the tepee to. By narrowing or widening the opening of the smoke flaps, you will get the "chimney flue" to draw. Naturally the opening must always be on the side away from the wind, for otherwise the smoke would be blown back into the tent. Secure the tepee in a strong wind by letting the cord which holds the poles together at the top extend to the ground, and fasten it there in the middle of the tent. In hot weather you can roll the front of the tepee up, holding it with strong forked sticks, to allow breezes to enter.
Painting the Tepee. Cave dwellers decorated their caves with drawings; the Indians painted their tepees, taking the motifs from their lives: hunting and war. They also drew their totem figures, the sun and the moon, and animals. You can decorate your tepee in the same way.
The Design. Designing consists of first making a drawing of, for example, an animal you are going to paint and then simplifying your sketch. If you are drawing a lion, first make a realistic sketch, then reduce it as far as possible to simple single lines, and finally intensify and stylize those lines.
In the same way, if you wish to paint an elk, first draw it. For your tepee decoration you don't need any perspective, so you can simplify the antlers and place the legs decoratively. Then further simplify all the forms, exaggerating those parts of the elk that are typical and distinctive. And you finish with a decorative pattern for painting.
Another method is pure stylization. In the illustration, the "photographic" image of an eagle is intensely simplified and the typical elements are completely exaggerated, but the bird is still recognizable as an eagle.
You might like to make Indian shields, too, and paint them with the same motifs as your tepee. Be sure to adapt the design to the shape of the shield.
The Painting Process. Use ordinary oil paints, choosing pure tones and avoiding the mixed colors such as gray, purple, brown, light blue, and so forth. Use black, Prussian blue, red, and perhaps even green and chrome yellow. The paints should not be too thick or they will not penetrate well into the fabric. Thin the paint with turpentine, but not so much that the paint is watery or runs down a vertical surface while you are painting. Add a drying compound, such as varnish, to the paint to speed up the setting. You can wash out any unwanted strokes or drops with turpentine as long as the paint is still wet. Have one brush to use for each color—long-handled brushes with short bristles, f of an inch to 1 inch wide.
Fasten the piece of tenting to be painted against a wall, first putting up a heavy underlayer of newspaper to protect the wall from the paint that penetrates through the material. Outline the figure with charcoal before painting. The composition and thickness of the paint determine how long the tent has to dry. It will probably take at least three days to a week. Be especially careful about putting on too thick a layer of paint—apply it just heavily enough so that the paint sticks together. Otherwise the layer of paint will break and crack when you fold the tepee.
You can even add a bit of humor to your stylized drawings. For example, look at the squirrel. The eye, the pointed nose, and the ear give the whole picture an amusing touch. This is also true of the rooster, with its half-angry, half-proud expression. On the other hand, it's the arrangement of the wings and tail which gives the albatross its dash of caricature.
continue on to chapter 3: Building Huts
