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261 .NTOffiRODS "PRAIRIE DOG" TOWNS.^ 26J " i Their caatles are surrounded by walls; they have sen- tinials with the eyes of hawks to observe the least thing that is going on, and if you have never witnessed how alert these watchers are, you may take it for granted that they excel even the Indians themselves for quickness of eyesight. These towns even at this period are still numerous, being always built on well drained, sloping land, for the natives are smarter than the whites, and don't propose to have their homes inun- dated as did the people of old who lived in Mesopota- mia. The very name "Mesopotamia" meant "Be- tween the Rivers," or, as the Arabs said, "Al Jesira," The Island: so is there any wonder that when the large rivers Euphrates and Tigris over- flowed, that they lost their homes and their lives sa well, all except a family named Noah, who had a large barge in which he put all the cattle and animak he could gather up, so as to have a start in life when the flooded district dried up? But to compare with the province of Quivira, and within a few years previous to 1907: still our people would not pattern after the little denizens of the prai- rie, but, like the foolish man of old, built their homes- upon the sand and mud, so when the floods came their houses washed away. Thus the capital of Quivira, Topeka, and the city of the Wyandottes, Kansas City, and many other burgs have reason to remember the parable of the Great Teacher. But coming back to the "Lilliputian" towns of the. prairie, the occupants of which have original tastes„ in that they associate and fraternize with the species commonly designated rattlers, bull, garter and num-