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“ The Gipsies and travelling tinkers of England have an equally unpretentious tent, which consists of a framework of hazel rods bent so as to form a series of low ridges, the ends being stuck into the ground, and over this frame blankets or other coverings are thrown and pegged down. The simplest, but at the same time the least convenient, of ordinary tents is the conical, consisting of a central pole with ropes and canvas radiating from it in an unbroken slope to the ground. ”

“ TENT. A tent is a portable habitation or place of shelter consisting in its simplest form of a covering of some textile substance stretched over a framework of cords and poles, or of wooden rods, and fastened tightly to the ground by pegs. Throughout the greater part of the interior of Asia the pastoral tribes have of necessity ever been dwellers in tents,—the scantiness of water, the consequent frequent failure of herbage, and the violent extremes of seasons compelling a wandering life. Tents have also been used in all ages by armies in campaign. ”

“ A tent, therefore, which has sides or a fall is a much more convenient structure. The counterpart of the conical is the pyramidal tent, the four equal sides sloping to the ground ; and this form with a fall or sides makes the square tent, which is both convenient in shape and firm in structure. Small tents are also made, modified from the Arab form, with a central pole and two lower lateral poles. In the umbrella tent the roof is supported by a set of ribs which radiate from the pole, precisely as the ribs of an umbrella spread out from the stick. ”