The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft Part 55

[634] 'The Yutas make their graves high up the kanyons, usually in clefts of rock.' _Burton's City of the Saints_, p. 150. At the obsequies of a chief of the Timpenaguchya tribe 'two squaws, two Pa Yuta children, and fifteen of his best horses composed the "customs."' _Id._, p. 577.

'When a death takes place, they wrap the body in a skin or hide, and drag it by the leg to a grave, which is heaped up with stones, as a protection against wild beasts.' _Id._, p. 582; _Remy and Brenchley's Journ._, vol. i., pp. 131, 345; _De Smet_, _Voy._, p. 28; _Domenech's Deserts_, vol. ii., pp. 359, 363.

[635] The Shoshones of Carson Valley 'are very rigid in their morals.'

_Remy and Brenchley's Journ._, vol. i., p. 85. At Haw's Ranch, 'honest and trustworthy, but lazy and dirty.' _Id._, p. 123. These Kusi-Utahs 'were very inoffensive and seemed perfectly guileless.' _Id._, vol. ii., p. 412. The Pai-uches are considered as mere dogs, the refuse of the lowest order of humanity. _Farnham's Life and Adven._, p. 376. The Timpanigos Yutas 'are a n.o.ble race ... brave and hospitable.' _Id._, p.

371. The Pi-utes are 'the most degraded and least intellectual Indians known to the trappers.' _Farnham's Trav._, p. 58. 'The Snakes are a very intelligent race.' _Id._, p. 62. The Bannacks are 'a treacherous and dangerous race.' _Id._, p. 76. The Pi-Edes are 'timid and dejected;' the Snakes are 'fierce and warlike;' the Tosawitches 'very treacherous;' the Bannacks 'treacherous;' the Washoes 'peaceable, but indolent.'

_Simpson's Route to Cal._, p. 45-9. The Utahs 'are brave, impudent, and warlike ... of a revengeful disposition.' _Graves_, in _Ind. Aff.

Rept._, 1854, p. 178. 'Industrious.' _Armstrong_, in _Id._, 1856, p.

233. 'A race of men whose cruelty is scarcely a stride removed from that of cannibalism.' _Hurt_, in _Id._, p. 231. 'The Pah-utes are undoubtedly the most interesting and docile Indians on the continent.' _Dodge_, in _Id._, 1859, p. 374. The Utahs are 'fox-like, crafty, and cunning.'

_Archuleta_, in _Id._, 1865, p. 167. The Pi-Utes are 'teachable, kind, and industrious ... scrupulously chaste in all their intercourse.'

_Parker_, in _Id._, 1866, p. 115. The Weber-Utes 'are the most worthless and indolent of any in the Territory.' _Head_, in _Id._, p. 123. The Bannocks 'seem to be imbued with a spirit of dash and bravery quite unusual.' _Campbell_, in _Id._, p. 120. The Bannacks are 'energetic and industrious.' _Danilson_, in _Id._, 1869, p. 288. The Washoes are docile and tractable. _Douglas_, in _Id._, 1870, p. 96. The Pi-utes are 'not warlike, rather cowardly, but pilfering and treacherous.' _Powell_, in _Id._, 1871, p. 562. The Shoshokoes 'are extremely indolent, but a mild, inoffensive race.' _Irving's Bonneville's Adven._, p. 257. The Snakes 'are a thoroughly savage and lazy tribe.' _Franchere's Nar._, p. 150.

The Shoshones are 'frank and communicative.' _Lewis and Clarke's Trav._, p. 306. The Snakes are 'pacific, hospitable and honest.' _Dunn's Oregon_, p. 325. 'The Snakes are a very intelligent race.' _White's Ogn._, p. 379. The Pi-utes 'are as degraded a cla.s.s of humanity as can be found upon the earth. The male is proud, sullen, intensely insolent.... They will not steal. The women are chaste, at least toward their white brethren.' _Farley_, in _San Francisco Medical Jour._, vol. iii., p. 154. The Snakes have been considered 'as rather a dull and degraded people ... weak in intellect, and wanting in courage. And this opinion is very probable to a casual observer at first sight, or when seen in small numbers; for their apparent timidity, grave, and reserved habits, give them an air of stupidity.

An intimate knowledge of the Snake character will, however, place them on an equal footing with that of other kindred nations, either east or west of the mountains, both in respect to their mental faculties and moral attributes.' _Ross' Fur Hunters_, vol. ii., p. 151. 'Les Sampectches, les Pagouts et les Ampayouts sont ... un peuple plus miserable, plus degrade et plus pauvre. Les Francais les appellent communement les Dignes-de-pitie, et ce nom leur convient a merveille.'

_De Smet_, _Voy._, p. 28. The Utahs 'paria.s.sent doux et affables, tres-polis et hospitaliers pour les etrangers, et charitables entre eux.' _Id._, p. 30. 'The Indians of Utah are the most miserable, if not the most degraded, beings of all the vast American wilderness.'

_Domenech's Deserts_, vol. ii., p. 64. The Utahs 'possess a capacity for improvement whenever circ.u.mstances favor them.' _Scenes in the Rocky Mts._, p. 180. The Snakes are 'la plus mauvaise des races des Peaux-Rouges que j'ai frequentees. Ils sont aussi paresseux que peu prevoyants.' _Saint-Amant_, _Voy._, p. 325. The Shoshones of Idaho are 'highly intelligent and lively ... the most virtuous and unsophisticated of all the Indians of the United States.' _Taylor_, in _Cal. Farmer_, _April 27, 1860_. The Washoes have 'superior intelligence and apt.i.tude for learning.' _Id._, _June 14, 1861_; see also _Id._, _June 26, 1863_. The Nevada Shoshones 'are the most pure and uncorrupted aborigines upon this continent ... they are scrupulously clean in their persons, and chaste in their habits ...

though whole families live together, of all ages and both s.e.xes, in the same tent, immorality and crime are of rare occurrence.' _Prince_, in _Id._, _Oct. 18, 1861_. The Bannacks 'are cowardly, treacherous, filthy and indolent.' _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. iv., p. 223. 'The Utahs are predatory, voracious and perfidious. Plunderers and murderers by habit ... when their ferocity is not excited, their suspicions are so great as to render what they say unreliable, if they do not remain altogether uncommunicative.' _Id._, vol. v., pp. 197-8.

The Pa-Vants 'are as brave and improvable as their neighbours are mean and vile.' _Burton's City of the Saints_, p. 577. 'The Yuta is less servile, and consequently has a higher ethnic status than the African negro; he will not toil, and he turns at a kick or a blow.' _Id._, p.

581. The Shoshokoes 'are harmless and exceedingly timid and shy.'

_Brownell's Ind. Races_, p. 538.

[Ill.u.s.tration: NATIVE RACES of the PACIFIC STATES NEW MEXICAN GROUP]

CHAPTER V.

NEW MEXICANS.

GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION OF THIS GROUP, AND PHYSICAL FEATURES OF THE TERRITORY--FAMILY DIVISIONS: APACHES, PUEBLOS, LOWER CALIFORNIANS, AND NORTHERN MEXICANS--THE APACHE FAMILY: COMANCHES, APACHES PROPER, HUALAPAIS, YUMAS, COSNINOS, YAMPAIS, YALCHEDUNES, YAMAJABS, COCHEES, CRUZADOS, NIJORAS, NAVAJOS, MOJAVES, AND THEIR CUSTOMS--THE PUEBLO FAMILY: PUEBLOS, MOQUIS, PIMAS, MARICOPAS, PAPAGOS, AND THEIR NEIGHBOURS--THE COCHIMIS, WAICURIS, PERICUIS, AND OTHER LOWER CALIFORNIANS--THE SERIS, SINALOAS, TARAHUMARES, CONCHOS, TEPEHUANES, TOBOSOS, ACAXES, AND OTHERS IN NORTHERN MEXICO.

The NEW MEXICANS, under which name I group the nations of New Mexico, Arizona, Lower California, Sonora, Sinaloa, Chihuahua, Durango, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, northern Zacatecas, and western Texas, present some peculiarities not hitherto encountered in this work. As a groupal designation, this name is neither more nor less appropriate than some others; all I claim for it is that it appears as fit as any. The term Mexican might with propriety be applied to this group, as the majority of its people live within the Mexican boundary, but that word is employed in the next division, which is yet more strictly of Mexico.

The territory of the New Mexicans, which lies for the most part between the parallels 36 and 23 and the meridians 96 and 117, presents a great diversity of climate and aspect. On reaching the northern extremity of the Gulf of California, the Sierra Nevada and coast ranges of mountains join and break up into detached upheavals, or as they are called 'lost mountains'; one part, with no great elevation, continuing through the peninsula, another, under the name of Sierra Madre, extending along the western side of Mexico. The Rocky Mountains, which separate into two ranges at about the forty-fifth parallel, continue southward, one branch, known in Utah as the Wahsatch, merging into the Sierra Madre, while the other, the great Cordillera, stretches along the eastern side of Mexico, uniting again with the Sierra Madre in the Mexican table-land. Besides these are many detached and intersecting ranges, between which lie arid deserts, lava beds, and a few fertile valleys. From the sterile sandy deserts which cover vast areas of this territory, rise many isolated groups of almost inaccessible peaks, some of which are wooded, thus affording protection and food for man and beast. Two great rivers, the Colorado and the Rio Grande del Norte flow through this region, one on either side, but, except in certain spots, they contribute little to the fertilization of the country. In the more elevated parts the climate is temperate, sometimes in winter severely cold; but on the deserts and plains, with the scorching sun above and the burning sand beneath, the heat is almost insupportable. The scanty herbage, by which the greater part of this region is covered, offers to man but a transient food-supply; hence he must move from place to place or starve. Thus nature, more than elsewhere on our coast, invites to a roving life; and, as on the Arabian deserts, bands of American Bedouins roam over immense tracts seeking what they may devour. Here it is that many a luckless miner and ill-protected traveler pays the penalty of his temerity with his life; here it is, more than elsewhere within the temperate zones of the two Americas, that the natives bid defiance to the encroachments of civilization. Sweeping down upon small settlements and isolated parties, these American Arabs rob, murder, and destroy, then fleeing to their strongholds bid defiance to pursuers. In the midst of all this we find another phenomenon in the semi-civilized towns-people of New Mexico and Arizona; a spontaneous awakening from the ruder phases of savagism.

The families of this division may be enumerated as follows: The _Apaches_, under which general name I include all the savage tribes roaming through New Mexico, the north-western portion of Texas, a small part of northern Mexico, and Arizona; the _Pueblos_, or partially cultivated towns-people of New Mexico and Arizona, with whom I unite, though not town-builders, the non-nomadic Pimas, Maricopas and Papagos of the lower Gila River; the _Lower Californians_, who occupy the peninsula; and the _Northern Mexicans_, which term includes the various nations scattered over the States of Sonora, Sinaloa, Chihuahua, Durango, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon and northern Zacatecas.

[Sidenote: THE APACHES.]

To the APACHES, using the term in the signification of a family of this division, no accurate boundaries can be a.s.signed. Owing to their roving proclivities and incessant raids they are led first in one direction and then in another. In general terms they may be said to range about as follows: The _Comanches_, Jetans, or Nauni, consisting of three tribes, the Comanches proper, the Yamparacks, and Tenawas, inhabiting northern Texas, eastern Chihuahua, Nuevo Leon, Coahuila, Durango, and portions of south-western New Mexico,[636] by language allied to the Shoshone family;[637] the _Apaches_, who call themselves Shis Inday, or 'men of the woods,'[638] and whose tribal divisions are the Chiricaguis, Coyoteros, Faraones, Gilenos, Lipanes, Llaneros, Mescaleros, Mimbrenos, Natages, Pelones, Pinalenos, Tejuas, Tontos and Vaqueros, roaming over New Mexico, Arizona, north-western Texas, Chihuahua and Sonora,[639] and who are allied by language to the great Tinneh family;[640] the _Navajos_, or Tenuai, 'men,' as they designate themselves, having linguistic affinities with the Apache nation, with which indeed they are sometimes cla.s.sed, living in and around the Sierra de los Mimbres;[641] the _Mojaves_, occupying both banks of the Colorado in Mojave Valley; the _Hualapais_, near the headwaters of Bill Williams Fork; the _Yumas_, on the east bank of the Colorado, near its junction with the Rio Gila;[642] the _Cosninos_, who like the Hualapais are sometimes included in the Apache nation, ranging through the Mogollon Mountains;[643] and the _Yampais_, between Bill Williams Fork and the Rio Ha.s.sayampa.[644] Of the mult.i.tude of names mentioned by the early Spanish authorities, I only give in addition to the above the _Yalchedunes_, located on the west bank of the Colorado in about lat.i.tude 33 20', the _Yamajabs_, on the east bank of the same river, in about lat.i.tude 34-35; the _Cochees_, in the Chiricagui Mountains of Arizona, the _Cruzados_[645] in New Mexico, and finally the _Nijoras_,[646] somewhere about the lower Colorado.[647]

The Apache country is probably the most desert of all, alternating between sterile plains and wooded mountains, interspersed with comparatively few rich valleys. The rivers do little to fertilize the soil except in spots; the little moisture that appears is quickly absorbed by the cloudless air and arid plains which stretch out, sometimes a hundred miles in length and breadth, like lakes of sand. In both mountain and desert the fierce, rapacious Apache, inured from childhood to hunger and thirst, and heat and cold, finds safe retreat.

It is here, among our western nations, that we first encounter thieving as a profession. No savage is fond of work; indeed, labor and savagism are directly antagonistic, for if the savage continues to labor he can but become civilized. Now the Apache is not as lazy as some of his northern brothers, yet he will not work, or if he does, like the Pueblos who are nothing but partially reclaimed Apaches or Comanches, he forthwith elevates himself, and is no longer an Apache; but being somewhat free from the vice of laziness, though subject in an eminent degree to all other vices of which mankind have any knowledge, he presents the anomaly of uniting activity with barbarism, and for this he must thank his thievish propensities. Leaving others to do the work, he cares not whom, the agriculturists of the river-bottoms or the towns-people of the north, he turns Ishmaelite, pounces upon those near and more remote, and if pursued retreats across the _jornadas del muerte_, or 'journeys of death' as the Mexican calls them, and finds refuge in the gorges, canons, and other almost impregnable natural fortresses of the mountains.

[Sidenote: PHYSIQUE OF APACHES.]

[Sidenote: PHYSICAL PECULIARITIES.]

The disparity in physical appearance between some of these nations, which may be attributed for the most part to diet, is curious. While those who subsist on mixed vegetable and animal food, present a tall, healthy, and muscular development, hardly excelled by the Caucasian race, those that live on animal food, excepting perhaps the Comanches, are small in stature, wrinkled, shriveled, and hideously ugly.[648] All the natives of this family, with the exception of the Apaches proper, are tall, well-built, with muscles strongly developed, pleasing features, although at times rather broad faces, high foreheads, large, clear, dark-colored eyes, possessing generally extraordinary powers of vision, black coa.r.s.e hair and, for a wonder, beards. Taken as a whole, they are the most perfect specimens of physical manhood that we have yet encountered. While some, and particularly females, are of a light copper color, others again approach near to the dark Californian. Women are generally plumper, inclining more to obesity than the men. Some comely girls are spoken of amongst them, but they grow old early.[649] In contradistinction to all this the Apaches proper, or Apache nation, as we may call them, are slim, ill developed, but very agile. Their height is about five feet four to five inches; features described as ugly, repulsive, emotionless, flat, and approaching the Mongol cast, while the head is covered with an unkempt ma.s.s of coa.r.s.e, shocky, rusty black hair, not unlike bristles. The women are not at all behind the men in ugliness, and a pleasing face is a rarity. A feature common to the family is remarkably small feet; in connection with which may be mentioned the peculiarity which obtains on the lower Colorado, of having the large toe widely separated from the others, which arises probably from wading in marshy bottoms. All the tribes whose princ.i.p.al subsistence is meat, and more particularly those that eat horse and mule flesh, are said to exhale a peculiar scent, something like the animals themselves when heated.[650]

[Sidenote: DRESS OF APACHES AND MOJAVES.]

All the natives of this region wear the hair much in the same manner, cut square across the forehead, and flowing behind.[651] The Mojave men usually twist or plait it, while with the women it is allowed to hang loose. Tattooing is common, but not universal; many of the Mojave women tattoo the chin in vertical lines like the Central Californians, except that the lines are closer together.[652] Paint is freely used among the Mojaves, black and red predominating, but the Apaches, Yumas, and others use a greater variety of colors.[653] Breech-cloth and moccasins are the ordinary dress of the men,[654] while the women have a short petticoat of bark.[655] The dress of the Mojaves and Apaches is often more pretentious, being a buckskin shirt, skull-cap or helmet, and moccasins of the same material; the latter, broad at the toes, slightly turned up, and reaching high up on the leg, serve as a protection against cacti and thorns.[656] It is a common practice among these tribes to plaster the head and body with mud, which acts as a preventive against vermin and a protection from the sun's rays.[657] In their selection of ornaments the Mojaves show a preference for white, intermixed with blue; necklaces and bracelets made from beads and small sh.e.l.ls, usually strung together, but sometimes sewed on to leather bands are much in vogue. The Apache nation adopt a more fantastic style in painting and in their head-dress; for ornament they employ deer-hoofs, sh.e.l.ls, fish-bones, beads, and occasionally porcupine-quills, with which the women embroider their short deer-skin petticoats.[658] The Navajoes, both men and women, wear the hair long, tied or clubbed up behind; they do not tattoo or disfigure themselves with paint.[659] The ordinary dress is a species of hunting-shirt, or doublet, of deer-skin, or a blanket confined at the waist by a belt; buckskin breeches, sometimes ornamented up the seams with pieces of silver or porcupine-quills; long moccasins, reaching well up the leg, and a round helmet-shaped cap, also of buckskin, surmounted with a plume of eagle or wild turkey feathers, and fastened with a chin-strap. The women wear a blanket and waist-belt, breeches and moccasins. The belts, which are of buckskin, are frequently richly ornamented with silver. They sometimes also use porcupine-quills, with which they embroider their garments.[660]

[Sidenote: COMANCHE DRESS AND ORNAMENT.]

The Comanches of both s.e.xes tattoo the face, and body generally on the breast.[661] The men do not cut the hair, but gather it into tufts or plaits, to which they attach round pieces of silver graduated in size from top to bottom; those who cannot obtain or afford silver use beads, tin, or gla.s.s.[662] Much time is spent by them in painting and adorning their person--red being a favorite color; feathers also form a necessary adjunct to their toilet.[663] Some few wear a deer-skin shirt, but the more common dress is the buffalo-robe, which forms the sole covering for the upper part of the body; in addition, the breech-cloth, leggins, and moccasins are worn. The women crop the hair short, and a long shirt made of deer-skin, which extends from the neck to below the knees, with leggins and moccasins, are their usual attire.[664]

[Sidenote: DWELLINGS OF THE APACHES.]

Nomadic and roving in their habits, they pay little attention to the construction of their dwellings. Seldom do they remain more than a week in one locality;[665] hence their lodges are comfortless, and diversified in style according to caprice and circ.u.mstances. The frame-work everywhere is usually of poles, the Comanches placing them erect, the Lipans bringing the tops together in cone-shape, while the Apaches bend them over into a low oval;[666] one or other of the above forms is usually adopted by all this family,[667] with unimportant differences depending on locality and variations of climate. The framework is covered with brushwood or skins, sometimes with gra.s.s or flat stones. They are from twelve to eighteen feet in diameter at the widest part, and vary from four to eight feet in height,[668] which is sometimes increased by excavation.[669] A triangular opening serves as a door, which is closed with a piece of cloth or skin attached to the top.[670] When on or near rocky ground they live in caves, whence some travelers have inferred that they build stone houses.[671] A few of the Mojave dwellings are so superior to the others that they deserve special notice. They may be described as a sort of shed having perpendicular walls and sloping roof, the latter supported by a horizontal beam running along the center, the roof projecting in front so as to form a kind of portico. The timber used is cottonwood, and the interstices are filled up with mud or straw.[672] None of their houses have windows, the door and smoke-hole in the roof serving for this purpose; but, as many of them have their fires outside, the door is often the only opening.[673]

[Sidenote: NEW MEXICAN DWELLINGS.]

Small huts about three feet in height const.i.tute their medicine-lodges, or bath-houses, and are generally in form and material like their other structures.[674] The Mojaves also build granaries in a cylindrical form with conical, skillfully made osier roofs.[675]

[Sidenote: FOOD AND AGRICULTURE.]

The food of all is similar;[676] most of them make more or less pretentions to agriculture, and are habituated to a vegetable diet, but seldom do any of them raise a sufficient supply for the year's consumption, and they are therefore forced to rely on the mesquit-bean, the pinon-nut and the maguey-plant, _agave mexicana_, and other wild fruits, which they collect in considerable quant.i.ties.[677] They are but indifferent hunters, and secure only a precarious supply of small game, such as rabbits and squirrels, with ultimate recourse to rats, gra.s.shoppers, lizards and other reptiles.[678] A few fish are taken by those living in the neighborhood of rivers.[679] The Navajos, Mojaves, and Yumas, have long been acquainted with the art of agriculture and grow corn, beans, pumpkins, melons, and other vegetables, and also some wheat; some attempt a system of irrigation, and others select for their crops that portion of land which has been overflowed by the river. The Navajos possess numerous flocks of sheep, which though used for food, they kill only when requiring the wool for blankets. Although in later years they have cows, they do not make b.u.t.ter or cheese, but only a curd from sour milk, from which they express the whey and of which they are very fond.[680]

Their method of planting is simple; with a short sharp-pointed stick small holes are dug in the ground into which they drop the seeds, and no further care is given to the crop except to keep it partially free from weeds.[681]

Maize soaked in water is ground to a paste between two stones. From this paste tortillas, or thin cakes, are made which are baked on a hot stone.

To cook the maguey, a hole is made in the ground, in which a fire is kindled; after it has burned some time the maguey-bulb is buried in the hot ashes and roasted. Some concoct a gypsy sort of dish or ollapodrida; game, and such roots or herbs as they can collect, being put in an earthen pot with water and boiled.[682]

As before mentioned, the roving Apaches obtain most of their food by hunting and plunder; they eat more meat and less vegetable diet than the other Arizona tribes. They have a great partiality for horse-flesh, seldom eat fish, but kill deer and antelope.[683] When hunting they frequently disguise themselves in a skin, and imitating closely the habits and movements of the animal, they contrive to approach within shooting-distance.[684] Whether it be horse or deer, every portion of the carca.s.s with the exception of the bones, is consumed, the entrails being a special delicacy. Their meat they roast partially in the fire, and eat it generally half raw. When food is plenty they eat ravenously and consume an enormous quant.i.ty; when scarce, they fast long and stoically. Most of them hate bear-meat and pork. So Jew-like is the Navajo in this particular that he will not touch pork though starving.[685]

[Sidenote: BUFFALO HUNTING.]

The Comanches do not cultivate the soil, but subsist entirely by the chase. Buffalo, which range in immense herds throughout their country, are the chief food, the only addition to it being a few wild plants and roots; hence they may be said to be almost wholly flesh-eaters.[686] In pursuit of the buffalo they exhibit great activity, skill, and daring.

When approaching a herd, they advance in close column, gradually increasing their speed, and as the distance is lessened, they separate into two or more groups, and dashing into the herd at full gallop, discharge their arrows right and left with great rapidity; others hunt buffalo with spears, but the common and more fatal weapon is the bow and arrow. The skinning and cutting up of the slain animals is usually the task of the women.[687] The meat and also the entrails are eaten both raw and roasted. A fire being made in a hole, sticks are ranged round it, meeting at the top, on which the meat is placed. The liver is a favorite morsel, and is eaten raw; they also drink the warm blood of the animal.[688] No provision is made for a time of scarcity, but when many buffalo are killed, they cut portions of them into long strips, which, after being dried in the sun, are pounded fine. This pemican they carry with them in their hunting expeditions, and when unsuccessful in the chase, a small quant.i.ty boiled in water or cooked with grease, serves for a meal. When unable to procure game, they sometimes kill their horses and mules for food, but this only when compelled by necessity.[689] In common with all primitive humanity they are filthy--never bathing except in summer[690]--with little or no sense of decency.[691]

[Sidenote: WEAPONS.]

[Sidenote: BOW AND LANCE.]

Throughout Arizona and New Mexico, the bow and arrow is the princ.i.p.al weapon, both in war and in the chase; to which are added, by those accustomed to move about on horseback, the shield and lance;[692] with such also the Mexican riata may now occasionally be seen.[693] In battle, the Colorado River tribes use a club made of hard heavy wood, having a large mallet-shaped head, with a small handle, through which a hole is bored, and in which a leather thong is introduced for the purpose of securing it in the hand.[694] They seldom use the tomahawk.

Some carry slings with four cords attached.[695] The bows are made of yew, bois d'arc, or willow, and strengthened by means of deer-sinews, firmly fastened to the back with a strong adhesive mixture. The length varies from four to five feet. The string is made from sinews of the deer.[696] A leathern arm-guard is worn round the left wrist to defend it from the blow of the string.[697] The arrows measure from twenty to thirty inches, according to length of bow, and the shaft is composed of two pieces; the notch end, which is the longer, consisting of a reed, into which is fitted a shorter piece made of acacia, or some other hard wood, and tipped with obsidian, agate, or iron. It is intended that when an object is struck, and an attempt is made to draw out the arrow, the pointed end shall remain in the wound. There is some difference in the feathering; most nations employing three feathers, tied round the shaft at equal distances with fine tendons. The Tontos have their arrows winged with four feathers, while some of the Comanches use only two. All have some distinguishing mark in their manner of winging, painting, or carving on their arrows.[698] The quiver is usually made of the skin of some animal, deer or sheep, sometimes of a fox or wild-cat skin entire with the tail appended, or of reeds, and carried slung at the back or fastened to a waist-belt.[699] The lance is from twelve to fifteen feet long, the point being a long piece of iron, a knife or sword blade socketed into the pole.[700] Previous to the introduction of iron, their spears were pointed with obsidian or some other flinty substance which was hammered and ground to a sharp edge. The frame of the shield is made of light basket-work, covered with two or three thicknesses of buffalo-hide; between the layers of hide it is usual with the Comanches to place a stuffing of hair, thus rendering them almost bullet proof.

Shields are painted in various devices and decorated with feathers, pieces of leather, and other finery, also with the scalps of enemies, and are carried on the left arm by two straps.[701]

[Sidenote: APACHE WARRIORS.]

Their fighting has more the character of a.s.sa.s.sination and murder than warfare. They attack only when they consider success a foregone conclusion, and rather than incur the risk of losing a warrior will for days lie in ambush till a fair opportunity for surprising the foe presents itself.[702] The ingenuity of the Apache in preparing an ambush or a surprise is described by Colonel Cremony as follows: "He has as perfect a knowledge of the a.s.similation of colors as the most experienced Paris modiste. By means of his ac.u.men in this respect, he can conceal his swart body amidst the green gra.s.s, behind brown shrubs, or gray rocks, with so much address and judgment that any but the experienced would pa.s.s him by without detection at the distance of three or four yards. Sometimes they will envelop themselves in a gray blanket, and by an artistic sprinkling of earth, will so resemble a granite boulder as to be pa.s.sed within near range without suspicion. At others, they will cover their persons with freshly gathered gra.s.s, and lying prostrate, appear as a natural portion of the field. Again they will plant themselves among the Yuccas, and so closely imitate the appearance of that tree as to pa.s.s for one of its species."

Before undertaking a raid they secrete their families in the mountain fastnesses, or elsewhere, then two by two, or in greater numbers, they proceed by different routes, to a place of rendezvous, not far from where the a.s.sault is to be made or where the ambuscade is to be prepared. When, after careful observation, coupled with the report of their scouts, they are led to presume that little, if any, resistance will be offered them, a sudden a.s.sault is made, men, women and children are taken captives, and animals and goods secured, after which their retreat is conducted in an orderly and skillful manner, choosing pathways over barren and rugged mountains which are known only to themselves.[703] Held asunder from congregating in large bodies by a meagerness of provisions, they have recourse to a system of signals which facilitates intercourse with each other. During the day one or more columns of smoke are the signals made for the scattered and roaming bands to rendezvous, or they serve as a warning against approaching danger. To the same end at night they used a fire beacon; besides these, they have various other means of telegraphing which are understood only by them, for example, the displacement and arrangement of a few stones on the trail, or a bended twig, is to them a note of warning as efficient, as is the bugle-call to disciplined troops.[704]