The Native Races (Complete 5 Part Edition). Hubert Howe Bancroft
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
They treat their prisoners cruelly; scalping them, or burning them at the stake; yet, ruled as they are by greediness, they are always ready to exchange them for horses, blankets, beads, or other property. When hotly pursued, they murder their male prisoners, preserving only the females and children, and the captured cattle, though under desperate circumstances they do not hesitate to slaughter the latter.705 The Apaches returning to their families from a successful expedition, are received by the women with songs and feasts, but if unsuccessful they are met with jeers and insults. On such occasions says Colonel Cremony, "the women turn away from them with assured indifference and contempt. They are upbraided as cowards, or for want of skill and tact, and are told that such men should not have wives, because they do not know how to provide for their wants. When so reproached, the warriors hang their heads and offer no excuse for their failure. To do so would only subject them to more ridicule and objurgation; but Indian-like, they bide their time in the hope of finally making their peace by some successful raid." If a Mojave is taken prisoner he is forever discarded in his own nation, and should he return his mother even will not own him.706
COMANCHE WARRIORS.
The Comanches, who are better warriors than the Apaches, highly honor bravery on the battle-field. From early youth, they are taught the art of war, and the skillful handling of their horses and weapons; and they are not allowed a seat in the council, until their name is garnished by some heroic deed.707 Before going on the war-path they perform certain ceremonies, prominent among which is the war-dance.708 They invariably fight on horseback with the bow and arrow, spear and shield, and in the management of these weapons they have no superiors.
Their mode of attack is sudden and impetuous; they advance in column, and when near the enemy form subdivisions charging on the foe simultaneously from opposite sides, and while keeping their horses in constant motion, they throw themselves over the side, leaving only a small portion of the body exposed, and in this position discharge their arrows over the back of the animal or under his neck with great rapidity and precision.709 A few scalps are taken, for the purpose of being used at the war or scalp dance by which they celebrate a victory. Prisoners belong to the captors and the males are usually killed, but women are reserved and become the wives or servants of their owners, while children of both sexes are adopted into the tribe.710 Peace ceremonies take place at a council of warriors, when the pipe is passed round and smoked by each, previous to which an interchange of presents is customary.711
IMPLEMENTS.
Household utensils are made generally of wickerwork, or straw, which, to render them watertight, are coated with some resinous substance. The Mojaves and a few of the Apache tribes have also burnt-clay vessels, such as water-jars and dishes.712 For grinding maize, as before stated, a kind of metate is used, which with them is nothing more than a convex and a concave stone.713 Of agricultural implements they know nothing; a pointed stick, crooked at one end, which they call kishishai, does service as a corn-planter in spring, and during the later season answers also for plucking fruit from trees, and again, in times of scarcity, to dig rats and prairie dogs from their subterranean retreats. Their cradle is a flat board, padded, on which the infant is fastened; on the upper part is a little hood to protect the head, and it is carried by the mother on her back, suspended by a strap.714 Their saddles are simply two rolls of straw covered with deer or antelope skin, which are connected by a strap; a piece of raw hide serves for girths and stirrups. In later years the Mexican saddle, or one approaching it in shape, has been adopted, and the Navajos have succeeded in making a pretty fair imitation of it, of hard ash. Their bridles, which consist of a rein attached to the lower jaw, are very severe on the animal.715 Although not essentially a fish-eating people, the Mojaves and Axuas display considerable ingenuity in the manufacture of fishing-nets, which are noted for their strength and beauty. Plaited grass, or the fibry bark of the willow, are the materials of which they are made.716 Fire is obtained in the old primitive fashion of rubbing together two pieces of wood, one soft and the other hard. The hard piece is pointed and is twirled on the softer piece, with a steady downward pressure until sparks appear.717
NAVAJO BLANKETS.
The Navajos excel all other nations of this family in the manufacture of blankets.718 The art with them is perhaps of Mexican origin, and they keep for this industry large flocks of sheep.719 Some say in making blankets cotton is mixed with the wool, but I find no notice of their cultivating cotton. Their looms are of the most primitive kind. Two beams, one suspended and the other fastened to the ground, serve to stretch the warp perpendicularly, and two slats, inserted between the double warp, cross and recross it and also open a passage for the shuttle, which is simply a short stick with some thread wound around it. The operator sits on the ground, and the blanket, as the weaving progresses, is wound round the lower beam.720 The wool, after being carded, is spun with a spindle resembling a boy's top, the stem being about sixteen inches long and the lower point made to revolve in an earthen bowl by being twirled rapidly between the forefinger and thumb. The thread after being twisted is wound on the spindle, and though not very even, it answers the purpose very well.721 The patterns are mostly regular geometrical figures, among which diamonds and parallels predominate.722 Black and red are the principal variations in color, but blue and yellow are at times seen. Their colors they obtain mostly by dyeing with vegetable substances, but in later years they obtain also colored manufactured materials from the whites, which they again unravel, employing the colored threads obtained in this manner in their own manufactures.723 They also weave a coarse woolen cloth, of which they at times make shirts and leggins.724 Besides pottery of burnt clay, wickerwork baskets, and saddles and bridles, no general industry obtains in this family.725 Featherwork, such as sewing various patterns on skins with feathers, and other ornamental needlework, are also practiced by the Navajos.726
Of the Comanches, the Abbé Domenech relates that they extracted silver from some mines near San Saba, from which they manufactured ornaments for themselves and their saddles and bridles.727
PROPERTY.
They have no boats, but use rafts of wood, or bundles of rushes fastened tightly together with osier or willow twigs, and propelled sometimes with poles; but more frequently they place upon the craft their property and wives, and, swimming alongside of it, with the greatest ease push it before them.