The Native Races (Complete 5 Part Edition). Hubert Howe Bancroft

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СКАЧАТЬ 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.728 For their maintenance, especially in latter days, they are indebted in a great measure to their horses, and accordingly they consider them as their most valuable property. The Navajos are larger stock owners than any of the other nations, possessing numerous flocks of sheep, and herds of cattle as well as horses and mules. These, with their blankets, their dressed skins, and peaches which they cultivate, constitute their chief wealth.729 Certain bands of the Apache nation exchange with the agriculturists pottery and skins for grain.730 Among the Navajos, husband and wife hold their property separate, and at their death it becomes the inheritance of the nephew or niece. This law of entail is often eluded by the parents, who before death give their goods to their children.731 Their exchanges are governed by caprice rather than by established values. Sometimes they will give a valuable blanket for a trifling ornament. The Mojaves have a species of currency which they call pook, consisting of strings of shell beads, whose value is determined by the length.732 At the time of Coronado's expedition, in 1540, the Comanches possessed great numbers of dogs, which they employed in transporting their buffalo-skin tents and scanty household utensils.733 When a buffalo is killed, the successful hunter claims only the hide; the others are at liberty to help themselves to the meat according to their necessities.734 In their trading transactions they display much shrewdness, and yet are free from the tricks usually resorted to by other nations.735

      ARTS AND CALENDAR.

Their knowledge of decorative art is limited; paintings and sculptures of men and animals, rudely executed on rocks or walls of caverns are occasionally met with; whether intended as hieroglyphical representations, or sketched during the idle moments of some budding genius, it is difficult to determine, owing to the fact that the statements of the various authors who have investigated the subject are conflicting.736 The Comanches display a certain taste in painting their buffalo-robes, shields, and tents. The system of enumeration of the Apaches exhibits a regularity and diffusiveness seldom met with amongst wild tribes, and their language contains all the terms for counting up to ten thousand.737 In this respect the Comanches are very deficient; what little knowledge of arithmetic they have is decimal, and when counting, the aid of their fingers or presence of some actual object is necessary, being, as they are, in total ignorance of the simplest arithmetical calculation. The rising sun proclaims to them a new day; beyond this they have no computation or division of time. They know nothing of the motions of the earth or heavenly bodies, though they recognise the fixedness of the polar star.738

Their social organization, like all their manners and customs, is governed by their wild and migratory life. Government they have none. Born and bred with the idea of perfect personal freedom, all restraint is unendurable.739 The nominal authority vested in the war chief, is obtained by election, and is subordinate to the council of warriors.740 Every father holds undisputed sway over his children until the age of puberty. His power, importance, and influence at the council-fire is determined by the amount of his slaves and other property.741 Those specially distinguished by their cunning and prowess in war, or success in the chase, are chosen as chiefs.

      COMANCHE GOVERNMENT.

A chief may at any time be deposed.742 Sometimes it happens that one family retains the chieftaincy in a tribe during several generations, because of the bravery or wealth of the sons.743 In time of peace but little authority is vested in the chief; but on the war path, to ensure success, his commands are implicitly obeyed. It also frequently happens that chiefs are chosen to lead some particular war or marauding expedition, their authority expiring immediately upon their return home.744

      Among the Comanches public councils are held at regular intervals during the year, when matters pertaining to the common weal are discussed, laws made, thefts, seditions, murders, and other crimes punished, and the quarrels of warrior-chiefs settled. Smaller councils are also held, in which, as well as in the larger ones, all are free to express their opinion.745 Questions laid before them are taken under consideration, a long time frequently elapsing before a decision is made. Great care is taken that the decrees of the meeting shall be in accordance with the opinion and wishes of the majority. Laws are promulgated by a public crier, who ranks next to the chief in dignity.746

      Ancestral customs and traditions govern the decisions of the councils; brute force, or right of the strongest, with the law of talion in its widest acceptance, direct the mutual relations of tribes and individuals.747 Murder, adultery, theft, and sedition are punished with death or public exposure, or settled by private agreement or the interposition of elderly warriors. The doctor failing to cure his patient must be punished by death. The court of justice is the council of the tribe, presided over by the chiefs, the latter with the assistance of sub-chiefs, rigidly executing judgment upon the culprits.748 All crimes may be pardoned but murder, which must pay blood for blood if the avenger overtake his victim.749

      All the natives of this family hold captives as slaves;750 some treat them kindly, employing the men as herders and marrying the women; others half-starve and scourge them, and inflict on them the most painful labors.751 Nothing short of crucifixion, roasting by a slow fire, or some other most excruciating form of death, can atone the crime of attempted escape from bondage. They not only steal children from other tribes and sell them, but carry on a most unnatural traffic in their own offspring.752

      TREATMENT OF WOMEN.

      Womankind as usual is not respected. The female child receives little care from its mother, being only of collateral advantage to СКАЧАТЬ