[749] The Apache chief Ponce, speaking of the grief of a poor woman at the loss of her son, says: 'The mother of the dead brave demands the life of his murderer. Nothing else will satisfy her.... Would money satisfy me for the death of my son? No! I would demand the blood of the murderer. Then I would be satisfied.' Cremony's Apaches, p. 69. 'If one man (Apache) kills another, the next of kin to the defunct individual may kill the murderer—if he can. He has the right to challenge him to single-combat.... There is no trial, no set council, no regular examination into the crime or its causes; but the ordeal of battle settles the whole matter.' Id., p. 293.
[750] Domenech's Deserts, vol. ii., p. 7; Letherman, in Smithsonian Rept., 1855, p. 294. 'Ils (Comanches) tuent tous les prisonniers adultes, et ne laissent vivre que les enfans.' Dillon, Hist. Mex., p. 98. The Navajos 'have in their possession many prisoners, men, women, and children, ... whom they hold and treat as slaves.' Bent, in Schoolcraft's Arch., vol. i., p. 244.
[751] One boy from Mexico taken by the Comanches, said, 'dass sein Geschäft in der Gefangenschaft darin bestehe die Pferde seines Herrn zu weiden.' Froebel, Aus Amerika, tom. ii., p. 102; Gregg's Com. Prairies, vol. ii., p. 313. The natives of New Mexico take the women prisoners 'for wives.' Marcy's Rept., p. 187. Some prisoners liberated from the Comanches, were completely covered with stripes and bruises. Dewees' Texas, p. 232. Miss Olive Oatman detained among the Mohaves says: 'They invented modes and seemed to create necessities of labor that they might gratify themselves by taxing us to the utmost, and even took unwarranted delight in whipping us on beyond our strength. And all their requests and exactions were couched in the most insulting and taunting language and manner, as it then seemed, and as they had the frankness soon to confess, to fume their hate against the race to whom we belonged. Often under the frown and lash were we compelled to labor for whole days upon an allowance amply sufficient to starve a common dandy civilized idler.' Stratton's Capt. Oatman Girls, pp. 114-18, 130.
[752] 'It appeared that the poor girl had been stolen, as the Indian (Axua) said, from the Yuma tribe the day before, and he now offered her for sale.' Hardy's Trav., p. 379. 'The practice of parents selling their children is another proof of poverty' of the Axuans. Id., p. 371.
[753] 'According to their (Tontos') physiology the female, especially the young female, should be allowed meat only when necessary to prevent starvation.' Stratton's Capt. Oatman Girls, p. 115. The Comanches 'enter the marriage state at a very early age frequently before the age of puberty.' Neighbors, in Schoolcraft's Arch., vol. ii., p. 132. Whenever a Jicarilla female arrives at a marriageable age, in honor of the 'event the parents will sacrifice all the property they possess, the ceremony being protracted from five to ten days with every demonstration of hilarity.' Steck, in Ind. Aff. Rept., 1863, p. 109; Marcy's Army Life, p. 28-9. Among the Yumas, the applicant for womanhood is placed in an oven or closely covered hut, in which she is steamed for three days, alternating the treatment with plunges into the near river, and maintaining a fast all the time.' Emory's Rept. U. S. and Mex. Boundary Survey, vol. i., pp. 110-11. The Apaches celebrate a feast with singing, dancing, and mimic display when a girl arrives at the marriageable state, during which time the girl remains 'isolated in a huge lodge' and 'listens patiently to the responsibilities of her marriageable condition,' recounted to her by the old men and chiefs. 'After it is finished she is divested of her eyebrows.... A month afterward the eye lashes are pulled out.' Cremony's Apaches, pp. 143, 243-6.
[754] There is no marriage ceremony among the Navajoes 'a young man wishing a woman for his wife ascertains who her father is; he goes and states the cause of his visit and offers from one to fifteen horses for the daughter. The consent of the father is absolute, and the one so purchased assents or is taken away by force. All the marriageable women or squaws in a family can be taken in a similar manner by the same individual; i. e., he can purchase wives as long as his property holds out.' Bristol, in Ind. Aff. Rept. Spec. Com., 1867, p. 357; Marcy's Army Life, p. 49; Backus, in Schoolcraft's Arch., vol. iv., p. 214; Parker's Notes on Tex., p. 233.
[755] Among the Apaches, the lover 'stakes his horse in front of her roost.... Should the girl favor the suitor, his horse is taken by her, led to water, fed, and secured in front of his lodge.... Four days comprise the term allowed her for an answer.... A ready acceptance is apt to be criticised with some severity, while a tardy one is regarded as the extreme of coquetry.' Cremony's Apaches, pp. 245-9; Ten Broeck, in Schoolcraft's Arch., vol. iv., p. 89; Marcy's Army Life, pp. 30, 51. The Apache 'who can support or keep, or attract by his power to keep, the greatest number of women, is the man who is deemed entitled to the greatest amount of honor and respect.' Cremony's Apaches, pp. 44, 85. Un Comanche, 'peut épouser autant de femmes qu'il veut, à la seule condition de donner à chacune un cheval.' Domenech, Jour., p. 135. Among the Navajoes, 'The wife last chosen is always mistress of her predecessors.' Whipple, Ewbank, and Turner's Rept., p. 42, in Pac. R. R. Rept., vol. iii. They seldom, if ever, marry out of the tribe. Ward, in Ind. Aff. Rept. Spec. Com., 1867, p. 455. 'In general, when an Indian wishes to have many wives he chooses above all others, if he can, sisters, because he thinks he can thus secure more domestic peace.' Domenech's Deserts, vol. ii., p. 306. 'I think that few, if any, have more than one wife,' of the Mojaves. Ives' Colorado Riv., p. 71.
[756] 'The Navajo marriage-ceremony consists simply of a feast upon horse-flesh.' Palmer, in Harper's Mag., vol. xvii., p. 460. When the Navajos desire to marry, 'they sit down on opposite sides of a basket, made to hold water, filled with atole or some other food, and partake of it. This simple proceeding makes them husband and wife.' Davis' El Gringo, p. 415.
[757] The Comanche women 'are drudges.' Schoolcraft's Arch., vol. v., p. 575; Dufey, Résumé de l'Hist., tom. i., p. 4; Neighbors, in Ind. Aff. Rept., 1857, p. 265; Escudero, Noticias de Chihuahua, p. 230; Bartlett's Pers. Nar., vol. i., p. 308. Labor is considered degrading by the Comanches. Kennedy's Texas, vol. i., p. 347. The Apache men 'no cuidan de otras cosas, sino de cazar y divertirse.' Sonora, Descrip. Geog., in Doc. Hist. Mex., serie iii., tom. iv., p. 563; Marcy's Army Life, pp. 29, 49, 56. 'La femme (du Comanche) son esclave absolue, doit tout faire pour lui. Souvent il n'apporte pas même le gibier qu'il a tué, mais il envoie sa femme le chercher au loin.' Dubuis, in Domenech, Jour., p. 459. The Navajos 'treat their women with great attention, consider them equals, and relieve them from the drudgery of menial work.' Hughes' Doniphan's Ex., p. 203. The Navajo women 'are the real owners of all the sheep.... They admit women into their councils, who sometimes control their deliberations; and they also eat with them.' Davis' El Gringo, p. 412; Whipple, Ewbank, and Turner's Rept., p. 101., in Pac. R. R. Rept., vol. iii. 'De aquí proviene que sean árbitros de sus mugeres, dandoles un trato servilísimo, y algunas veces les quitan hasta la vida por celos.' Velasco, Noticias de Sonora, p. 268. 'Les Comanches, obligent le prisonnier blanc, dont ils ont admiré le valeur dans le combat, á s'unir aux leurs pour perpétuer sa race.' Fossey, Mexique, p. 462.
[758] Among the Apaches, 'muchas veces suele disolverse el contrato por unánime consentimiento de los desposados, y volviendo la mujer á su padre, entrega este lo que recibió por ella.' Cordero. in Orozco y Berra, Geografía, p. 373. When the Navajo women abandon the husband, the latter 'asks to wipe out the disgrace by killing some one.' Ind. Aff. Rept. Spec. Com., 1867, p. 334; Eaton, in Schoolcraft's Arch., vol. iv., p. 217.