"A long time ago—maybe so thirty snows, maybe so forty, I dunno—I went with a large war party on a raid into Mexico. We went far enough south to see hundreds of monkeys and parrots. We thought the monkeys were a kind of people and captured two of them one day. That night we whipped them nearly to death trying to make them talk, but they would not say a word, just cry, and finally we turned them loose, more puzzled than ever to know what they were.
"On the return trip we came back through Texas. One day I was scouting off to one side alone, and met a man riding through the mesquite timber. He started to run and my first thought was to kill him, but just as I was about to send an arrow he looked back over his shoulder and I saw that his skin was as black as a crow and that he had great big white eyes. I had never seen or heard of that kind of a man, and seeing that he was unarmed, I determined to catch him and take him to camp alive, so that all the other Indians could see him. I galloped around in front of him with my bow and arrow drawn, and he was heap scared. He fell off his mule pony and sit down on his knees and hold his hands up high and heap cry and say: 'Please, massa Injun, don't kill poor nigger! Please, massa Injun, don't kill poor nigger! Bi-yi-yi! Please, massa Injun, don't kill poor nigger! Bi-yi-yi.'"
Although at that time Black Horse did not know a word of English, the Negro's crying and begging made such an impression on him that, with his common Indian gift of mimicry, he could imitate it in a wonderfully natural manner. Continuing, he said: "The 'black white man' was heap poor. His pony was an old mule that could not run fast at all. His saddle was 'broke' all over and his bridle was made of ropes. His clothes were dirty and all 'broke' full of holes, and his shoes were all gone—got none at all.
"I started back with him and on the way we came to a deep water-hole. I was nearly dead for a drink, and motioned to the 'black white man' to get down and drink, too. He got down but shook his head to say that he did not want to drink. He was heap scared—just all time shake and teeth rattle, and all time cry, and maybe so pray to Great Spirit to make Indian turn him loose, and he be a good man and never make it (the Great Spirit) mad any more, and heap o' things like that. I lay down to drink. The bank was sloping and my feet were considerably higher than my head. Suddenly, the 'black white man' caught my back hair with one hand and my belt with the other and raised me way up over his head with my face upward. Before I could do a thing he pitched me head foremost away out in the middle of the water hole. {FN} I went clear to the bottom, and when I came to the top and rubbed the water out of my eyes, I saw the 'black white man' running off on my pony, kicking with both feet and whipping with his hat. I rode his old 'mule pony' back to camp and all the Indians heap laugh at Black Horse."
{FN} Black Horse, though a great fighter, is a comparatively small Indian.
INDIAN MODE OF GETTING A WIFE.
An aged Indian, who had spent many years in a white settlement, remarked one day that the Indians had not only a much easier way of getting a wife than the whites, but were also more certain of getting a good one; "for," said he, in his broken English, "white man court—court—maybe so one whole year! Maybe so two, before he marry! Well! Maybe so then get very good wife—but, maybe so not—maybe so very cross! Well, now, suppose cross! Scold so soon as get wake in the morning! Scold all day! Scold until sleep! All one; he must keep him! White people have law forbidding throwing away wife, be he ever so cross! Must keep him always! {FN} Well, how does Indian do? Indian when he see industrious squaw, which he like, he go to him, place his two forefingers close aside each other, make two look like one—look squaw in the face—see him smile—which is all one he say, yes! so he take him home—no danger he be cross! No! no! Squaw know too well what Indian do if he be cross! Throw him away and take another! Squaw love to eat meat. No husband, no meat. Squaw do everything to please husband; he do the same to please squaw! Live happy!"
{FN} This was in 1770. Laws concerning divorce have changed materially since.