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TEXAS INDIAN PAPERS, 1846-1859
After a time, one stops, smells the earth at a particular spot, howls, and commences scratching. The others gather round, and a general scratching takes place; and pretty soon, a genuine live Tonkawa-who has been interred for the purpose-is un- earthed. As soon as he is dragged out, a general council is held, and the Tonkawa addresses them thus-"You have brought me into the world, and I know not what to do for a subsistence: it would have been better to let me remain as I was. I shall starve in this world." After mature deliberation, the wolves put a bow and arrows into his hands, and tell him, he must do as the wolves do--rob, kill, and murder, from place to place, and never cultivate the soil. The tradition of the Delaware, respecting their origin, is, that they sprung from a great eagle, who always hovers over them, and, when pleased, descends, and drops a feather; when displeased, he rises into the clouds and speaks in thunder. The feather is suppo~ed to make the wearer invisible and invulner- able. The Comanche suppose that their forefathers came from a country towards the setting sun; but have no custom commem- orative of any peculiarity in their origin; nor any tradition, except that, originally, all men were white, but the Great Spirit became angry, destroyed the whites, and substituted Comanche; for which reason they deem themselves the greatest nation in existence. I tried to convince a Comanche of our numerical superiority, by representing the whites as the spears of grass on the prairie, and the Comanche, in comparison, as the few musquit trees scattered on the surface; but all I got for my pains was an inti- mation that he thought me li fool, and the Great Spirit would not. do so much injustice to his friends, the Comanche. Polygamy is allowed among all these tribes--every man tak- ing as many wives as he can support. Wives are obtained by purchase, and the price among the Delaware, as told me by one of them, is "one horse, one fine blanket, and goods so high," holding·his hand about a foot from the ground, of course, intended as meaning enough to ~atisfy the parent. Some youths get their mothers to make the bargain for them; and, as there is no alternative for the girls, but to submit, much misery is entailed at times upon the families-feelings
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