TEXAS INDIAN PAPERS, 1846-1859
87
The authority of their chiefs is rather nominal than posi- tive; more advisory than compulsive; and relies more upon per- sonal influence than investment of office. They have a number, altogether indefinite, of minor chiefs or captains who lead their small predatory bands, and are selected for their known or pretended prowess in war. Any one who finds and avails him- self of an opportunity for distinction in robbing horses or scalps, may aspire to the honors of chieftaincy, and is gradually in- ducted by a tacit popular consent., no such thing as a formal election being known among them. They usually roam in small subdivisions, varying according to caprice, or t::e scarcity or abundance of game, from twenty to one hundred families, more or less; and to each of these parties there will ce one er more captains or head men. If any internal social difficulty occurs, it is adjusted, if adjusted at all, by a council of the chiefs pres- ent, aided by the seniors of the lodges, whose arbitrement is usually, thought not always, conclusive between the parties at variance: but there are not many private wrongs perpetrated among them, and family or personal feuds seldom arise-they live together in a degree of social harmony which contrasts strikingly with the domestic incidents of some pseudo-civilized communities, that vaunt of their enlightenment. They have no idea of jurisprudence as a practical science, and no organized and authoritative system of national polity. One captain will lead his willing followers to robbery and carnage, while another, and perhaps the big chief of all, will eschew the foray, and pro- fess friendship for the victims of the assault. Hence treaties made with these untutored savages are a mere nullity, unless enforced by a sense of fear pervading the whole tribe: and it is somewhat difficult to impress this sentiment upon them; for they have a cherished conceit, the joint product of ignorance and vanity, that they are the most powerful of nations. They recognise no distinct rights of memn and teurn, except to personal property; holding the territory they occupy, and the game that depastures upon it, as common to all the tribe: the latter is appropriated only by capture. They are usually very liberal in the distribution of their provisions, especially in a time of scarcity. The'ir horses and mules are kept with suffi- cient caution, in separate cavalcades or hordes. Industrious and enterprising individuals will sometimes own from one to three hundred head of mules and horses, the spo·ils of war. These constitute their principal articles of traffic, which they exchange
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