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TEXAS INDIAN PAPERS, 1846-1859
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for the goods their convenience or fancy may require. They sell some buffalo robes, which are dressed, and sometimes painted, by the women with cons·iderable taste. Prisoners of war belong to the captors, and may be sold or released at their will. While among them, I purchased four Mexican prisoners, for each of whom I paid, on an average, about the value of 200 dollars, in various articles, estimated at their market value. One of them very soon stole a horse and ran away; two were worthless idlers; and one old man rendered some remuneration by personal services. These three cognate tribes cannot be said to have any com- mon tribal government. 'fhe Tenawa and Yamparack trade with the Mexicans of Santa Fe, while the lower party war upon the Mexicans of Chihuahua, and all the lower provinces, in- cluding Tamaulipas. Still, hostilities by the United States with the one, would involve a conflict with all ; for the Comanche, the lower party, if pressed, would retire to, and coalesce with, their kindred, who would adopt the quarrel without an inquiry into its justice or expediency. But, ordinarily, there is no po- litical intercommunion between them, although they sometimes cohabit and pursue the buffalo in the same range. The two upper parties have comparatively few mules or horses, being less con- venient to those portions of Mexico where these animals most abound; the regions of the mid and lower Rio Grande. They have no established "game laws," but they regard the ingress of stranger hunters with a jealousy that is sometimes fatal to the intruders. This seldom occurs, unless the destruction can be consumated with impunity. As before remarked, their trade consists principally in the exchange of horses and mules, for the usual articles of Indian commerce. They are sufficiently astute in dealing, although quite ignorant of the real value of many articles they purchase, and are liable to be egregiously imposed upon. A prompt delivery on both parts, is the best mode to secure payment. When goods are delivered to them on credit, they are either gambled off, or distributed by donations to friends, in a few days, and then the improvident debtor "loves his horses," and pays them with reluctance, if at all. An ob- stinate refusal to pay, is difficult to overcome-though I have known the chiefs in council to compel payment-but the com- bined influence of several of their most powerful chiefs was nec- essary to effect it. The Comanche take no furs, and but few deer-skins, the most
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