Indian Papers of Texas and the Southwest, Vol. III

TEXAS INDIAN PAPERS, 1846-1859 93 by moonlight, in quest of prey. They war for spoils, and their favorite spoils are horses and mules. They often drive off sev- eral hundreds of these from a single Mexican ranche, on one foray. The Comanche are not deficient in natural courage, and no people excel them in the art of horsemanship, and few, if any, in the use of the bow and the javelin, both of which they handle with great dexterity, on horseback. As foot-soldiers, they are comparatively of little account; but they are seldom caught on foot by an enemy, and never, except by surprise. They use light shot-guns, but have an aversion to the weight of the rifle. Experience has taught them to dread this formidable weapon, in the hands of our brave frontiers-men; and to this sentiment may be attributed much of their forbearance from hostilities. They are generally men of good stature, with very few instances of diminutive size or personal deformity. They use a shield made of raw buffalo-hide, contracted and hardened by an in- genious application to fire. It is oval or circular, about two feet in diameter, and is worn on the left arm. It will eff'ectually ar- rest an arrow, but is not proof against a rifle-ball in full force. The geographical knowledge of the Comanche is confined within the small limits of their own actual observation. All beyond is, to their benighted minds, obscure and doubtful, and an Indian's doubt is positive, unqualified disbelief. They are excessively incredulous of any facts, in relation to other coun- tries, that conflict with their own experience. They have no settled, intelligible notion of the form or constitution of our planet, and none of the great planetary system. They know and can discriminate the north star, and are guided by it in their nocturnal journeys. They call it karmeadtasheno; literally, not-moving star. When or how this knowledge was acquired, I did not learn, and presume it is quite unknown to themselves. They recognize the sun as the great fountain of heat, but of its nature, or the manner of its dispensation, they know nothing and care nothing. They refer to time long past, by colds and heats; that is, by winters and summers; and although they pay much attention to the phases of the moon, the revolutions of that planet are too frequent, and would soon involve too high numbers to constitute a means of computing the chronology of events, that have transpired more than a year. For short periods, past or future, they count by moons, from full to full. The time of day they note by the apparent position of the sun in the heavens.

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