As week after week passed wearily away, I had
opportunities of observing their customs and peculiarities, and to become
thoroughly conversant with life in a Comanche camp.
The sole business of the male portion of the tribe was war and hunting.
While in camp the Indian is idle, sleeping the greater part of the day and all
night. He is slovenly in his dress, except when he meets in council or goes on
the warpath, when he decorates himself with the scalps he has taken, which at
other times hang in his tent. His prowess as a warrior is estimated in
proportion to the number he possesses.
To supply the necessaries of life, more or less of the warriors must daily
go out upon the hunt. In this, their only labor, they rarely range more than
four or five miles from the town. Their weapons, on these excursions, are the
bow and arrow and the lance, which they use with great skill, especially on
horseback. In horsemanship I doubt whether there is a race on earth that equals
the Comanches. They will lie along the sides of their
horses, while under full speed, directing their course at the same time and
discharging arrows from under their horses' necks with deadly effect, in a
manner astonishing to witness.
If a deer is captured, the Indian brings it in on his horse and throws it to
the women, whose business it is to dress and cook it. If he kills a mustang or
a buffalo, he rides into the village and informs his squaw where the carcass may
be found. She straightway mounts and goes in search of it, skins it, cuts the
flesh into strips, and returns.
The women are
remarkable for their industry. Besides attending to the menial duties of the
camp and working in the fields during the planting and harvesting seasons, they
perform extraordinary labors in preparing buffalo hides and making them soft
and pliable. To do this properly requires about three weeks.
When the hide is first brought in
green, it is placed upon a log so hewed that it presents a flat surface,
perhaps a foot in width. With an instrument similar to a common adze, the
squaws cut away all the flesh and part of the bulkiest portions of the hide,
until it presents a uniform thickness. This is a long and tedious operation.
The hide is then stretched upon a frame and rubbed with a kind of pumice stone
until the surface becomes furzy. If it should dry in this state, however, it
would be hard and stiff. To avoid this, they use a preparation composed of
basswood bark pounded very fine and mixed with the brains of the deer or
buffalo. They apply this day after day, until the skin is thoroughly saturated,
when it is soft and flexible.
The buffalo robe is, as far as I
know, their only article of commerce. At a certain season of every year the
robes are transported to
In their personal habits they are
supremely dirty. Occasionally, in warm weather, they bathe in the river, but
daily washing is not thought of, so that they are constantly covered with dirt
and vermin.
It is a custom among them to paint
their faces daily. I was compelled, every morning, to pursue this practice—to
anoint my features with a preparation composed chiefly of a kind of clay—so
that it would be difficult for a stranger to distinguish me from one of their
own number.
They have many traditions but no
records. Still, they have certain hieroglyphics by which they can communicate
as accurately as if they knew how to write letters.
For instance, if one party goes out
before another has returned and wishes to let them know where they have gone
and why, they will seek some point where it is probable their trail will be
discovered. Then they provide themselves with a thin piece of birch bark, which
can be folded without breaking. On this they make figures and emblems to
represent the idea they wish to express.
If they are on the warpath, the character will be a
tomahawk and a scalp; if on a visit to a friendly tribe, it will be a pipe; if
on a buffalo or deer hunt, there will be no characters, but the folded bark
will simply enclose some of the hair of the animal they are after. If they
intend to be absent a month, the emblem will be the full moon; if two weeks, a
half-moon, if only a few days, the new moon. Then they strike a hatchet deep
into the trunk of a tree and withdraw it. They place the end of the bark letter
in the cut, with the outer end pointing in the direction they have gone.
They measure time by the changes of the moon. In the new, they give themselves up to contemplation and worship, thanking the Great Spirit for permitting another moon to take the old one's place. For every change, there is some peculiar ceremony. For example, when the moon is full the festival of the roasted dog occurs. Except for the refreshments it is very much like a modern picnic. The squaws go out to a spring in some pleasant and shady spot, taking with them a number of curs which have been fattened for the occasion. Kindling a fire, they butcher and roast them. Now the warriors come and sit down in the grass with the squaws. They speedily strip the canine bones amidst much fun and laughter.
From Three Years Among
the Comanches by Nelson Lee, 1859.
Reprinted in Captured by the Indians, 15 Firsthand Accounts, 1750-1870,
ed. by Frederick Drimmer, NY, Dover, 1985, pp. 293-5.