COMANCHE DRESS AND ORNAMENT.
The Comanches of both sexes tattoo the face, and body generally on the breast.661 The men do not cut the hair, but gather it into tufts or plaits, to which they attach round pieces of silver graduated in size from top to bottom; those who cannot obtain or afford silver use beads, tin, or glass.662 Much time is spent by them in painting and adorning their person—red being a favorite color; feathers also form a necessary adjunct to their toilet.663 Some few wear a deer-skin shirt, but the more common dress is the buffalo-robe, which forms the sole covering for the upper part of the body; in addition, the breech-cloth, leggins, and moccasins are worn. The women crop the hair short, and a long shirt made of deer-skin, which extends from the neck to below the knees, with leggins and moccasins, are their usual attire.664
DWELLINGS OF THE APACHES.
Nomadic and roving in their habits, they pay little attention to the construction of their dwellings. Seldom do they remain more than a week in one locality;665 hence their lodges are comfortless, and diversified in style according to caprice and circumstances. The frame-work everywhere is usually of poles, the Comanches placing them erect, the Lipans bringing the tops together in cone-shape, while the Apaches bend them over into a low oval;666 one or other of the above forms is usually adopted by all this family,667 with unimportant differences depending on locality and variations of climate. The framework is covered with brushwood or skins, sometimes with grass or flat stones. They are from twelve to eighteen feet in diameter at the widest part, and vary from four to eight feet in height,668 which is sometimes increased by excavation.669 A triangular opening serves as a door, which is closed with a piece of cloth or skin attached to the top.670 When on or near rocky ground they live in caves, whence some travelers have inferred that they build stone houses.671 A few of the Mojave dwellings are so superior to the others that they deserve special notice. They may be described as a sort of shed having perpendicular walls and sloping roof, the latter supported by a horizontal beam running along the center, the roof projecting in front so as to form a kind of portico. The timber used is cottonwood, and the interstices are filled up with mud or straw.672 None of their houses have windows, the door and smoke-hole in the roof serving for this purpose; but, as many of them have their fires outside, the door is often the only opening.673
NEW MEXICAN DWELLINGS.
Small huts about three feet in height constitute their medicine-lodges, or bath-houses, and are generally in form and material like their other structures.674 The Mojaves also build granaries in a cylindrical form with conical, skillfully made osier roofs.675
FOOD AND AGRICULTURE.
The food of all is similar;676 most of them make more or less pretentions to agriculture, and are habituated to a vegetable diet, but seldom do any of them raise a sufficient supply for the year's consumption, and they are therefore forced to rely on the mesquit-bean, the piñon-nut and the maguey-plant, agave mexicana, and other wild fruits, which they collect in considerable quantities.677 They are but indifferent hunters, and secure only a precarious supply of small game, such as rabbits and squirrels, with ultimate recourse to rats, grasshoppers, lizards and other reptiles.678 A few fish are taken by those living in the neighborhood of rivers.679 The Navajos, Mojaves, and Yumas, have long been acquainted with the art of agriculture and grow corn, beans, pumpkins, melons, and other vegetables, and also some wheat; some attempt a system of irrigation, and others select for their crops that portion of land which has been overflowed by the river. The Navajos possess numerous flocks of sheep, which though used for food, they kill only when requiring the wool for blankets. Although in later years they have cows, they do not make butter or cheese, but only a curd from sour milk, from which they express the whey and of which they are very fond.680
Their method of planting is simple; with a short sharp-pointed stick small holes are dug in the ground into which they drop the seeds, and no further care is given to the crop except to keep it partially free from weeds.681
Maize soaked in water is ground to a paste between two stones. From this paste tortillas, or thin cakes, are made which are baked on a hot stone. To cook the maguey, a hole is made in the ground, in which a fire is kindled; after it has burned some time the maguey-bulb is buried in the hot ashes and roasted. Some concoct a gypsy sort of dish or ollapodrida; game, and such roots or herbs as they can collect, being put in an earthen pot with water and boiled.682