Milford beacon., 1854-04-07


ing piece to your nose. A sudden re-
bellion ofthe stomach often follows such
an act of imprudence. Mule meat re-
sembles beefin flavor. A fat mule makes
very palatnble eating. Young fawns are
fine. TarrapIne, rattle-snakes, prairie
dogs and pole-cats are very good. The
Mescaaro Indands take their name
from the mescal plant. 1t belongs to
the order of plants usually called "bear
grass" has white head like cabbage,
is cooked by digging hole in the ground,
building fire in it, removing the Goals
and ashes, and lining the bottom and
sides with prickly pear leaves, deprived
OF thorns by burning, putting in the mes
cal, covering with cactus, and building
fire upon the same, which must be kept
up for twelve or fourteen hours. The
edible part is soft, and tastes a little like
an Irish potato. 1t is covered by thin
fibrous substance. When on an expe-
dition between the Pecos and the Rio
Grande, the Comanches use this and
species of the maguey. The latter is
cooked by simply roasting. 1t has an
unpleasant taste. These plants will
grow upon sterile uplands. A Conan
che will eat liver, young fawns any ma
ny other things while raw. In Shanaco's
camp, we saw an old rascal, who offered
to bet he could eat anything. For
plug of tobacco he proposed 10 make
breakfast upon a substance banished the
furthest possible distance from our ta-
bles He was the naslies lonking thing
in human shape we ever saw.
The Comanches live, as our phrase is,
from '.hand to mouth" They have little
providence. When provisions are plen-
ty, they consume enormous quantities.
They do not bear the pangs of hunger
with the stoical resignation one would
suppose. In this particular as in almost
every other, the Dolawares, are infinite
y superior to them.
The -Comanche enjoys modicum of
real pleasure. His rowing, devil-may-
care kind of life has attractions even to
the white man.
There is a buoyancy of spirit in roam
ing over the vast expanse of country,
unreclaimed by the hand Of civilisation
there is pleasure in traversing pra-
rie upon whose broad bosom the foot of
Christian man never before left its
impress--there is chastened emotion,
not without pleasantness, stealing over
the mind, when contemplating the drear
loneliness OF a desert plain-there is a
sense of awe, grandeur, sublimity per-
vading the mind when threading the
mountain pass, gazing upon the summit
of a mighty pile and losing almost the
very impression of individuality, by the
merging them into the thought, the COM
parison Of our utter insignificence, when
conirasted with these gigantic noun
tains of his creative power before us.
Are we to suppose the untutored mind,
which has only been able to read leaves
from the Book of Nature, does not enjoy
these things with zest we know not
Are not the winds, the waters, the noun
tains, in short the whole gorgeous sheen
of nature when cnrobed in primeyalr res
plendency, but so many chapters in the
magnificent book of creation, teaching
him there is a God2 He too has a
creed. He abhors the treason that would
place him at the foot of any other shrine
but that concecrated by the devotion of
his fathers. Fortified by his own sys-
TEN of ethics, his own sense of freedom,
Notwithstanding all he may admit 10 the
contrary, the Comanche imagines that
he covers as much space in the eye of
the Great Father, as any man living.
These feelings, this spirit of indepen-
dence, or nationality, if you will, enable
him (no attendant untoward circumstan-
ces), to enjoy life with an avidity, a
keen relish, many cultivated mind
can never feel or appreciate.
In the arts, the mechanical trades,
and the various matters incident 10 civ
iized life, the Comanche feels his inferi-
ority. Sound him upon the estimate he
places upon one of his tribe, confronted
with an American in wilderness, with
like equipments and equal arms, and he
will give the palm Of superiority to his
countrymen.
The love of country, the spirit of ma
tionality is as strongly developed in the
Indian as any man on the earth. An
Indian loves his-ewn mode of life-ven-
crates the great brave that have gone
before him-detests the people whose
steady advance forces him 10 abandon
the graves of the one or change the 9TH
err 1t is no wonder that people thus
cultivated thus believing and thus liv-
ing, should enjoy much Of that repose of
mind which is nearly allied TO happi-
ness.
With plenty TO eat, no enemy near,
the Comanche is not disturbed by sim
gle care for the present or thought for
the future.
Womaa's RigAtS-A good looking hus-
hand, eight children, ald happy home.