The Red Track: A Story of Social Life in Mexico

The whip snake is a very handsome reptile, seven to eight feet in length, when it has attained its full growth. Along the greater part of its body it is no larger than an ordinary ramrod. Its very thin neck gradually tapers away down to the stomach, whence it has obtained its name. For about three or four inches the upper side of the head and neck is black and lustrous as the plumage of a crow; while the upper side of the body is chocolate coloured, excepting the tail, which, nearly all the way from the stomach, is black.

There, however, is no general rule, except for the head, neck, and tail, which are always black. I have come across snakes of the same family in which the other parts of the body varied. This reptile is very quick, and seems to fly over the surface of the ground. The most remarkable thing about it is, that it possesses the faculty of running, while supporting itself solely on the lower part of the tail, and holding its body and head erect.

I cite this fact from personal knowledge, for I was one day followed by a very handsome whip snake, which kept erect and looked me in the face from time to time, although I had made my horse trot rather sharply, in order to see at what speed this snake could advance in such an attitude. It, however, only seemed to follow me through curiosity, for it is not at all venomous, is of a gentle character, and it appears familiar with man. I was surprised to find it in these parts, for I believed it to be an inhabitant of Eastern Florida.

Thirty-three days after our departure from the Hacienda del Milagro, we came in sight of the Comanche village, and during the whole long journey had not been exposed to the slightest danger, or stopped by any annoying accident.

We were expected, and were received by the chiefs, at the head of whom was Eagle-head, not merely as friends, but as children of the tribe. A spacious cabin was placed at our disposal, and provisions were brought us from all sides.

We had arrived just at the right moment; the grand festival of the buffaloes was to be held that very night – a very curious ceremony, whose object is to implore the blessing of the Wacondah before beginning the hunt.

In the centre of the village a large open space had been prepared, about sixty yards long by forty-five wide, surrounded by an inclosure of reeds and willow branches twelve feet high, and slightly bent inwards. An entrance had been left, facing the east. The four fires which are always kept up in the medicine lodge, were burning in each corner, and the most distinguished chiefs, among whom we were counted, sat in a semicircle to the right of the inclosure.

Eagle-head, in his quality of first sachem of the tribe, held the head of the file; he had, expressly for this occasion, painted his face blue, yellow, and white, and wore on his head a fillet of some red skin.

The spectators, more especially the squaws, were sitting against the palings silent and contemplative. The men, some in full paint, others simply dressed or naked to the waist, went about the interior of the inclosure irregularly. Children ranged round the fires threw in from time to time willow branches, to keep them burning.

At the signal given by Chichikoués for the feast to begin, six old men emerged from a calli, and stood in a row in front of the medicine lodge.

These men are chosen by the chiefs to represent buffaloes, and after the ceremony large presents are made to them. Each of them held in his hand a long staff, at the end of which four black feathers were fixed, and along the staves, at equal distances, were fastened small tufts of young buffalo skin and bells.

These men-buffaloes carried their clubs in the left hand, and two of them bore what the Comanches call a "badger," that is to say, a blown-up skin, which is beaten like a drum. They stood at the entrance of the medicine lodge, shaking their staves incessantly, and in turn singing and imitating, with rare perfection, the lowing of buffaloes, which lasted some considerable time.

Behind them marched a tall man with a ferocious face, whose head was covered with a fur cap, because once on a time he had been scalped in a fight with the Apaches. This man was the director of the feast, and represented the leader of the old buffaloes; his name was "Raised-scalp."

After a rather long station before the door, the men-buffaloes at length entered the medicine lodge, and sate down against the palings, behind one of the fires.

So soon as they were all seated, each of them planted his staff on the ground in front of him. Several young warriors then came in with dishes of boiled beans and maize powdered with pemmican, which they placed before the guests. These dishes went the round, each passing them to his neighbour after eating a little. At times empty dishes were placed before us, a ceremony of which I did not at first understand the purport, and one of the bearers, a man of colossal stature, very muscular, and almost naked, whose hair fell in long tresses on his loins, came to fetch one of these empty dishes. Then Eagle-head hid his face in his hands and began singing, after which he muttered a long speech or prayer, winding up by returning the dish.

This speech contained wishes for the success of the buffalo hunt, and the Wacondah was also invoked to render him favourable to the hunters and warriors. The longest speeches were the best; the bearer seemed particularly satisfied; he bowed with an attentive look, nodded his head as a sign of his pleasure, passed his hand along the orator's right arm from the shoulder to the wrist, and, before removing the dish, answered with a few words of thanks.

This repast was prolonged for more than an hour; on all sides people ate and held speeches for the success of the chase; during this the young men standing in the middle of the inclosure prepared the calumets, and brought them ready lighted to the chief, the old men, and the strangers.

They stopped before each of us, walking from right to left, and presented the calumet, the bowl of which they held in their hand. Each man took two or three whiffs, while murmuring a prayer, and then the calumet passed on to the next.

After this, our calumet bearers frequently turned to the four cardinal points, muttering mysterious words, and indulging in strange gestures and imitations.

During this time the six old men-buffaloes did not once leave off singing, shaking their medicine staves behind the fire, and beating the "badger." At a certain, moment they rose, thrust forward the upper part of their body, and began dancing, though still singing, and shaking their wands, while the badger beat time. When this dance had lasted long enough, they resumed their places in the same order as before.

It is impossible for anyone, unless he has been present, to form an idea of the original sight offered by this quaint scene. These men painted of different hues, their varying dresses, their songs, their drums, their cries, and the noises of every description which blended with them, borne from the desert on the wing of the night breeze, beneath the dark and lugubriously starlit vault of heaven, while the immense canopy of verdure formed as it were a majestic temple for this singular ceremony – all this did not fail to possess a certain wild grandeur.

After the dances had continued for more than two hours, the strangest part of the festival began with the entrance of the squaws into the inclosure. One of them, who was very young and remarkably pretty, came up to her husband, and gave him her waist belt and petticoat to hold, so that she was perfectly naked under her gown. She advanced dancing to one of the most renowned warriors, passed her hand all down his right arm, and then retired slowly, with her smiling face turned towards him. The warrior thus invited, at once rose, and disappeared with her in the wood. There, a man may ransom himself by making a present; but we must avow, to the honour of the Indian fair sex, that few men do so. My companions, Black Elk and Belhumeur, who were invited, took very good care not to buy themselves off, and, on the contrary, readily followed their dancer; but, for my part, I peremptorily refused, and remained deaf to all the looks, and nods, and wanton smiles which the dear charmers thought themselves obliged to lavish on me as a stranger.

I must confess, to my sorrow, however, that it was not from virtuous motives that I acted thus; I was in love, and courting at the time an exquisite girl called "Boar's Head," whom I married eventually, and with whom I lived happily for the five years we had arranged that our marriage was to last. At the end of that period I sold her for three female buffalo skins to another chief of my tribe.

This feast lasted for four consecutive nights, from one sun to the next; the same ceremony was repeated on each occasion with the most scrupulous exactness, though we noticed that the squaws never invited the same warrior twice, with the exception of the two Canadian hunters.

When the ceremonies were quite ended, and all the symbolical rites of the great medicine rigorously performed, one morning at sunrise, twenty-five youthful warriors, chosen by Eagle-head, left the village, mounted on excellent hunters, and each leading a second horse by the bridle.

These warriors form a vanguard intended to discover buffalo sign, and watch their movements, and for that reason are called "buffalo scouts." The main body of hunters, consisting of about eighty warriors, among whom were my comrades and myself, did not start till two days later.

The Indians when on the hunting trail, and especially when they are desirous to surprise buffalo, travel with extreme care. The scent of the buffaloes is very subtle, especially when they are to windward; though, curiously enough, they frequent the same pasture as the elks, they have no communion with them; still they do not seem at all disturbed by each other; or the buffaloes, whose sight is not very good form a sort of partnership with the elks, whom they convert into their sentinels. They are watchful sentinels too, and, at the first suspicious sign, give the alarm; whereupon buffaloes and elks disappear in company, escorted by the red prairie wolves, troublesome followers that prowl round them, and whom they can never succeed in getting entirely rid of.

Each night we encamped on a hill at no great distance from a stream. The trees were felled round the bivouac to guard us from a surprise; the campfires were lighted, and the greater part of the night was spent in relating hunting narratives and merry stories recounted in turn, and which excited the heartiest gaiety among the Redskins. For we will remark, in parenthesis, that the Indians, who are generally represented as serious, cold, and stoical, on the contrary, have a very jovial character; a mere nothing makes them laugh, and they indulge to their heart's content, like all simple and primitive minds. Still, for all that, they must be together, or in the company of people they are well acquainted with. In the presence of whites the difficulty they experience in making themselves understood, and the respect – I might almost say the instinctive terror – the formidable strangers inspire them with, completely paralyzes their faculties, and makes them appear almost idiotic.

We marched thus with easy journeys, in order not to tire our horses, in the direction of the Rocky Mountains, for some fifty or sixty leagues, killing a few prairie dogs, elks, and two or three striped sousliks (Spermophilus Hoodii). At times a covey of larks rose at our approach, or crows and rooks appeared in large numbers and settled down close to us.

Eagle-head would not consent to a halt for the sake of killing a few isolated buffaloes we perceived in the distance. We had still thirty miles to go before getting up with our scouts, and finding ourselves in the real hunting ground.

On the eighth day after leaving the village we reached a creek which meandered through a plain, on which the grass was extremely high, called, as far as I can remember, by the Indians, Green River. A rather tall hill, situated on its hank, concealed our presence, and sheltered us from the wind.

Eagle-head gave orders to camp. The horses were allowed to graze, and a fire of bois de vâche was lighted to roast a few ducks and two elks that composed our breakfast.

This stream, owing to the advanced season, was nearly dry, and filled with tall, closely-growing weeds. After a two hours' halt we continued our march, passing over gently sloping hills, and we found a few of some height, behind which herds of buffalo are usually found. Before reaching the top, our party traversed a small valley filled with a narrow strip of beech trees, elms, and nyundos, between clumps of roses, prunus padres, and a few other shrubs, while the wild tine (clematis) hung in festoons about the trees.

On reaching the top of the last mound we halted, and a singular scene, which was not without some wild grandeur, was suddenly offered to our sight.

All the crests of the hills, as far as sight could extend, were crowned by the scouts sent ahead, and who, motionless as statues of Florentine bronze, stood out boldly in the blue sky.

These scouts were not seated in the saddle, but standing on it, holding in the left hand their buffalo robes, which they at times waved, and in their right their clubs, which they employed to indicate certain points of the horizon. At our feet, in an immense valley intersected by a large river, whose numerous capacious windings resembled a silver thread, a multitude of black spots spotted the tall grass.

These points, which were almost imperceptible owing to the great distance, were buffaloes: we had at last reached the hunting ground. But the day was too far advanced for us to dream of following the animals, and hence the chief gave the signal for camping.

The night was calm, and was spent like the previous ones, in outbursts of the frankest and heartiest gaiety, and at sunrise we were all up and ready to begin the hunt. The scouts were still at their posts, and it might fairly be supposed that during the whole night they had not ceased to watch the game.

Eagle-head got on the back of his horse, and fired a musket loaded only with powder, in order to attract the attention of the scouts. Then a singular scene took place, which offered me much to think about, and proved to me once again that the Redskins are neither so savage nor unintelligent as some writers are pleased to represent them.

By the aid of the buffalo robe he held in his hand and waved in every direction, the sachem began a series of complicated signals, which would have turned the most expert of our telegraphers pale if called upon to interpret, for they were transmitted with headlong speed, and instantly comprehended by the sachem and the scouts.

Eagle-head, according to the information he received, sent off every moment parties of hunters, for the purpose, as I afterwards learned, of completely surrounding the buffaloes, and driving them to the middle of the valley. The hunters picked out started at once at full speed, galloping in a beeline, according to the Indian fashion, leaping over all obstacles, and never deviating from the direct course.

Ere long only ten hunters, among whom my companions and myself were, remained with the chief. He gave a final signal, which was immediately repeated by all the sentries, got into his saddle, and uttered his war yell. He then dashed at full speed down into the plain, with the rapidity of an avalanche, and this manoeuvre was imitated by the other hunters scattered over the adjacent heights. The hunt, or more correctly, the butchery, had begun.

The Comanches possess such skill in this horse-hunting, that, in spite of the difficulty in killing a buffalo, they rarely fire more than one round at it. Singularly enough, they do not raise the gun to the shoulder, but stretch out both arms, and fire, in this far from usual posture, when they are some fifteen or twenty yards from the animal.

They load the gun with incredible speed, for they do not use the ramrod, but let the bullets, of which they always keep a certain number in their mouths, fall immediately on the powder, to which it adheres, and which expels it again at the same moment. Owing to this great speed, the prairie hunters, in a little while, make a frightful massacre in a herd of buffaloes, and this time two-thirds of the manada were killed, and the animals covered the battlefield in heaps.

The buffaloes, enclosed in a circle whence they could not escape, terrified by the yells of the hunters, who dashed at them from all sides, brandishing their weapons, and waving their robes, fled in all directions, at a pace greater than I could have imagined, judging from their enormous bulk.

Belhumeur and I had settled onto an old buffalo, who gave us plenty of work. Several point-blank shots had not proved sufficient to check his pace. He frequently stopped, threw the earth over his head with a convulsive movement, after digging it up with his fore-feet, assumed a menacing attitude, and even pursued us for some ten or fifteen yards. But we easily got away, and the restless animal discontinued its mad and purposeless chase so soon as we stopped resolutely before it. Its strength was at length exhausted, but it did not succumb until we had given it at least twenty bullets.

This first success gave me a liking for the sport and the whole time the hunt lasted I was one of the most eager in pursuit. At last, at the expiration of three days, Eagle-head ordered the end of the massacre. Obeying the chief's signal, the hunters forced open a large gap, through which the decimated relics of the unhappy herd dashed, lowing with terror.

Two hundred and seventy buffaloes had been killed in three days, an almost miraculous hunt, which secured the Comanches of the Lakes abundance of provisions during the rainy season. The victims were loaded on horses, and we gaily returned to the village, where the hunters were received on their arrival with marks of the liveliest joy and the extraordinary rejoicings usual on such occasions.

One last remark may be allowed me. Everything is valuable in the buffalo: the meat, the hide, the bones, the horns, and even the hair, which is made into hats comparable in beauty and substance to the best beaver. Why is not the buffalo, then, acclimatised in Europe? The Society of Acclimatisation so recently created, and which has already produced such excellent results, is keeping, we doubt not, a place for the buffalo, which we hope soon to see occupied.

A MUSTANG.

A STUDY OF THE PRAIRIE HORSE

The aborigines of America were not acquainted with the horse prior to the arrival of the Spaniards in their country. The Inca Garcillasso de la Vega, in his "History of the Civil War in India," tells us that the Peruvians, terrified at the sight of the first horseman, supposed that the man and the horse only formed one and the same individual. At a later date they imagined that the horses were formidable and malignant deities, whom they tried to conciliate by placing gold and silver in their mangers, and offering up prayers to them.

The Spanish Conquistadors, most of whom came from Andalusia, were mounted on steeds in whose veins flowed the blood of the Arabs, which the Moors had succeeded in naturalizing in Spain during an occupation of eight centuries.

When the conquerors obtained quiet possession of the New World, and began those internecine contests which cost so much blood, after every battle the wounded horses were usually left behind, while those whose masters were killed, escaped in obedience to that innate instinct in all living creatures, which urges them to try and regain their liberty.

These animals thus left to themselves, wandering haphazard over the great savannahs, gradually entered the desert, interbred, and at length multiplied so greatly that they formed bands or manadas, whose number has so increased that it has now become incalculable.

From these horses, which were originally abandoned and returned to savage life, has issued the remarkable breed known in the New World by the name of mustangs, or prairie horses. Now that racing is fashionable in France, and horse breeding has made immense progress, we do not think we are going out of our way in describing this valuable breed, which is unknown in the Old World, and to which sufficient justice is not done even in America.

At the time when I was at Guaymas, during the expedition of the unhappy Count de Raousset Boulbon I wanted a horse. Copers are as numerous in Mexico as in Europe, and probably cleverer and more cunning than ours in disguising the vices and defects of the animals they wish to get rid of; but unluckily for these clever dealers, and luckily for me, my long stay among the Indians of the Western Prairies had given me an almost infallible perception, and rendered it extremely difficult to deceive me as to the qualities of a horse.

When my wish to purchase a horse was known, there was an extraordinary rush of dealers to the house where I put up. I peremptorily declined all the animals offered me. My friends began to joke me and say that I should not find a horse to suit me, and be compelled to follow on foot the cavalry corps I commanded, when, on the very eve of departure, I was walking accidentally on the beach, and saw a Hiaquis Indian a few yards ahead of me, mounted on a horse whose appearance, in my friends' sight, had nothing very inviting about it, and so they laughingly invited me to deal. I feigned to humour them, although I had at once recognized the animal as a mustang of the Far West, and I took them at their word by making the Indian a sign to come and speak to me.

The horse was not handsome, I must allow; he was rather tall, had a big head, and a round forehead; his mane, which was thick and ill-kempt, hung down to his chest; his tail, which was not thick enough to wave, almost swept the ground; but his chest was wide and his legs were firm, while his eyes and nostrils announced fire, vigour, and bottom. Although the animal had never been shod, and its master, like all the Indians, had ill-treated it during the long journey it had made to reach Guaymas, still its thick hoofs were not at all worn or even damaged. It was black as night, with a white star about the size of a piastre, perfectly designed, and situated in the exact centre of the forehead.

At my summons the Indian started the horse at a gallop, and came up to me. I asked him bluntly if he wanted to sell his horse.

"Why not, excellency?" he answered with the wink peculiar to the Hiaquis. "Negro is a good beast; I lassoed him myself in the heart of the prairies of the Sierra de San Saba, hardly a month agone, and he has constantly gone fifteen to sixteen leagues a day."

"Yes, yes," I answered in Indian, "I know all that; but I know too that you Hiaquis are clever horse dealers, and are perfectly up to the trick of dressing a horse for sale."

On hearing me speak his language, the Redskin, who was, moreover, deceived by my hunting garb, took me for a wood ranger, and immediately treated me with great respect.

"Your excellency will try Negro, if it be really your pleasure to buy," he said, at once reassuming the language of his tribe, instead of the Spanish he had hitherto employed.

"But," I continued, "supposing that Negro, as that is his name, suits me, I must know the price you want for him."

"Wah!" he said, with a cunning smile; "I will not let your excellency have Negro under two ounces, and anyone else would pay much more."

Two ounces are about six guineas of our money, so if I had judged the horse aright, it was plain that I should make a good bargain. I made an appointment with the Hiaquis for the next morning, and withdrew under the ironical congratulations of my friends upon my excellent acquisition.

The Indian was punctual. At daybreak I saw him at my door, mounted on another horse and holding Negro by the bridle. I immediately got into the saddle, and left Guaymas, accompanied by my Redskin, and started at a smart trot for the forest.

I soon perceived that Negro was a very easy goer, and that he did not tire, though he was very eager – excellent qualities in a charger. Moreover, I saw that, like all prairie horses, whose mouth is generally hard, he was very sensitive to the spur.

The expedition of which I had the honour to be a member was about to proceed into half savage countries, where roads have never existed, and we should have to go across sandy deserts, and through almost impassable virgin forests; hence I wished to know at once what help I had to expect from my horse, and what confidence I could place in him. I therefore resolved to make him leap a stream several feet in width. For this purpose I gave him his head, and pressed his flanks with my knees without spurring; the intelligent animal seemed to understand that it was on trial, and leapt over the obstacle with the agility of an antelope. I turned round, and tried the leap over and over again, always with the same result. Certain of his agility, I wished to try his strength, consequently I took him to a muddy and very difficult morass. Negro, however, entered it, smelling the water as if to judge its depth, a proof of sagacity and prudence with which I was greatly pleased, and I found him prompt and decided in the wheels and counter wheels I made him take.