162 Customs of the Coyotero Apaches. [ ZOE 
enlisted for a period of six months, in two companies—one mount- 
ed; the other employed in various ways about the camp. A soldier 
is detailed to do the cooking and another to look after the rations, 
or in their improvident generosity to relatives and friends, the latter 
half of any given time would be a period of famine. ; 
These scouts have often the same desire for a wider and more ad- 
venturous life that animates the boy brought up on a course of dime 
novels. One of them who rejoices in the name of Riley, in answer 
to a question, said, ‘‘ Fort Apache is dull. I want to go to Hol- 
brook and be ‘cow-puncher (cow-boy); then I can go to the bar, . 
like other men, and say, ‘ Boys, come up and take a drink.’”’ 
The land is apportioned by the chiefs among the women, who 
divide it among their female children. In former times no male 
Indian would disgrace himself by working, and their rude agricult- 
ural operations were all conducted by women. The men now work, 
however, and use the hoes and plows furnished them by the gov- 
_ ernment. 
Their language is similar to that of the Navajos, the difference 
being like that between pure English and its dialects. Formerly 
they were enemies, but now being on reservations and not allowed 
to go to war, they have a peaceful trading intercourse The Apaches 
having money, derived from the sale of hay, corn, and from their 
service as scouts, the Navajos bring to them in exchange blankets 
and horses, The trading is conducted with fairness and decorum. 
Private quarrels are usually settled by arbitration of friends, and 
payment is exacted by the injured. In one of their disputes a son 
of one of the parties was killed, and to appease the wrath of the 
parents the friends of the homicide gave a girl eight years old to re- 
place the boy. The injured father took care of her for some time, 
and then made her his second wife. 
They appear to have hardly any religion. A crude Christianity - 
derived from intercourse with the Mexicans and the former efforts 
of priests appears to have partially replaced whatever of earlier 
faith they may have owned. “ Tchin” is the name applied to an evil 
spirit, or to that unseen something they fear. They suppose that 
the dead are about in the darkness, and as they do not wish to meet 
them, they keep in at night as much as possible, and women going 
from one dwelling to another will carry a firebrand. This fear oF 
the darkness helped the soldiers formerly in their night attacks, but — 
