166 Customs of the Coyotero Apaches. [ ZOE 
cient dress has almost passed away, and their clothing is now nearly 
that of Mexicans of the lower class. They still, however, wear leg- 
gings which resemble those of the Navajos, curious moccasins which 
have a long turned-up piece at the toes pierced with holes to admit 
the air, and the breech-clout, which they seem unwilling to lay 
aside, even though wearing trowsers. 
These Indians do not tattoo or put upon themselves any tribal 
marks by which they might be distinguished from other Apache 
bands. Painting the person is a matter of individual fancy, 
and entirely without significance. They may be often seen orna- 
mented in various colors—spotted, striped, or marked with large 
blotches. Their so-called war paint is, like the rest of their finery, 
put on principally to render them objects of more admiration 
to their women. Their paints are usually mineral. Red and yel- 
low are obtained by mixing colored clays in water; white is calcined 
gypsum. The dark color of mourning is plumbago, but sometimes 
for personal decoration they burn some of the roasted agave, which 
mixed with water gives a fine black. 
There seems to be a tendency on the part of most persons who 
write about Indians to find some significance, mystic or historical, 
in their most trivial acts. Many of them are aware of this state of 
the investigator’s mind, and, from the desire to render themselves 
more interesting, as well as a childish mischievousness, ‘‘stuff’”? him 
with a large amount of nonsense. In the case of the Coyoteros, at 
least, it is certain that their ornamentation of objects is only a fancy 
occupying them at the time. They use no patterns even, though 
they probably, even if unconsciously, imitate. 
The Coyoteros are apparently more honest than any other 
Apaches, Navajos or New Mexicans—certainly than those of this 
latter class who inhabit the country around Fort Apache. Children 
may steal trifles, but they are usually returned. Borrowing, among 
the Indians themselves, can hardly be said to exist. It is always 
customary for one who has anything which others have not, to share 
as long as it lasts. Their liberality to each other makes them won- 
der at the selfishness of civilized people. Some of the more thrifty 
of the Indians are, however, taking practical lessons from those 
about them in the matter of providing for the future; yet they find 
it very difficult to lay by anything while hungry friends visit them 
at all hours, privacy:being a thing almost unknown in the Indian 
