52 INDIAN FOOD 



as elsewhere, civilization has here a right to extend the 

 borders of its garments, the white man is responsible only 

 for his excess of wrong — for the manner, not the fact of 

 his taking-. This excess is no greater than that attribu- 

 table to any other nation which seizes and civilizes a bar- 

 barous land ; and, after all is said, the Indian is more sin- 

 ning- than sinned against. He is and remains the most 

 vicious brute the sun ever shone upon. 



The Comanche eats dog and horse flesh — as all Indians 

 do more or less— and is by no means above a diet of skunk 

 when other edibles fail him. Indeed, anything is chuck 

 to the Indian in case of need, and while he has his bonne 

 houche, it is, as a rule, quantity and not quality he seeks. 



The Comanche is fond of gay clothes, and has a trick 

 of wrapping a sheet around his body, doubling in the 

 ends, and letting the rest fall about his legs. This gives 

 him the look of wearing the skirts or leg-gear of the Ori- 

 ental. He uses a Texas cowboy's tree, a wooden stirrup, 

 into which he thrusts his foot as far as a fox-hunter, and 

 leathers even longer than the cowboy's, perhaps the long- 

 est used by any rider. He is the only Indian who rides 

 after this fashion. He, if any one, has the forked-radish 

 seat. Between him and his saddle he packs all his extra 

 blankets and most of his other plunder, so that he is some- 

 times perched high abov^e his mount. For bridle and bit, 

 he uses whatever he can beg, borrow, or steal. 



In one particular tlie Comanche is noteworthy. He 

 knows more about a horse and horse-breeding than any 

 other Indian. It strilces one as rather singular that the 

 redskin has never developed an instinct for raising horses. 

 And yet it is not strange. The conditions themselves 

 have done so much for the bronco, and until of late years 

 wild ponies liave been so easily procurable in unlimited 

 numbers, that he has not yet been pushed into breeding. 



