winship] TRANSLATION OF CASTANEDA 527 



Now we will speak of the plains. The country is spacious and level 

 aud is more than 400 leagues wide in the part between the two moun- 

 tain ranges — one, that which Francisco Vazquez Coronado crossed, and 

 the other that which the force under Don Fernando de Soto crossed, 

 near the North sea, entering the country from Florida. No settlements 

 were seen anywhere on these plains. 



In traversing 250 leagues, the other mountain range was not seen, 

 nor a hill nor a hillock which was three times as high as a man. Sev- 

 eral lakes were found at intervals; they were round as plates, a stone's 

 throw or more across, some fresh and some salt. The grass grows tall 

 near these lakes; away from them it is very short, a span or less. The 

 country is like a bowl, so that when a man sits down, the horizon sur- 

 rounds him all around at the distanceof a musket shot. 1 There are no 

 groves of trees except at the rivers, which flow at the bottom of some 

 ravines where the trees grow so thick that they were not noticed until 

 one was right on the edg« of them. They are of dead earth. 2 There 

 are paths down into these, made by the cows when they go to the water, 

 which is essential throughout these plains. As I have related in the 

 first part, people follow the cows, hunting them and tanning the skins 

 to take to the settlements in the winter to sell, since they go there to 

 pass the winter, each company going to those which are nearest, some 

 to the settlements at Cicuye, 3 others toward Quivira, and others to the 

 settlements which are situated in the direction of Florida. These people 

 are called Querechos and Teyas. They described some large settle- 

 ments, and judging from what was seen of these people and from the 

 accounts they gave of other places, there are a good many more of 

 these people than there are of those at the settlements. 4 They have 

 better figures, are better warriors, and are more feared. They travel 

 like the Arabs, with their tents and troops of dogs loaded with poles 5 

 aud having Moorish pack saddles with girths. When the load gets 

 disarranged, the dogs howl, calling some one to fix them right. These 

 people eat raw flesh aud drink blood. They do not eat human flesh. 

 They are a kind people and not cruel. They are faithful friends. They 

 are able to make themselves very well understood by means of signs. 

 They dry the flesh in the sun, cutting it thin like a leaf, and when dry 

 they grind it like meal to keep it and make a sort of sea soup of it to 

 eat. A handful thrown into a pot swells up so as to increase very 



1 Ternaux omits all this, evidently failing completely in the attempt to understand tins description 

 of the rolling western prairies. 

 2 Compare the Spanish-. Tin* also is omitted by Ternaux 



3 Kspejo, Relacion, p. 180: "los serrauos ncudeu a servir a los de las poblaciones, y los de las pobla- 

 Clones les Hainan a estos, querechos ; tratau y contratan con los de las poblaciones. llevandoles sal y 

 eaza, venados, couejos y liebres y gamuzas aderezadas y otros generos de cosas, a trneque de niantas 

 de algodon y otras cosas con que les satisfacen la paga el gobierno." 



4 Compare the Spanish. 



6 The well known travois of the plains tribes. 



6 Rena voles: Memorial (1630), p. 74 : " Y las to-ndas las lleuan cargadas en requas de perros aparejados 

 co sua en xalmillas. y son los perros medianos, \ su'cle lleiiar quinie.tos perros en vua requa vno delante 

 de otro, y la gente lleua cargada su rnercaduria, que trueca por ropa de algodon, y por otras cosas de 

 q careen 



