96 CIBOLEROS MEAT-CURING. 



pared expressly for barter with the Coman- 

 ches, in case they should meet any : yet 



bread was bread, emphatically, with us just 

 then. 



A word concerning the Cihokros may not 

 be altogether uninteresting. Every year, large 

 parties of New-Mexicans, some pro\dded 

 with mules and asses, others with carretas or 

 truckle-carts and oxen, drive out into these 

 prairies to procure a supply of buffalo beef 

 for their families. They hunt, like the wild 

 Indians, chiefly on horseback, and with bov/ 

 and arrow, or lance, with which they soon 

 load their carts and mules. They find no 

 difficulty in curing their meat even in mid- 

 summer, by shcing it thin and spreading or 

 suspending it in the sun ; or, if in haste, it is 

 sUghtly barbecued. During the curing opera- 

 tion they often follow the Indian practice of 

 beating or kneading the sUces with their feet, 

 wliich they contend contributes to its preser- 

 vation. 



Here the extraordinary purity of the atmos- 

 phere is remarkably exemphfied. The cara- 

 vans cure meat in the same simple manner, 

 except the process of kneading. A line is 

 stretched from corner to corner°on each side 

 of a wagon-body, and strung with slices of 

 beef, which remains from day to day till it is 

 sufficiently cured to be stacked away. This 

 is done without salt, and yet it very rarely 

 putrifies. In truth, as blow-flies are un- 

 known here, there is nothing to favor putre- 

 faction. While speaking of flies, I might 



