EQUESTRIAN EXERCISES. 315° 
the city of Austin, then the seat of govern- 
ment, in open day ;: and, at other times, have 
been known to descend to the ve sea- 
coast, committing many frightful depredations, 
“On the 8th of August, 1840,” writes a friend 
who resided at Linnville, on Matagorda Bay, 
“several hundred Comanches came down 
from the mountains, and charged upon us 
without the least notice. They burned and 
made a perfect destruction of the village and 
everything pertaining to it. 
esides continual hostilities with Mexico 
and Texas, the Comanches are at war with 
most of the Indians of the Mexican interior, 
as also with the tribes of the more northern 
prairies — and particularly the Arrapahoes 
and Chayennes, with whom they have many. 
bloody rencounters. But they generally re- 
main on friendly terms with the petty tribes 
of the south, whom, indeed, they seem to hold 
as their vassals. 
As these Indians always go to war on horse- 
back, several days are often spent previous to 
a campaign in equestrian exercises and cere- 
monies, which seem partly to supply the place 
of the war-dance of other tribes ; though they 
sometimes join in preparatory dances also. it 
is not an unusual custom, when a campaign 
is in agitation, for a band of about twenty Co- 
manche maidens to chant, for three nights in 
succession, the victories of. their ancestors, 
the valor of their brothers and cotemporaries, 
and the individual prowess of all such young 
warriors as they consider should engage in 
