310 THE APACHE LANGUAGE. Book II. 
As they have children by great numbers of stolen Mexican 
women, and as boy prisoners are continually adopted by 
the tribe, it grows more and more difficult to distinguish 
the original form of the face and colour of the skin. 
I wished to avail myself of this opportunity to collect a 
few words of the Apache language, but I had great diffi- 
culty in attaining my object, even to a very limited extent. 
My questions at first displeased them, and I received 
no answers : I then bethought me of a ruse, which was 
successful. I declared that I knew the Apache language, 
and uttered the Comanche words which I had on a former 
occasion noted down. The hatred of the Apaches for the 
Comanches aroused such indignation among our guests, 
that, to prove the superiority of their language to that 
of the Comanches, they told me a number of words. 
I' learned from these people that not all the Apache 
tribes speak the same language: for instance, that of the 
Coppermine Apaches and Gila Apaches differs widely from 
theirs, and is not understood by them. 
In the evening our guests took their leave. That night 
I slept at the edge of our camp, which was on a level plain 
near the village ; and near me lay our cook. On a sudden 
we were aroused by the sound of horses' hoofs, and the 
fierce barking of our dog. Scarcely five paces distant we 
saw two mounted Indians. In an instant my gun was 
levelled at one, and the cook, snatching up one of my 
pistols, aimed at the other, whilst the dog seized one of the 
horses by the throat. " No tira, compadre ! " (don't fire, 
comrade!) exclaimed one of the men. " Don't you know 
your friends, the Apaches, who are come again to drink 
coffee with you ?" An explanation followed, in which we 
made them understand that we could not receive their visit 
at night, and that they must go away; but that they would 
