nity to witness them at other times was at no time vouchsafed to me or any other person I ever met. It has never been within my power to solve the reasons for this extreme caution; and all my inquiries failed to unlock the doors of Apache reticence on this subject. The nearest definition I ever arrived at was given me by old Klo-sen, the same who instituted so many questions in reference to the earth's sphericity, the formation of clouds, the causes for rain, etc.
This reflecting and experienced warrior told me that the reason why they buried all the worldly goods of dead people with their bodies, was because of a strange disease which broke out among them several years before he was born, and carried off great numbers. It was found that to use the clothing or household property of the deceased, or to come in contact with such person, was almost certain to result in a like sickness to the individual doing these things, and that the rule was adopted to bury with him or her every single thing that the defunct possessed at the time of death, and all that he or she might have used or touched before that event. But he strictly forbore from telling me anything more, although I made every effort to draw him out. It occurred to me that the disease alluded to was the small-pox, for there were plenty of evidences that it had raged among the Apaches in some past period. That they know what this disease is, and comprehend its nature, to some extent, can be exemplified by the following incidents:
Gen. Carleton dispatched Capt. E. D. Shirland and his company, C of the First California Cavalry Volunteers, to retake Fort Davis, in Texas. Upon Shirland's arrival he found the fort deserted by the Confederates; but also discovered that they had left three men behind who had been seized with small-pox. Those poor fellows were
