Page:Life among the Apaches.djvu/109

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LIFE AMONG THE APACHES.
103

language, he is more or less considered entitled to the privileges of the tribe; but, even then, disclosure of concubinage is attended with imminent danger to the guilty female. The women of this tribe are particularly fine looking, possessing elegant forms, nicely shaped and well tapered limbs, brilliant and perfect white teeth, small hands, and the easy carriage of the unfettered Indian girl who never saw a pair of corsets, nor inclosed her form in the net-work of crinoline. The men are rugged and tolerably well made, but in nowise remarkable for size nor physical strength. Their powers of endurance are about on a par with most other Indian races, but bear no comparison with those of the Apaches. They are almost all bow-legged, with long trunks and arms, deep chested, narrow shouldered and big headed. Their noses are flatter, wider and more fleshy than those of other tribes, while their feet, in both sexes, are unusually large and splayed. Prior to receiving muskets and ammunition from the American Government—a favor granted them through the wise intercession of Gen. James H. Carleton—their weapons consisted of a bow and arrow, and a lance or knife. Their arrows differ from those of all the Apache tribes in having only two feathers instead of three, and in being much longer, with the single exception of the Coyoteros, who use very long arrows of reed, finished out with some hard wood, and an iron or flint head, but invariably with three feathers at the opposite end.

The Maricopas invariably bury their dead, and mock the ceremony of cremation. They, like the Pimos, and most other Indian tribes, believe in the existence of two gods, who divide the universe between them. One of the divinities is the author of all good, the other the father of all evil. The good god is deemed a quiet and