Page:Don Coronado through Kansas.djvu/247

232 232 saoOND day's entbstainmbnt. ety for its efforts in locating the numerous cities bur- ied under the sod, as are the ancient cities of yore? Without doubt, there; were according to the Span- ish and later authorities quite a number of people re- siding in or about the territory now known as Kansas^ so there is no fiction about that fsict, Ysopete is a very busy man on this morning of the eventful day when he intends to take part in some of the contests. He waS one of the runners for the chief of "The Village of the Twenty-four," when cap- tured by the Teyas and by them sold as a slave down in Pecos or Cicuye; and by the continued exercise in walking aiid often running ahead to find the best course fdr the army to march, his muscles were like steel, and could not be in better training, so he has registered himself as a contestant for the longest race of ten miles, and some of his friends having arrived from his native village, who know him to be the swift- est Indian in their part of the country, especially the great city of the Twenty-four, he has no lack of back- ers and encouragers who feel honored by their ac- quaintance v/ith a countryman of such remarkable ex- periences. It is not stretching the faot to say there were t'nousands of people camped miles around the village; nearly every family brought a house with them, con- sisting of a few poles and buffalo sMns, these being^ carried by their dogs, every family being the owner of a pack with which to carry their belongings when on the hunt, as well as to transport the game when killed. • A custom prevailed among the western Indians,