Page:Life among the Apaches.djvu/222

 Herein lies his credit and fame as a warrior; upon his success in such undertakings rests his whole celebrity and standing among the squaws whom he affects to treat with indifference, but whose smiles and favors are, after all, the greatest incentives to his acts. It is a grand mistake to suppose that because the Apaches are seemingly indifferent to the condition of their women that, because like other savage tribes, they force the burden of hard labor upon them, they are not elated by their praises or humbled by their censures. On the contrary, they are keenly alive to such sensations, and under the mask of apparent indifference and assumed superiority are quite as susceptible to the blandishments of the female sex, and to their opinions as regards merits, as the most civilized and enlightened of their fellow countrymen—white Americans. After a successful raid they are received with songs and rejoicings. Their deeds are rehearsed with many eulogiums, and they become great, in their own estimations, for a while. But if unsuccessful, they meet with jeers and insults. The women turn away from them with assumed indifference and contempt. They are upbraided as cowards, or for want of skill and tact, and are told that such men should not have wives, because they do not know how to provide for their wants. When so reproached, the warriors hang their heads and offer no excuse for failure. To do so would only subject them to more ridicule and objurgation; but, Indian-like, they bide their time, in the hope of finally making their peace by some successful raid. When it is understood that the Apaches neither sow nor plant, that they do not cultivate the ground, that they manufacture nothing except their arms, that they depend altogether upon their wars for plunder as a means of livelihood with the exceptional occasions of hunting,