Page:Life among the Apaches.djvu/290

 time of "reveille," immense numbers of them would wend their way right over the camp toward the south, and as regularly return at the time of "retreat," flapping their wings in a sluggish manner, as if gorged with food. Curiosity impelled me to visit the ground and see these birds at their feast. The field was literally black with them, and every corpse was thickly covered with a fluttering, fighting flock of scavengers. This regular flight of crows and ravens was regarded by the Apaches with unmistakable satisfaction, which was indignantly resented by the Navajoes, and served to keep alive the feud which had arisen between them. So soon as this feeling evinced itself it was pressed into service by the Post Commander, who contrived to make the tribes mutual spies upon each other's actions. Any misdeed of an Apache was sure to be detected and exposed by a Navajo, and vice versa; but the trouble of keeping them in order was much simplified.