Page:On the border with Crook - Bourke - 1892.djvu/235

 because by this means he not only subtracted a considerable element from those in hostility and received hostages, as it were, for the better behavior of his scouts' kinsmen, but he removed from the shoulders of his men an immense amount of arduous and disagreeable work, and kept them fresh for any emergency that might arise. The Apaches were kept constantly out on the flanks, under the white guides, and swept the country of all hostile bands. The white troops followed upon the heels of the Indians, but at a short distance in the rear, as the native scouts were better acquainted with all the tricks of their calling, and familiar with every square acre of the territory. The longer we knew the Apache scouts, the better we liked them. They were wilder and more suspicious than the Pimas and Maricopas, but far more reliable, and endowed with a greater amount of courage and daring. I have never known an officer whose experience entitled his opinion to the slightest consideration, who did not believe as I do on this subject. On this scout Captain Hamilton was compelled to send back his Maricopas as worthless; this was before he joined Brown at MacDowell.

All savages have to undergo certain ceremonies of lustration after returning from the war-path where any of the enemy have been killed. With the Apaches these are baths in the sweat-lodge, accompanied with singing and other rites. With the Pimas and Maricopas these ceremonies are more elaborate, and necessitate a seclusion from the rest of the tribe for many days, fasting, bathing, and singing. The Apache "bunches" all his religious duties at these times, and defers his bathing until he gets home, but the Pima and Maricopa are more punctilious, and resort to the rites of religion the moment a single one, either of their own numbers or of the enemy, has been laid low. For this reason Brown started out from MacDowell with Apaches only.

It was noticed with some concern by all his friends that old Jack Long was beginning to break; the fatigue and exertion which the more juvenile members of the expedition looked upon as normal to the occasion, the night marches, the exposure to the cold and wind and rain and snow, the climbing up and down steep precipices, the excitement, the going without food or water for long periods, were telling visibly upon the representative of an older generation. Hank 'n Yank, Chenoweth, Frank Monach,