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Show LEADING 92 FACTS OF NEW MEXICAN THE HISTORY Alvar Nufiez Cabeza de Vaca found all the natives whom they met They were well treated by to be the most ignorant and destitute. began to ripen, Cabeza pears the when spring the In tribes. the all de Vaca and the negro visited another tribe called Maliacones,®”* a day’s journey further on. In three days they sent for Dorantes and Castillo who soon joined them. The Indians they now were with broke their camp, going into another section where they subsisted off the fruit of a small tree, while the pears were maturing. On their way they were joined by another tribe called the Arbadaos, a weak and miserable people with whom the Spaniards remained after the Maliacones had returned to their own country. While with them the Spaniards suffered greatly, being compelled to buy two dogs which they ate with great relish. The Indians kept them employed a good deal of the time in scraping and softening skins, and Cabeza de Vaca says that this was his season of greatest prosperity, for he preserved the scrapings from the skins, which lasted him for food for several days. The meat that was given them was eaten raw, as it was easier digested. When they had become somewhat replenished in strength, they left the Indians and set out during a heavy fall of rain. They stopped at night in a large wood, and prior to going to sleep, they built an oven in which they placed some of the leaves of the prickly pear, and these were ready to be eaten by morning. Having breakfasted they proceeded on their way and soon came in sight of some lodges, near which were two palms in length, he cut their side, and, thrusting his hand through the gash, took out the entrails, cutting off a piece one palm long, which he threw into the fire. Afterwards he made three cuts in one of the arms, the second one at the place where people are usually bled, and twisted the arm, but reset it soon afterwards. Then he placed his hands on the wounds, and they told us that they closed at once. Many times he appeared among them while they were dancing, sometimes in the dress of a woman and again as a man, and whenever he took a notion to do it he would seize the hut or lodge, take it up into the air and come down with it again with a great crash. They also told us how, many a time, they set food before him, but he never would partake of it, and when they asked him where he came from and where he had his home, he pointed to a rent in the earth and said his house was down below.’’ _. : Adolph F. Bandelier says there is no mention of this story in Oviedo. “? may be the basis for it 18 Impossible to conjecture. It may have been a se ae but completely misunderstcod, hence misreported, by the Spaniards. a coe cs sae Pn as railed 4 . Spanish Explorers im the Southern United oast live those called Quitoks, States, note, P. and in front inward on the main av avares, to whom adjoin the Maliacones, the Cultalchulches and others Susolas and the Comos. This journeying im a generally northward would seem to or northwestward indicate that direction.’? he was FIRST SPANISH EXPLORERS 93 two women and some boys, who fled as the Spaniards approached. They called to them and they returned and soon led the party to their village, which was one of about fifty lodges. They stayed several days with this tribe, and in the meantime other Indians from beyond came to visit at the village. When these returned the Spaniards went with them, much against the wishes of those with whom they were then stopping, who wept at their departure. The customs and habits of the people with whom the Spaniards were living were nearly the same as those of the inhabitants of the country through which they had been journeying since leaving the island of Malhado. When the Indians traveled in the desert, if one fell sick, they left him behind to perish, unless he were a son or brother, when they would carry him upon their backs. It was the custom for men who were childless to leave their wives at pleasure and unite with another woman, but, having children, they never abandoned their wives. When they fought among themselves they never used the bow and arrow, but beat each other with their fists, and, having ceased fighting, both parties would retire to their lodges or the forest, where they remained until their anger had subsided. When unmarried persons quarreled they went to some neighboring tribe and remained some time before returning to their Own people. Even their enemies received them with presents, and, when they returned to their homes, loaded them down with gifts of all kinds. Cabeza de Vaca mentions the following nations passed by him- self and companions: °4 ‘‘T desire to enumerate INDIAN TRIBES MET BY CABEZA DE VACA WHILE CROSSING TExAS the natives and tongues that exist from those of Malhado to the farthest Cuchendados, there are. Two languages are found in the island; the people of one are called Cahoques,®® of the other, Han. On the tierra-firme, over against the island, is another people, called Chorruco, who take their names from the forests where they live. °* Smith, Buckingham, Narrative Advancing by the shores of the (edition 1871), pp. 86-87. %5 Hodge, F. W., Spanish Explorers in the Southern United States, note, p. ‘In the 1542 edition these tribal names are similarly spelled except 87, says: in the cases of Capoques, Charruco, Deguenes, Yeguaces, Decubados (for Acu- bados), Quitoles (for Quitoks), Chauauares, and Camolas. None of these Indians have thus far been exclusively identified with later historical tribes, with the possible exception of the Atayos and the Quevenes.’’ |