Reminiscences of Indian Scouting [pp. 151-169]

Reminiscences of Indian Scouting.
the Sun Shines Brightly" soon became
" Number One"; the " Frog that Jumps
on one Leg because the Other is Broken" hopped into "Number Two";
and so on, through the whole lot, until
I reached the "Dirty Bull that Sits in
the Mud," which I brought up standing
in a hurry with "Number Twenty-five"
as a lariat; and in order that they should
not forget their new names I tied around
the neck of each a numbered tag, like a
tin plate certificate of his specific value
and gravity, so as to keep my memory
green.
The first assembly after the change
was rather a novelty to me as well as to
the Indians. After clearing my throat
and filling my lungs with a long breath,
I began my numerical roll-call with short
exhalations: 0
" Tazh.-lad, Nah-ki, Tagl-hd, Die-he,
Escla-h/, Gous-tond, Goud-si-h/, Tseinphg, Gous-ta-hk, Goud-es-non,- hold your
heads up!- Tagli-sa-ta, Nah-ki-sa-ta,
Tagh-h/-sa-ta, Die-h/-sa-ta, Escla-/i-sata, Gous-tond-sa-ta, Goud-si-he-sa-ta,
Tsemp-he-sa-ta, Gous-ta-he-sa-ta,- keep
your eyes to the front! —NVah-tin, Nahtin-schla, Vah-tin-nah-ki, Na/ah-tin-taghhd, Nah-tiin-die-hd, Vah-tiiz-escla-hd."
To this twenty-five guttural "Hughs!"
answered successively in mournful intonations, as if grieving over the departed glories of their hardly won and no
less hardly tinkered together self-given
names, (for Apache patronymics have
no descending scale.)
The change for the better in saving
time and breath as well as clerical labor
worked so well, however, that they soon
afterwards returned the compliment —
wvithout the tin plate - by discarding
my former Apache appellation of the
"Tall Nouton with Four Eyes," and
consolidating my numerous bodily imperfections and mental deficiencies into
the dubious designation of Cla-la-hum,
-"All Ways at Once," to which, after having seen me root up the ground
for hours at a time with pickax and
spade in search of pre-Apache antiquities, they added, with Indian sagacity
and discrimination, the qualifying Spanish epithet of Tonito, fool, a combination
in which, being a veracious man, I am
compelled to state with regret there was
far more truth than poetry.
My general instructions were to roam,
fancy-free, all over the surrounding
country as far as the Mexican boundary,
with the double purpose of showing the
people thereabouts that the military
were not sleeping all day and all night
long, as they were rather inclined to
believe, and to "jump " any party of renegade Indians vagamunzdear —sin casa
i /iogar (which maybe translated "without local habitation or name") I came
across.
Old Ju-, a Chiricahua Apache chief
who had, with his whole band, insisted,
despite many admonitions to the contrary, on spreading himself like a wild
turkey (Chiricahua being Apache for
that same) all over the country on some
such roving commission as I myself
held, with the exception that I acted
pro bono publico under regular orders,
while he frightened people out of their
wits when he did not scalp them, at his
own sweet volition in an irregular, filibustering kind of way, instead of being
quietly and safely stowed away on some
reservation, trying, like the Irishman's
horse, to live on sixteen straws a day —
was especially recommended to my attention.
My sword, Cincinnatus-like, was tacked
on, scythe fashion, to a scientific pruning hook and grubbing hoe, for I was,
besides, to triangulate the country as
best I might on horseback on my way
to and fro, in order to map it, and collect
all information obtainable in regard to
the flora and fauna of the section, in
an illustrated report which might be
utilized by the Smithsonian authorities
at Washington.
To enable me to do all this, the chart
given me by my superiors was a carte
153
1889.]