Note 748 — Chapter V · NEW MEXICANS.

The Comanches punish 'Adultery, theft, murder, and other crimes ... by established usage.' Kennedy's Texas, vol. i., p. 347. Among the Navajos, 'Lewdness is punished by a public exposure of the culprit.' Scenes in the Rocky Mts., p. 180. Marcy's Army Life, pp. 26, 59. Navajoes 'regard each other's right of property, and punish with great severity any one who infringes upon it. In one case a Navajo was found stealing a horse; they held a council and put him to death.' Bristol, in Ind. Aff. Rept. Spec. Com., 1867, p. 344. A Cuchano young boy who frightened a child by foretelling its death, which accidentally took place the next day, 'was secretly accused and tried before the council for "being under the influence of evil spirits,"' and put to death. Emory's Rept. U. S. and Mex. Boundary Survey, vol. i., p. iii.; Feudge, in Ind. Aff. Rept., 1868, p. 137. Among the Yumas, 'Each chief punishes delinquents by beating them across the back with a stick. Criminals brought before the general council for examination, if convicted, are placed in the hands of a regularly appointed executioner of the tribe, who inflicts such punishment as the council may direct.' Emory's Rept. U. S. and Mex. Boundary Survey, vol. i., p. iii.