Note 755 — Chapter V · NEW MEXICANS.

Among the Apaches, the lover 'stakes his horse in front of her roost.... Should the girl favor the suitor, his horse is taken by her, led to water, fed, and secured in front of his lodge.... Four days comprise the term allowed her for an answer.... A ready acceptance is apt to be criticised with some severity, while a tardy one is regarded as the extreme of coquetry.' Cremony's Apaches, pp. 245-9; Ten Broeck, in Schoolcraft's Arch., vol. iv., p. 89; Marcy's Army Life, pp. 30, 51. The Apache 'who can support or keep, or attract by his power to keep, the greatest number of women, is the man who is deemed entitled to the greatest amount of honor and respect.' Cremony's Apaches, pp. 44, 85. Un Comanche, 'peut épouser autant de femmes qu'il veut, à la seule condition de donner à chacune un cheval.' Domenech, Jour., p. 135. Among the Navajoes, 'The wife last chosen is always mistress of her predecessors.' Whipple, Ewbank, and Turner's Rept., p. 42, in Pac. R. R. Rept., vol. iii. They seldom, if ever, marry out of the tribe. Ward, in Ind. Aff. Rept. Spec. Com., 1867, p. 455. 'In general, when an Indian wishes to have many wives he chooses above all others, if he can, sisters, because he thinks he can thus secure more domestic peace.' Domenech's Deserts, vol. ii., p. 306. 'I think that few, if any, have more than one wife,' of the Mojaves. Ives' Colorado Riv., p. 71.