[Vanished Arizona by Martha Summerhayes]@TWC D-Link bookVanished Arizona CHAPTER XI 12/13
Of course hats were unheard of.
The Apaches, both men and women, had not then departed from the customs of their ancestors, and still retained the extraordinary beauty and picturesqueness of their aboriginal dress.
They wore sometimes a fine buckskin upper garment, and if of high standing in the tribe, necklaces of elks teeth. The young lieutenants sometimes tried to make up to the prettiest ones, and offered them trinkets, pretty boxes of soap, beads, and small mirrors (so dear to the heart of the Indian girl), but the young maids were coy enough; it seemed to me they cared more for men of their own race. Once or twice, I saw older squaws with horribly disfigured faces.
I supposed it was the result of some ravaging disease, but I learned that it was the custom of this tribe, to cut off the noses of those women who were unfaithful to their lords.
Poor creatures, they had my pity, for they were only children of Nature, after all, living close to the earth, close to the pulse of their mother.
<<Back Index Next>> D-Link book Top TWC mobile books
|