A roving, warlike, and predatory tribe of Shoshone descent, roaming over much of the great prairie country from the Platte to Mexico. Their traditions and early history are vague, but they claim to have come from the west. They call themselves _Naueni_ (live people), but the Spanish called them Comanches or Camanches (_Les Serpents_), the name adopted by the Americans. Procuring horses from the Spaniards at an early day they became expert riders, which, united with their daring and aggressiveness, made them noted and feared throughout the Southwest. Engaged in long and bloody wars with the Spaniards, but were subdued by them in 1783. Were estimated about that time at 5,000 warriors. In 1816 lost heavily by small-pox. Up to 1847 were variously estimated at from 9,000 to 12,000 in all. Were at one time on a reservation in Texas, but were driven out of the State, and since then have been unrelenting enemies of the people of that State. The General Government has set apart a new reservation for them in the western part of the Indian Territory and are gradually drawing them all on to it, though not without much trouble. They now number 1,570 in all, and are divided into eight bands. Have made a commencement in farming, and have been induced to send a few of their children to an industrial school. W. Blackmore, esq., in an article on the North American Indians, thus describes the Comanche: "These fierce, untamed savages roam over an immense region, eating the raw flesh of the buffalo, drinking its warm blood, and plundering Mexicans, Indians, and whites with judicial impartiality. Arabs and Tartars of the desert, they remove their villages (pitching their lodges in regular streets and squares) hundreds of miles at the shortest notice. The men are short and stout, with bright copper faces and long hair, which they ornament with glass beads and silver gewgaws." Catlin says of them: "In their movements they are heavy and ungraceful, and on their feet one of the most unattractive and slovenly races I have ever seen; but the moment they mount their horses they seem at once metamorphosed, and surprise the spectator with the ease and grace of their movements. A Comanche on his feet is out of his element, and comparatively almost as awkward as a monkey on the ground without a limb or branch to cling to; but the moment he lays his hand upon his horse his _face_ even becomes handsome, and he gracefully flies away, a different being." _List of illustrations._ 128. ASA HAVIE. _The Milky Way._ (Front.) PENETATHKA. 129. ASA HAVIE. _The Milky Way._ (Profile.)