The western savages know nothing of the value of money. The wampum bead, it is true, among a few tribes, somewhat resembles a currency: for, being generally esteemed, it acquires a value in proportion to size, and sometimes passes from hand to hand, in exchange for necessaries. The legitimate wampum is only of shells, and was of aboriginal manufacture; being small long tubes with an ovate surface, or sometimes simply cylindrical; and handsomely polished: but imitations of glass or porcelain seem now the most common. The color is generally white, though sometimes blue or striped. These Indians have no knowledge of the divisions of time, except by palpable distinctions; as days, moons and years; which last they commonly represent as so many springs, or falls of the leaves, or as often by winters, that is, frosts or snows. Distances are represented by days' journey, which are oftener designated by camps or 'sleeps.' When a day's journey is spoken of in general terms, it is meant that of a band in regular travel, which rarely exceeds twenty miles. CHAPTER XXXI [XV] INDIANS OF THE PRAIRIES Intermediate Tribes -- Their Wigwams and their Hunting Excursions -- Dress and Cut of their Hair -- The Pawnees -- The Osages -- Their Roguery -- Matrimonial Customs -- Accomplished Mourners -- Their Superstitions -- The Indian Stature -- The 'Pawnee Picts' -- Wild Tribes -- Census -- The Comanches -- Their Range -- Their Sobriety -- Their Chiefs, etc. -- Female Chastity -- Comanche Marriage -- Costumes -- Horsemanship -- Comanche Warfare -- Predatory Forays -- Martial Ceremonies -- Treatment of Captives -- Burial and Religious Rites. The tribes inhabiting near the borders of the frontier Indians differ from those that range the far-western prairies in several traits of general character. The former have their fixed villages, and, for the most part, combine the pursuits of agriculture and the chase. They form, indeed, a sort of intermediate class between the frontier and the wild tribes, resembling the one or the other in all important particulars. I will merely notice in this place a few of the characteristics by which the more conspicuous of these tribes are distinguished. Their village wigwams differ from the lodges of the wilder tribes, in their being {300} much more substantial, and usually covered with grass and earth instead of skins. The Indians commonly remain in their villages during the inclement portion of the winter; yet most of them spend the early spring upon the Prairies in buffalo-hunting; as well as such portions of the summer and autumn as are not occupied in the cultivation and gathering of their crops, which they secure in _caches_ till their return.