all the Comanche tribes was about to be held. They invited me to go there, but I declined, as in spite of the friendship of these two, I did not care to trust myself among so many savages. [Illustration: THE INDIAN CAMP. _p. 346._] Gradually several men, with their squaws and children, crept up and camped curiously round our fire. Their number quickly increased, more and more of them crawled through the bushes and sat down around us, till it appeared that the whole tribe was collected. They pressed round our baggage, and I was obliged to call to Antonio and Königstein to keep a sharp eye on it, as I saw they were beginning to examine it. Suddenly old Pahajuka leapt up, and in a furious voice shouted some words we did not understand to the intruders, upon which the whole band disappeared again in the bushes, except a very pretty girl of about sixteen, whom the chief introduced to me as his granddaughter. She was a nice creature, gracefully formed, with a remarkably pretty head, from which a great mass of glossy black hair floated loosely over her shoulders. Her finely-chiselled, slightly aquiline, nose, her small mouth with its pearly teeth, and the modest, shy glance of her large black eyes, would have rendered her a perfect beauty had her skin been white, but even with her dark complexion she was handsome, and her appearance produced an extremely pleasant impression. The leathern petticoat which hung from her hips was finished with considerable taste and exquisitely painted; her finely-formed long neck was adorned by a necklace of white beads, and on her plump, graceful arms she had a number of polished brass rings. Her father, Pahajuka's son, so the old squaw told us, was shot in a foray in Mexico, and the old people had adopted her as their daughter. I was sorry that I had nothing with me to make her a present of, but I promised her lots of pretty things if she would visit me at home with the old folks, and the latter promised to do so.