lest travellers
should lose their way, several points were marked with "palos," or
stakes. Hence the name it has received.

The Llano Estacado is now rarely travelled, except by the ciboleros, or
Mexican buffalo-hunters, and "Comancheros," or Indian traders. Parties
of these cross it from the settlements of New Mexico, for the purpose of
hunting the buffalo, and trafficking with the Indian tribes that roam
over the plains to the east. Neither the hunt nor the traffic is of any
great importance, but it satisfies a singular race of men, whom chance
or inclination has led to the adopting it as a means of subsistence.

These men are to the Mexican frontier pretty much what the hunter and
backwoodsman are upon the borders of the Anglo-American settlements.
They are, however, in many respects different from the latter--in arms
and equipments, modes of hunting, and otherwise. The outfit of a
cibolero, who is usually also a _coureur de bois_, is very simple. For
hunting, he is mounted on a tolerable--sometimes a fine--horse and armed
with a bow and arrows, a hunting-knife, and a long lance. Of fire-arms
he knows and cares nothing--though there are exceptional cases. A lazo
is an important part of his equipment. For trading, his stock of goods
is very limited--often not costing him twenty dollars! A few bags of
coarse bread (an article of food which the prairie Indians are fond of),
a sack of "pinole," some baubles for Indian ornament, some coarse
serapes, and pieces of high-coloured woollen stuffs, woven at home:
these constitute his "invoice." Hardware goods he does not furnish to
any great extent. These stand him too high in his own market, as they
reach it only after long carriage and scandalous imposts. Fire-arms he
has nothing to do with: such prairie Indians as use these are furnished
from the eastern side; but many Spanish pieces--fusils and escopettes--
have got into the hands of the Comanches through their forays upon the
Mexican towns of the south.

In return for his outlay and perilous journey, the cibolero carries back
dried buffalo-flesh and hides--some the produce of his own hunting, some
procured by barter from the Indians.

Horses, mules, and asses, are also articles of exchange. Of these the
prairie Indians possess vast herds--some individuals owning hundreds;
and most of them with Mexican brands! In other words, they have been
stolen from the towns of the _Lower_ Rio Grande, to be sold to the