Annotations to Blood Meridian: Chapter IV

[44] “filibusters”—in this context, a mercenary adventurer, generally paid in spoils of war.

[44] “manada”—a herd of cattle or horses.

[44] “Comanche”—the Nermernuh people of present-day Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico. For an extended look at this Plains tribe, see Episode I:

[44] “del Norte”—better known today as the Rio Grande. Captain White’s band of mercenaries has now crossed into Mexico.

[44] “buckbrush”—a flowering shrub.

[44] “pricklypear”—a flowering cactus, native to the region.

[44] “spirit level”—(from Johnson Levels): “a tool used to indicate how parallel (level) or perpendicular (plumb) a surface is relative to the earth. A spirit level gets its name from the mineral spirit solution inside the levels.”

[45] “heavy Wesson rifle”—there are two possibilities here: Cormac is either referring to the Frank Wesson Rifle (pictured above), though this weapon wasn’t available until 1859, or he’s referring to the Edwin Wesson Rifle which had been in use for nearly two decades by 1849 when this scene is set.

For a deep dive into some of the firearms of Blood Meridian, see Episode XII:

[45] “vernier sight”—From The Firearms Dictionary: “A tall (usually folding) aperture/peep sight, mounted to the upper rear tang of a rifle, adjustable over a wide range of elevation (and sometimes windage) suitable for long range shooting with a long screw-adjustment and stadia lines for accurate adjustment and repetition of settings.” (vernier sight pictured above)

[45] “micrometer”—a device that uses a calibrated screw to mark distances.

[45] “fiveshot Colt’s revolvers”—the Colt Paterson, the first pistol with a revolving chamber in production. It was invented by Sam Colt and 1,000 were produced in Paterson, New Jersey in 1836. See the article above for a more elaborate discussion of the Paterson.

[45] “dragoon pistols”—In 1849, before the invention of the “repeating” rifle, these Colt pistols were the deadliest small arms on the planet. Known as “Whitneyville Colts” (for the Connecticut town that was home to Eli Whitney’s gun factory), these pistols represented a rather significant advance over Samuel Colt’s two previous handguns: the 1836 Colt Paterson (the world’s first production revolver) and the 1846 Colt Walker, the weapon Sam Colt upgraded to produce his Dragoon pistol. (pictured above: a Colt Dragoon in the box it was sold in with bullet mold and powder flask)

[45] “rebored”—the bore of a rifle is the hole that runs from the tip of the muzzle to the chamber, the steel chute down which a lead bullet passes. The Kid’s rifle has been rebored to accept a larger bullet, but because the Kid doesn’t have correctly sized rifle balls, he has to cut thicker patches to get the projectiles to fit snugly inside the barrel.

[46] “sutler”—sutlers were men who travelled with armies in the 19th century and sold them food and dry goods. The metaphorical sutler of this passage is, of course, Death.

[46] “bladebones of antelope”—these bones could be used as primitive tools, but it’s hard to believe no one in Captain White’s company is carrying a shovel, spade, or pick-axe.

[47] “loomshafts”—from Understanding Weaving: “The shaft or harness is the frame of the loom that holds the warp threads.”

[47] “duledge pegs”—“One of the dowels joining the ends of the fellies which form the circle of the wheel of a gun carriage” or wagon.

[48] “the planet Anareta”—In Medieval and Early Modern Europe, Anareta was known as the “killing planet.” In Greek, Anareta means “destroyer.”

[48] “polished bright as chrome”—an anachronism as chrome plating didn’t begin until the early 20th century.

[49] “jornadas”—a day’s journey across a desert. Cormac uses the Spanish term in reference to Captain White’s “journeyers.”

[49] “astrolabes”—from Wikipedia: “an ancient astronomical instrument that was a handheld model of the universe. Its various functions also make it an elaborate inclinometer and an analog calculation device capable of working out several kinds of problems in astronomy. In its simplest form it is a metal disc with a pattern of wires, cutouts, and perforations that allows a user to calculate astronomical positions precisely. Historically used by astronomers, it is able to measure the altitude above the horizon of a celestial body, day or night; it can be used to identify stars or planets, to determine local latitude given local time.”

[49] “soft blue fire”—Here, Cormac’s conjuring of St. Elmo’s Fire (a strange weather phenomenon where objects acquire a blue aura) is an allusion to a similar scene in Melville’s Moby-Dick.

[49] “a man named Hayward prayed for rain”—Try to imagine any member of Glanton’s Gang making this sort of humble appeal. Perhaps, this is one reason why Captain Glanton’s men (uniquely suited to this hellish environment) thrive for most of the novel, while Captain White’s don’t even make it out of this chapter.

[51] “sotols”—an evergreen plant

[52] “farrier”—a smith who makes horseshoes and shoes horses.

[52] “traprock”—from Wikipedia: “any dark-colored, fine-grained, non-granitic intrusive or extrusive igneous rock.”

[52] “treeboles”—there’s a good deal of speculation on what Cormac means here, but I believe he’s compounding tree and boles—the boles (or trunks) of trees.

[54] “the painted chevrons and hands and rising suns”—the Comanche painted these and other devices on their horses before going on raids.

[54] “when up from the offsides of their ponies rose a fabled horde”—the Comanches would often conceal themselves on the offsides of their horses until they were within contact-distance of their enemy.

[55] “attic”—Greek, of the region known as Attica.

[55] “mongol”—the Comanche were the most lethal light cavalry since the Mongols of Genghis Khan’s era.

[56] “men with their revolvers disassembled”—one of the major drawbacks of Colt’s Paterson revolver was that it had to be completely disassembled to be reloaded: a fatal design flaw in the midst of combat with an enemy that could fire thirty arrows a minute with great accuracy.

[57] “arrows clenched in their jaws”—no Comanche ever held an arrow between his teeth. A Comanche brave would use some kind of quiver and would sometimes hold a few arrows in the fist that gripped the bow.

[57] “flexing beneath the outstretched necks of their ponies”—Comanches absolutely fired arrows from underneath their horses’ necks, a technique that was documented by many Texas Rangers.

[57] “sodomized them”—no Comanche ever stopped in the middle of a fight against men armed with pistols and rifles and sodomized their dying enemies.