130 Musings by Camp-Fire and Wayside 



Indian took what he got more by stealth and strata- 

 gem than by force; but with the superabundance of 

 animal life, and of wild fruits and nuts and grains, 

 the life of the Indian was that of the happy and 

 improvident loafer, who had no need to care for the 

 morrow. It is one of the most striking illustrations 

 of the law of heredity that this improvidence, com- 

 ing down to him through uncounted generations, 

 can scarcely be eradicated. Even when fire- 

 arms came into his hands he employed them in 

 the old way, and used so little powder that they 

 were not much more effective than his bow. He 

 stalked his game until he could burn their hair with 

 the fire of his gun. Carr, in his "Early Times in the 

 Middle Tennessee," tells an anecdote of Kasper 

 Mansker, one of the most noted of the early hunt- 

 ers of that region, showing how he took advantage 

 of an Indian by employing his knowledge of this 

 habit. His red foe tried to call him out into the 

 thickets by a very perfect imitation of a wild gob- 

 bler. Mansker listened until he was satisfied that 

 the call was not genuine, then coolly shouldering 

 his rifle he walked past the Indian, but out of his 

 short range, pretending to look for the turkey, and 

 went on to an open glade, his enemy stealthily fol- 

 lowing him. As soon as Mansker had thus lured 

 his enemy away from the trees, he suddenly turned 

 and shot him. 



Such was the paradise of four millions of square 

 miles which the white man found between the crests 



