IN THE OLD WEST 103 



weather-beaten faces. Without an exception, 

 these were under the influence of the rosy god ; 

 and one, who sat, the picture of misery, at a fire 

 by himself — staring into the blaze with vacant 

 countenance, his long matted hair hanging in un- 

 kempt masses over his face, begrimed with the 

 dirt of a week, and pallid with the effects of ar- 

 dent drink — was suffering from the usual con- 

 sequences of having *' kept it up " beyond the 

 usual point, paying the penalty in a fit of " hor- 

 rors " — as delirium trcTnens is most aptly termed 

 by sailors and the unprofessional. 



In another part, the merchants of the caravan 

 and the Indian traders superintended the lading 

 of the wagons or mule-packs. They were dressed 

 in civilized attire, and some were even bedizened in 

 St. Louis or eastern city dandyism, to the infinite 

 disgust of the mountain men, who look upon a 

 " bourge-way " (bourgeois) with most undis- 

 guised contempt, despising the very simplest 

 forms of civilization. The picturesque appear- 

 ance of the encampment was not a little heightened 

 by the addition of several Indians from the neigh- 

 boring Shawnee settlement, who, mounted on their 

 small active horses, on which they reclined rather 

 than sat in negligent attitudes, quietly looked on 

 at the novel scene, indifferent to the chaff in which 

 the thoughtless teamsters indulged at their ex- 

 pense. Numbers of mules and horses were picketed 

 at hand, whilst a large herd of noble oxen were 



