WAPITI-RUNNING ON THE PLAINS 53 



able direction, dumped down anywhere, appar- 

 ently without any particular motive or reason for 

 being so situated. The chief peculiarity noticeable 

 about these little settlements and their inhabitants 

 is that on the approach of a train everybody rushes 

 to the front of his house and rings an enormous bell. 

 I received quite an erroneous impression from this 

 ceremony the first time I crossed the plains. I 

 had read somewhere that the Chinese on the occa- 

 sion of an eclipse or some natural phenomenon of 

 that kind, which they attribute to the action of 

 a malignant being, endeavour to drive away the 

 evil influence by ringing bells, beating gongs, and 

 making other hideous noises ; and I thought that 

 the unsophisticated inhabitants of these frontier 

 towns, not having become accustomed to the 

 passage of a train, looked upon it as some huge, 

 horrible, and dangerous beast, and sought to drive 

 it away by employing the same means as the 

 Chinese. I found out afterwards, however, that 

 the object of the bell-ringing was to induce travel- 

 lers to descend and partake of hash. 



At one of these lonely little stations I was de- 

 posited one fine evening in the early fall just 

 before sundovm. For a few moments only the place 

 was all alive with bustle and confusion. The train 



