CAMP. 73 



dental and unforeseen cause, which, frightening badly 

 one or more horses, causes them to plunge and snort, 

 communicating the fright to others and others. 



A stampede among horses is precisely what a panic is 

 among men. It is the temporary ascendency of an unrea- 

 soning fear, during which the instinct of self-preservation 

 seems to usurp the functions of all the other qualities. 



Nothing is more senseless and selfish than a panic. 

 A cry of fire in a theatre, the falling of the plastering of 

 the ceiling of a church, is sufficient to change the orderly 

 well-behaved people into a crowd of unreasoning brutes, 

 who, forgetful of every obligation of manhood or duty, 

 rush blindly to the doors, crushing even their own wives 

 and children in the madness each of his own individual 

 selfishness. 



Even highly-disciplined soldiers men who face death 

 as lightly and carelessly as they turn a partner in the 

 dance, men whose courage is so much a matter of habit 

 that the feeling of fear is forgotten, if ever known 

 become sometimes a blind, headlong, terrified mob, with 

 no more sense or reason than if stricken with madness. 



All animals and birds seem* liable at times to be 

 afflicted with this malady ; and we have reason to modify 

 our self-glorification of our immense superiority over the 

 brute creation when we reflect that one moment of cause- 

 less panic reduces us from our vaunted position, 'just 

 below the angels,' to the level of the poor -quail, which, 

 in senseless flight, dashes its life out against a wall. 



The stampede is the favourite and most successful 

 ruse of Indian horse-thieves. If the animals are well 

 secured and well guarded, the Indians, though they may 

 be in the immediate vicinity, will make no effort to 

 stampede them ; for, though fond of dash, they take few 

 chances when the stake is life or death. If the animals 

 are not well fastened and guarded, they are likely to be 

 lost at any moment. Gaining unobserved a position close 

 to the grazing herd, a few Indians will suddenly dash 



