416 INDIANS. 



CHAPTEE XLI. 



CEUELTY. 



THE cruelty of the Indian is inexplicable except on the 

 hypothesis that cruelty is a normal trait of humanity. 

 Wild beasts are not cruel ; for, although the wolf may 

 tear and devour the entrails of a deer while that animal 

 is yet alive, he does it from greediness alone. The mem- 

 bers of the cat family play with and torment their victims, 

 but they undoubtedly do this as practice in catching. 

 Besides, if we are to believe the men who have been in 

 the jaws of these animals, Nature has kindly compensated 

 this exceptional apparent cruelty by inflicting on the 

 victims of the feline race a nervous paralysis, which not 

 only deprives them of any sense of pain, but prevents a 

 realisation of the horror of their position. 



The cruelty of the Indian is inborn and inbred, and 

 it clings to him through life as a distinguishing charac- 

 teristic of his humanity. As a boy, his special delight is 

 the torture of every bird or animal he can get hold of 

 alive. As a man, the torture of a human being gives 

 him more pleasure than any other act of his life, and at 

 no time is his laughter so joyous and heartfelt as when 

 some special ingenuity wrings a groan or cry of anguish 

 from the victim of his cruelty. 



For extravagance of delight in the anticipation of a 

 scene of torture, for hellish ingenuity in devising, and 

 remorseless cruelty in inflicting, pain, the Indian woman 

 far exceeds her husband and son ; and they can give her 

 no keener enjoyment, when returning from a foray, than 



