CRUELTY, 417 



by bringing some prisoner on which this ingenuity can 

 be practised. 



I have been told that when a female prisoner has 

 been brought to camp, stripped, and staked out for the 

 benefit of all comers, the women will come around, taking 

 the liveliest interest in the proceedings, inciting their 

 lovers, husbands, and sons to repeated violations of the 

 victim, their jealousy (if they have a spark of that feeling, 

 which I doubt) completely extinguished in the pleasure 

 of the suffering inflicted. 



Cruelty to animals is equally marked, though of a 

 more passive nature. The torture of a human being is 

 an active, exquisite pleasure. The suffering of an animal is 

 simply a matter of indifference. An Indian will ride a horse 

 from the back of which every particle of skin and much flesh 

 has been torn by the ill-fitting saddle. He will ride him 

 at speed until he drops, then force him to his feet and ride 

 him again. A ' plains ' saying is, that ' a white man will 

 abandon a horse as broken down and utterly unable to 

 go further; a Mexican will then mount and ride him 

 fifty miles and abandon him ; an Indian will then mount 

 and ride him for a week.' 



Once, when hunting in the Guadalupe Mountains, 

 we very nearly lost a bear, because Espinosa failed to 

 fire at a critical moment. After the bear had been killed 

 I took him to task for not firing. He replied, ' I could 

 have killed the bear, but I had only one shot. We may 

 be "jumped" by Indians at any time. I will never be 

 taken prisoner, and always save the last shot for myself.' 

 The answer made a deep impression on me, and I have 

 always tried to act on Espinosa's rule, but in the excite- 

 ment of the chase rules are often forgotten. Espinosa's 

 experience among the Indians had left not only a bitter 

 hatred, but a most lively fear of falling alive into the 

 hands of these savages. Many a horrible story of their 

 barbarous cruelties has he detailed to me at the camp 

 fire. 



E E 



