In Old Mexico 



143 



that there was a romance somewhere many- 

 years before in the old man's early life — else, 

 why should he be staying here in filth and 

 squalor alone, with, as his only symbol of hu- 

 man companionship, a human skull, that 

 adorned a stump at the entrance of his tent — 

 gazing at you disturbingly through its ghostly 

 orbits — till as I reached for it the old man cau- 

 tioned me to be careful and handle with care, 

 as he prized it very much, stating that he had 

 " found it right over yonder," representing, 

 as he supposed, some poor fellow who had 

 wandered into the mountains and perished. 



Being anxious to learn something of his life, 

 we persuaded him as he sat on a log eating his 

 raw venison and drinking his tea brewed from 

 herbs amid his grewsome associations (deer 

 horns, jaw-bones, and hoofs being thrown 

 promiscuously about his circular yard within 

 its stake-and-rider fence) to tell us of himself. 

 And the grizzled, unkempt creature told the 

 following story: "Well, many, many years 

 ago I lived in the Sunny South, and practised 

 medicine among the inhabitants of a small vil- 

 lage in southern Georgia. I was engaged to 



