308 WILD SCENES AND WILD HUNTERS. 



" Did you bring in a deer, Molly ?" 



"Yes!" 



"Is it cold?" 



" All but the hams !" 



" Then skin them, and wrap the warm parts of the skin 

 around the bruised limb !" 



" Yes, I know !" and she turned off, while he resumed his 

 labor. 



"Well !" thought I, "this is a case ! Here I am about to 

 be enveloped in a reeking deer-skin, warm from the carcass, 

 by these wild cannibals. I wish the infernal tornado had 

 finished me. I have heard of such usages, but they horrify 

 me !" I felt most like getting up to run away, but there in 

 terposed the sad difficulty that I was unable to rise. Aftei 

 several ineffectual efforts, which, however, attracted no sort 

 of attention from the rapt student at the desk, and many 

 muttered anathemas against fate, fools and fanatics in gene- 

 ral, I managed to subside, in a great degree, into a cooler 

 mood, and became resigned, from sheer helplessness, to trust 

 in anything but such Providence ! as I impiously sneered to 

 myself. 



The woman came now with the warm skin ; and after some 

 remonstrance on my part, the old man was roused from his 

 absorbed labor to envelop my extremities in this novel poul- 

 tice. I afterwards found that it was extensively used among 

 the Indians, north and south, and have since learned that this 

 first step towards the "pack" of wet sheet and blanket, claimed 

 to be invented by Priessnitz, is one of the oldest uses of our 

 race, and still practiced with wonderful effect in China, Russia, 

 Germany, &c., by the lower classes, and sometimes by the 

 higher, as was the case once with Murat, when he was crushed 

 almost into a jelly by the fall of his horse down a precipice. 



He was enveloped by his wise physician, in the hide of an 

 ox, which was killed for the purpose, and after a long sleep, 

 recovered, with nearly all trace of his bruises gone. I was not 



