AND OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. 323 



necessary for them to lay out on the open prairie for 

 several days and nights together, perhaps in cold, 

 rough weather, with no other food or bedding than 

 they can carry on their saddle. 



The slang of the fraternity is highly amusing to 

 a stranger. It is decidedly crisp, racy, and express- 

 ive. Words are coined or adopted into their ver- 

 nacular that will convey their meaning with the 

 greatest possible force and precision. In addition 

 to the few illustrations already given in this sketch 

 there are many others that would be utterly unin- 

 telligible to an Eastern man unless translated. For 

 instance, when they brand an animal they put the 

 "jimption" to him; when they want a hot drink 

 they say " put some jimption in it"; when they 

 warm up a horse with the spurs or quirt they "fan" 

 him; when they throw lead from a six-shooter or a 

 Winchester after a flying coyote they "fan" him. 

 And "goose hair " ever sleep on goose hair? This 

 is a favorite term for any kind of a "soft snap." 

 When they want to ridicule a tenderfoot, and espe- 

 cially one who is fond of good living, they say " he 

 wants a goose-hair bed to sleep on " ; when a cow- 

 boy is in luck he is described as having ' ' a goose- 

 hair pillar," or as " sleepin' with the boss," or as 

 "ridin' ten horses," etc. Altogether, cowboys are a 

 whole-souled, large-hearted, generous clas of fel- 

 lows, whom it is a genuine pleasure to ride, eat, and 

 associate with, and it is safe to say that nine-tenths 

 of the hard things that have been said of them have 

 come from men who never knew, intimately, a single 

 one of them. 



I contend that a year spent on the hurricane deck 



