BUFFALO HUNTING. 209 
that for expression would have done credit to rival 
belles, we lounged upon the skins upon the ground. 
It is needless for us to say what were our ideas of 
the “men,” soon to make their appearance. Buffalo 
hunters were, of course, tall, fine-looking fellows—active 
as cats—mounted upon wild steeds—armed with terri- 
ble rifles, and all the paraphernalia of the hunter’s art. 
The Dutch angels, that figure so conspicuously on 
many a gem of art in the “ Lowlands,” are certainly not 
farther removed from the beautiful creations of Milton, 
than were the buffalo hunters that we saw from the 
standard our imagination and reading had conjured up. 
- Two short, ill-formed men finally appeared, whose 
bow-legs, formidable shocks of red hair, clothes of skin, 
and shuffling gaits, were the realities of our poetical 
conceptions. 
Whatever might have been the charms of their faces, 
our admiration was absorbed in viewing their nether 
garments. They were made of undressed deer-skin, the 
hair worn outside. When first made, they were. evi- 
dently of the length of pantaloons, but the drying quali- 
ties of the sun had, in course of time, no doubt imper- 
ceptibly to the wearers, shortened them into the dignity 
of breeches. To see these worthies standing up was be- 
yond comparison ridiculous. They seemed to have had 
immense pommels fastened to their knees and seats. 
Under other circumstances, the tailor craft of the 
frontier would have elicited great merriment ; but a 
