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" PLAYING 'possum. 



wounded by his pursuer's gun. If you think him really 

 dead, and turn aside your gaze, or throw him carelessly 

 into your game-bag, he Avatches for a favourable oppor- 

 tunity, and is off and away when of course you are least 

 prepared. In this stratagem has originated the popular 



X 



proverbial phrase in the United States of " playing 'pos- 

 sum,'*' which is identical in meaning with the English 

 "shamming Abraham," and the French "faire le mort." 

 Touch his head ever so lightly — so lightly that the touch 

 would not kill a fly — and he immediately stretches out his 

 limbs with all the rigidity of a corpse : in a word, he 



