IN THE FAR WEST. 93 



to attack the prowler, and the result was that the dead animal 

 paid the usual forfeit of heedless bravery. We were aroused at 

 daylight the next morning by the yelping of the dogs again, 

 and on rushing out found that they were barking at a number 

 of Digger Indians, who were moving past the house towards 

 a large piece of woods half a mile away. When we appeared 

 on the scene one of the men approached the fence, and taking 

 off his nether garment, the only one which he wore, except a 

 battered, crownless, tall hat, or " chimney-pot/' as it is known 

 in portions of the West, he handed it over to Mr. V , and 

 with the simple word " keep/' and some pantomimic gestures, 

 he gave him to understand that he wished it kept until it was 

 called for. Mr. V took it grudgingly, and holding it as far 

 away from his person as possible, told the owner that his wishes 

 should be complied with, and the Digger started away in lighter 

 costume than that worn by the famous Georgia Colonel, and 

 that consisted of only a spur and a paper collar. After break- 

 fast, my host and myself armed ourselves, and calling the dogs 

 together, we started on the trail of the cougar. The morning 

 being fine, and the dew still on the ground, the two harriers 

 that formed a portion of the small pack had little difficulty in 

 following up the trail as far as a glade in the copse, but they 

 lost it there. When we emerged on this, we saw fifty or sixty 

 Indians engaged in collecting brushwood and decaying felled 

 trees, and making a large pile of them. On approaching the red 

 men V asked them what they were about, but no one answered. 

 Thinking that they were preparing for a grand feast, and that 

 they had, perhaps, called on his farmyard for some tender 

 chickens or turkeys, he moved towards the spot where their 

 provisions were placed, and, after scanning them closely, saw 

 a portion of the shoat he had lost the night before. 



Forgetting, for the moment, all idea of what he had been 

 hunting during the morning, he began to rail at the Indians 

 as thieves, and to assert that it was they who had stolen the 

 pigs and sheep he had lately lost, while he was blaming it all 

 on cougars. The man who had given him the trowsers for 

 safe keeping, on seeing him pull out the remnants of the pig 

 whose body was drained of every drop of blood, approached 



