A hunter's life. 287 



his horn, to notify the old gentleman to attend to his 

 papers. The latter made a great bustle, and attended to 

 his business, after which there was but little of the night 

 left for sleep. However, we laid in bed in the morning 

 until the cook called us up to breakfast ; and after dis- 

 posing of that meal, the panther's skin was again reviewed, 

 and the many mischievous acts recounted which his tribe, 

 and perhaps himself, had done within the old gentleman's 

 knowledge, such as killing deer, hogs, cattle, and sheep, 

 and on one occasion a man. 



Mr. Calmes then related the following thrilling story. 

 He said that when he was a young man, and the Indians 

 were very troublesome, a party of young men started from 

 Virginia to travel to Kentucky. In passing through the 

 wilderness, from the many trails they had seen of the In- 

 dians in those parts, they were one night afraid to keep a 

 fire burning, for fear the prowling savages might see the 

 light, and attack them by surprise ; so they only let their 

 fire burn until their supper was cooked, then smothered it, 

 and laid down in the dark. After awhile, some of the 

 party hearing an animal moving near them, they all seized 

 their guns and rose up, when, as it ran off, they found that 

 it was either a wolf or a panther. After the excitement 

 subsided, they all laid down again to sleep ; and one per- 

 son lying with his head exposed to the outside of the camp, 

 either a panther or a wolf, they could not tell which, crept 

 up stealthily, and bit him so severely about the head, that 

 he died before day-break, without speaking a word. In 

 the morning the rest of the party sharpened sticks, dug a 

 hole in the ground, laid the corpse in, threw some bark 

 over it, covered it with what dirt they could get, on which 

 they piled old logs, to keep the animals ofi", and so left 

 their poor comrade. Mr. Calmes said he had no doubt, if 

 that devil had been hungry, and found a man in the woods 

 by himself, he would have fallen on him and killed him. 



