un THE FATHER OF GAME 57 
is unterrified by it, and will do its best to catch and 
eat it. One shot usually ends the matter, but 
should the puma be wounded, but not crippled, it 
is likely to charge with tremendous force and fury, 
and become an exceedingly dangerous antagonist. 
The hide is of no great value, though a favorite 
material among the Indians of the Southwest for 
bow and gun cases, perhaps with a half-supersti- 
tious idea that the skin of so mighty a hunter is 
peculiarly suited to such a purpose. The flesh 
(usually boiled) is eaten by all Indians, and is not 
despised by white men, since it is white and tender, 
with the taste and appearance, when roasted, of 
young pig. The fat of the panther is the most satis- 
fying food of the Argentine desert, supplying the 
craving felt by the nomads of the Pampas for 
those nutritive elements elsewhere furnished by 
vegetable food, there so scarce. 
Not many myths of the red men have clustered 
about this animal, despite its great size and strength, 
a fact perhaps due to the absence in it of attractive 
mental qualities. The cougar leaves little to the 
imagination. Clavigero’s “ History of Lower Cali- 
fornia” informs us that 150 years ago that prov- 
ince was so overrun with “lions” that the natives 
were kept in absolute subjection to the brutes, 
and were often glad to make a meal from the 
remains of their prey. This unchecked increase 
was owing to a superstition which prevented the 
Indians from killing a puma or even disturbing it 
