THE BEE-HUNTER. i8i 



barrels of honey, he rolls them down the bluft river-bank 

 and into his boat, and paddling his cargo off to the nearest 

 settlement, returns with a barrel of flour, powder, lead, or 

 any necessaries he may be in need of. If he has settled 

 upon one of the larger streams where the great river steam- 

 boats ply, such as the Mississippi, he generally trades with 

 the captain of some boat, thereby saving his time, yet 

 perhaps at a slight sacrifice, as the captain will expect to 

 make a little by the trade, though the freight on his own 

 boat will be nothing, and the better price the honey will 

 command at New Orleans will leave the skipper a fair 

 margin for profit. 



The " Father of Waters," as the Mississippi has been 

 poetically named, is a very bad translation of its true 

 meaning. The name is derived from the once most 

 powerful tribe of the South-west, the Choctaws, and in 

 their language the two adjectives, Missah and Sippah, 

 when separate, are used constantly to qualify the most 

 familiar things ; but when compounded they serve to give 

 the characteristic name to this immense river — Missah, 

 old, big ; sippah, strong — Old-Big-Strong. 



The difference between a bee-hunter and an ordinary 

 man strikes the observer at once. Relying upon the 

 qualities of his mind, he has a profound contempt for the 

 mere adornment of his person. An old battered sombrero, 

 whose broad brim shades his eyes, graces his head ; a blue 

 and white striped hickory shirt, unfastened at the throat, 

 and indeed not buttoned anywhere, hangs negligently on 

 his shoulders ; coat or waistcoat is dispensed with altogether, 

 whilst his "unmentionables" are of deer-skin, stained 

 about equally with dirt and honey, and, if of less durable 

 materials, are fringed with numberless ribbons, giving 

 evidence of many a briar and brake that he has plunged 

 heedlessly through when his eye has been intent on " lining" 

 some bee to its nest. 



