The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1876-11-02
Watching a Dead Body iIl the Wttds
of the AdirOnddckS.

The stories of guides and trappers of |
the Adirondack region have proved rich
mines to Mr.. Murray. One of the most
powerful of these narratives is that of an
old trapper depicting his experience in
protecting a dead body from the beasts
of prey by night:
"Well, Henry, 1 took my stand at the
foot of the bier, and kept my death
watch, rifle in hand, steady as a sentry
en- duty, ave when 1 stirred the fire or
lighted a pine knot. For the animals
Uneasy, as they always is when a
corpse is round, and 1 needed the pine
knots more than once, and some of the
varmints got the tech of lead and the
smell of powder that night, 1 tell ye, for
they was full of their devilments, and
made me and the hound as wakeful as if
we were surrounded by inimies."
"Did you really have to kill anything~
1 asked, speaking for the first time in an
hour; for the Old Trapper had toldh i
story with such naturalness of information
and gesture that he had held me SPELL
bound by his narrative-for no one
could hear him tell the strange tale he
was telling and not be carried along by
the movement of it-and now that he
was evidently reaching the climax, /
feared l should miss some details of his
experience which being omitted would
mar the narration, so, hoping to hold his
u~tterance to the line of actual occurrence,
1 said, "Did you have to kill anything,
that night"
"WeH, yis, 1 did," he replied. 81
bored a hole through a dog wolf over
there on the beach, after 1 had borne his
onnateral howlin' as long as a mortal
could; and 1 dropped a cat from that
dead cedar there, arter me and the hound
had stood the stare ofher eyes ten minit'
or more, and about two in the mornin' {
litter of panthers crawled in on us onti
the bush seemed alive with 'em, and
lifted the scalp of the biggest of thu
drove, arter he had got within forty fee
of the corpse, and paid no more attention
to brands 1 pitched at him than if the!
were tufts of sod; SO with a pine kno
all afire in one hand to show me tn
sights, / drove the lead in between hi
internal eyes in a style that taught Zen
all manners for the rest of the watch
Yis, Henry, we had a solemn and livel,
time of it, for %sartin, that night, and a
times it looked as if there would be n
funeral the next day; leastways, non
that me and the hound would attind
onless we made n for ourselves; bu
we stood to our post, and between tn
brands and the lead and the help of til
Lord VIZ brought the body through SAT
till sunrise.
"But it was mighty solemn watchil
by the body all by myself in the depth
of the woods here that night; for 6
times the animals would make the al
roar and scream, and the mountain
yelp as if the upper world was inhabite
with cats and wolves and panthers, an
then they would suddenly become quie
and the world round about was nothil
+ but silence, with the neon shinil
through it and the dead mans face W;
white as the moon and still as the al
for his troubles was over and the marks
them passed from his teatur when h
breath went away. And 50 mt and th
hound kept our watch by the dead ii
the sun riz in the east and the hour ha
l come for the funeral"