he simple nobility of the
pioneer's nature. Many of the qualities which, in him, had been merely
passive, in the ranger became fierce and active. We have alluded, for
example, to his hatred of the Indian; and this, habit soon strengthened
and exaggerated. Nothing marks that change so plainly as his adoption of
the barbarous practice of scalping enemies.

For this there might be some little palliation in the fact, that the
savage never considered a warrior overcome, though he were killed,
unless he lost his scalp; and so long as he could bring off the dead
bodies of his comrades, not mutilated by the process, he was but
partially intimidated. Defeat was, in that case, converted to a sort of
triumph; and having gone within one step of victory--for so this
half-success was estimated--was the strongest incentive to a renewal of
the effort. It might be, therefore, that the ranger's adoption of the
custom was a measure of self-defence. But it is to be feared that this
consideration--weak as it is, when stated as an excuse for cruelty so
barbarous--had but little influence in determining the ranger. Adopting
the code of the savage, the practice soon became a part of his warfare;
and the taking of the scalp was a ceremony necessary to the completion
of his victory. It was a bloody and inhuman triumph--a custom, which
tended, more forcibly than any other, to degrade true courage to mere
cruelty; and which, while it only mortified the savage, at the same
time, by rendering his hatred of the white men more implacable,
aggravated the horrors of Indian warfare. But the only measure of
justice in those days, was the _lex talionis_--"An eye for an eye," a
scalp for a scalp; and, even now, you may hear frontiermen justify,
though they do not practise it, by quoting the venerable maxim, "Fight
the devil with fire."

But, though the warfare of the ranger was sometimes distinguished by
cruelty, it was also ennobled by features upon which it is far more
pleasant to dwell.

No paladin, or knight, of the olden times, ever exhibited more wild,
romantic daring, than that which formed a part of the ranger's daily
action. Danger, in a thousand forms, beset him at every step--he defied
mutilation, death by fire and lingering torture. The number of his
enemies, he never counted, until after he had conquered them--the power
of the tribe, or the prowess of the warrior, was no element in his
calculations. Where he could strike first and most eff