ur buckets of cold water on it. That
keeps the tail down (unlike a horse, which cannot kick when his tail is
up); but when his tail goes up, then look out! The skunk is also more
dreaded by the cowboy and the frontiers-man than the rattlesnake. It is
their belief that a bite from this creature will always convey
hydrophobia. Being a night prowler it frequents cow camps, and often
crawls over the beds spread on the ground, and it certainly has a habit
of biting any exposed part of the human body. When it does so, the
bitten man at once starts off to Texas, where at certain places one can
hire the use of a madstone. The madstone is popularly supposed to be an
accretion found somewhere in the system of a white stag. It is of a
porous nature, and if applied to a fresh wound will extract and absorb
the poison serum. Texans swear that it "sticks" only if there be poison
present--does not stick otherwise. A fanciful suggestion! And yet, no
doubt, the skunk does sometimes convey hydrophobia through its bite. I
have myself often had the pleasant experience of feeling and knowing
that a skunk was crawling over my carefully-covered-up body. But enough
of this very objectionable creature.

In Texas some of the boys used to carry in their pockets a piece of
"rattlesnake root," which when scraped and swallowed after a bite was
held to be an antidote, though otherwise a virulent poison.

In this placid land of ours, so free of pests, mosquitoes, fleas and
leeches, we are also free of the true skunk; but we do have, as perhaps
you are aware, a small creature armed and protected in much the same
way. This is the bombardier-beetle, common in certain other countries,
but also found in England, which if chased will discharge from its stern
a puff of bluish-white smoke, accompanied by a slight detonation. It can
fire many shots from its stern chasers. It is said that a highly
volatile liquid is secreted by glands, which when it meets the air
passes into vapour so suddenly as to produce the explosion.

The Mexicans of the United States deserve more than a passing notice.
Many of them have Indian blood and are called Greasers, but the majority
are of fairly pure Spanish descent. Contact with the Americans has made
them vicious and treacherous. They have been robbed of their lands,
their cattle and their horses, bullied and ill-treated in every possible
way. But even now many of them retain their character, almost universal
amongst their com