ody in the world.

The whole appearance of this individual was odd and striking. He was
seated on the opposite side of the fire, with his face partially turned
towards me, and his head sunk down between a pair of long lank thighs.
He looked more like the stump of a tree dressed in dirt-coloured
buckskin than a human being; and had his arms not been in motion, he
might have been mistaken for such an object. Both his arms and jaws
were moving; the latter engaged in polishing a rib of meat which he had
half roasted over the coals.

His dress--if dress it could be called--was simple as it was savage. It
consisted of what might have once been a hunting-shirt, but which now
looked more like a leathern bag with the bottom ripped open, and sleeves
sewed into the sides. It was of a dirty-brown colour, wrinkled at the
hollow of the arms, patched round the armpits, and greasy all over; it
was fairly "caked" with dirt. There was no attempt at either ornament
or fringe. There had been a cape, but this had evidently been drawn
upon from time to time for patches and other uses, until scarcely a
vestige of it remained. The leggings and moccasins were on a par with
the shirt, and seemed to have been manufactured out of the same hide.
They, too, were dirt-brown, patched, wrinkled, and greasy. They did not
meet each other, but left bare a piece of the ankle, and that also was
dirt-brown like the buckskin. There was no undershirt, waistcoat, or
other garment to be seen, with the exception of a close-fitting cap,
which had once been catskin; but the hair was all worn off, leaving a
greasy, leathery-looking surface, that corresponded well with the other
parts of the dress. Cap, shirt, leggings, and moccasins, looked as if
they had never been stripped off since the day they were first tried on,
and that might have been many a year ago. The shirt was open,
displaying the naked breast and throat; and these, as well as the face,
hands, and ankles, had been tanned by the sun and smoked by the fire to
the hue of rusty copper. The whole man, clothes and all, looked as if
he had been smoked on purpose.

His face bespoke a man of sixty, or thereabout; his features were sharp,
and somewhat aquiline; and the small eyes were dark, quick, and
piercing. His hair was black, and cut short; his complexion had been
naturally brunette, though there was nothing of the Frenchman or
Spaniard in his physiognomy. He was more likely of the black-Saxo