in a shoulder-holster concealed under the
coat or vest or shirt. Most mountaineers are good shots with such arms,
though not so deadly quick as the frontiersmen of our old-time West--in
fact, they cannot be so quick without wearing the weapon exposed. When a
highlander has time, he prefers to hold his pistol in both hands (left
clasped over right) and aims it as he would a rifle. To a Westerner such
gun practice looks absurd; but it is accurate, beyond question. Few
mountain gun-fights fail to score at least one victim.

The average mountain woman is as combative in spirit as her menfolk. She
would despise any man who took insult or injury without showing fight.
In fact, the woman, in many cases, deliberately stirs up trouble out of
vanity, or for the sheer excitement of it. Some of the older women
display the ferocity of she-wolves. The mother of a large family said in
my presence, with the calm earnestness of one fully experienced: "If a
feller 'd treated me the way ------ did ------ I'd git me a
forty-some-odd and shoot enough meat off o' his bones to feed a
hound-dog a week." Three of this woman's brothers had been shot dead in
frays. One of them killed the first husband of her sister, who married
again, and whose second husband was killed by a man with whom she then
tried a third matrimonial venture. Such matters may not be interesting
in themselves, but they give one pause when he learns, in addition, that
these people are received as friends and on a footing of equality by
everybody in their community.

That the mountaineers are fierce and relentless in their feuds is beyond
denial. A warfare of bushwhacking and assassination knows no
refinements. Quarter is neither given nor expected. Property, however,
is not violated, and women are not often injured. There have been some
atrocious exceptions. In the Hatfield-McCoy feud, Cap Hatfield and Tom
Wallace attacked the latter's wife and her mother at night, dragged both
women from bed, and Cap beat the old woman with a cow's tail that he had
clipped off "jes' to see 'er jump." He broke two of the woman's ribs,
leaving her injured for life, while Tom beat his wife. Later, on New
Year's night, 1888, a gang of the Hatfields surrounded the home of
Randolph McCoy, killed the eldest daughter, Allaphare, broke her
mother's ribs and knocked her senseless with their guns, and killed a
son, Calvin. In several instances women who fought in defense of their
homes have been kille