FRESCOES FROM THE PAST. 25
down, which was all over ribbons, and says, * You lay thar tell his aufferins
is over.'
Then he jumped up in the air and cracked his neels together again and
shouted out—
< Whoo-oop! I'm the old original iron-jawed, brass-mounted, copper-
bellied corpse-maker from the wilds of Arkansaw!—Look at me ! Pm
the man they call Sudden Death and General Desolation! Sired by a
hurricane, dam'd by an earthquake, half-brother to the cholera, nearly related
to the small-pox on the mother's side I Look at me! I take nineteen alli-
gators and a barl of whiskey for breakfast when I'm in robust health, and
a bushel of rattlesnakes and a dead body when I'm ailing 1 I split the
everlasting rocks with my glance, and I squench the thunder when I speak I
Whoo-oop! Stand back and give me room according to my strength !
Blood's my natural drink, and the wails of the dying is music to my ear !
Cast your eye on me, gentlemen !—and lay low and bold your breath, for I'm
bout to turn myself loose!?
All the time he was getting this off, he was shaking his head and
looking fierce, and kind of swelling around in a little circle, tucking up his
wrist-bands, and now and then straightening up and beating his breast with
his fist, saying, * Look at me, gentlemen!' When he got through, he
jumped up and cracked his heels together three times, and let off a roaring
< whoo-oop! I'm the bloodiest son of a wildcat that lives !'
Then the man that had started the row tilted his old slouch hat down
over his right eye; then he bent stooping forward, with his back sagged and
his south end sticking out far, and his fists a-shoving out and drawing in in
front of him, and so went around in a little circle about three times, swelling
himself up and breathing hard. Then he straightened, and jumped up and
cracked his heels together three times, before he lit again (that made them
cheer), and he begun to shout like this—
* "Whoo-oop! bow .your neck and spread, for the kingdom of sorrow's
a-coming! Hold me down to the earth, for I feel my powers a-working I
whoo-oop! I'm a child of sin, dovCt let me get a start! Smoked glass,
here, for all! Don't attempt to look at me with the naked eye, gentlemen!
When I'm playful I use the meridians of longitude and parallels of latitude
for a seine, and drag the Atlantic Ocean for whales ! I scratch my head
with the lightning, and purr myself to sleep with the thunder I When Pm
cold, I bile the Gulf of Mexico and bathe in it; when I'm hot I fen myself
with an equinoctial storm; when I'm thirsty I reach up and suck a cloud
dry like a sponge; when I range the earth hungry, famine follows in my
tracks! Whoo-oop 1 Bow your neck and spread! I put my hand on the
sun's face and make it night in the earth; I bite a piece out of the moon
and hurry the seasons; I shake myself and crumble the mountains I Con-