tance. They are of a character scarce deserving a glance from the
passing traveller. He would deem it little worth while to turn his eyes
towards a pack of prairie wolves, much less go in chase of them.

With vultures soaring above, he might be more disposed to hesitate, and
reflect. The foul birds and filthy beasts seen consorting together,
would be proof of prey--that some quarry had fallen upon the plain.
Perhaps, a stricken stag, a prong-horn antelope, or a wild horse
crippled by some mischance due to his headlong nature?

Believing it any of these, the traveller would reloosen his rein, and
ride onward,--leaving the beasts and birds to their banquet.

There is no traveller passing over the prairie in question--no human
being upon it. Nothing like life, save the coyotes grouped over the
ground, and the buzzards swooping above.

They are not unseen by human eye. There is one sees--one who has reason
to fear them.

Their eager excited movements tell them to be anticipating a repast; at
the same time, that they have not yet commenced it.

Something appears in their midst. At intervals they approach it: the
birds swoopingly from heaven, the beasts crouchingly along the earth.
Both go close, almost to touching it; then suddenly withdraw, starting
back as in affright!

Soon again to return; but only to be frayed as before. And so on, in a
series of approaches, and recessions.

What can be the thing thus attracting, at the same time repelling them?
Surely no common quarry, as the carcase of elk, antelope, or mustang?
It seems not a thing that is dead. Nor yet looks it like anything
alive. Seen from a distance it resembles a human head. Nearer, the
resemblance is stronger. Close up, it becomes complete. Certainly, it
_is_ a human head--_the head of a man_!

Not much in this to cause surprise--a man's head lying upon a Texan
prairie! Nothing, whatever, if scalpless. It would only prove that
some ill-starred individual--traveller, trapper, or hunter of wild
horses--has been struck down by Comanches; afterwards beheaded, and
scalped.

But this head--if head it be--is _not_ scalped. It still carries its
hair--a fine chevelure, waving and profuse. Nor is it lying upon the
ground, as it naturally should, after being severed from the body, and
abandoned. On the contrary, it stands erect, and square, as if still on
the shoulders from which it has been separated; the neck underneath, the
chin just touchi