y. What is it Scott says--I am not sure that
I quote him rightly--

"When men in distant forests meet,
They pass not as in peaceful street."

And, with the best of good humour, I rounded my lips into a smile, and
got ready my salutation. To account somewhat for its effect when
uttered, I must premise that my own personal appearance, at this time,
was rather wild and impressive. My face was full of laughter and my
manners of buoyancy. My hair was very long, and fell in masses upon my
shoulder, unrestrained by the cap which I habitually wore, and which,
as I was riding under heavy shade trees, was grasped in my hand along
with my riding whip. As the stranger drew nigh, the arm was extended,
cap and whip lifted in air, and with free, generous lungs, I
shouted--"good morning, my friend,--how wags the world with you to-day?"

The effect of this address was prodigious. The fellow gave no
answer,--not a word, not a syllable--not the slightest nod of the
head,--_mais, tout au contraire_. But for the dilating of his amazed
pupils, and the dropping of the lower jaw, his features might have been
chiselled out of stone. They wore an expression amounting to
consternation, and I could see that he caught up his bridle with
increased alertness, bent himself to the saddle, half drew up his
horse, and then, as if suddenly resolved, edged him off, as closely as
the woods would allow, to the opposite side of the road. The
undergrowth was too thick to allow of his going into the wood at the
spot where we encountered, or he certainly would have done so.
Somewhat surprised at this, I said something, I cannot now recollect
what, the effect of which was even more impressive upon him than my
former speech. The heads of our horses were now nearly parallel--the
road was an ordinary wagon track, say twelve feet wide--I could have
brushed him with my cap as we passed, and, waving it still aloft, he
seemed to fancy that such was my intention,--for, inclining his whole
body on the off side of his nag, as the Comanche does when his aim is
to send an arrow at his enemy beneath his neck--his heels thrown back,
though spurless, were made to belabour with the most surprising
rapidity the flanks of his drowsy animal. And, not without some
effect. The creature dashed first into a trot, then into a canter, and
finally into a gallop, which, as I was bound one way and he the other,
soon threw a considerable space between us.

"The fellow's