court was held in a double log cabin, the grand jury sat upon a log in
the woods, and the foreman signed the bills of indictment, which I had
prepared, upon his knee; there was not a petit juror that had shoes
on; all wore moccasins, and were belted around the waist, and carried
side-knives used by the hunters." Yet amidst all this apparent
savagery we see justice was done, and the law vindicated even against
the bitterest prejudices of these pioneer jurymen.

[Sidenote: Lamon, p. 44.]

They were full of strange superstitions. The belief in witchcraft had
long ago passed away with the smoke of the fagots from old and New
England, but it survived far into this century in Kentucky and the
lower halves of Indiana and Illinois--touched with a peculiar tinge of
African magic. The pioneers believed in it for good and evil. Their
veterinary practice was mostly by charms and incantations; and when a
person believed himself bewitched, a shot at the image of the witch
with a bullet melted out of a half-dollar was the favorite curative
agency. Luck was an active divinity in their apprehension, powerful
for blessing or bane, announced by homely signs, to be placated by
quaint ceremonies. A dog crossing the hunter's path spoiled his day,
unless he instantly hooked his little fingers together, and pulled
till the animal disappeared. They were familiar with the ever-
recurring mystification of the witch-hazel, or divining-rod; and the
"cure by faith" was as well known to them as it has since become in a
more sophisticated state of society. The commonest occurrences were
heralds of death and doom. A bird lighting in a window, a dog baying
at certain hours, the cough of a horse in the direction of a child,
the sight, or worse still, the touch of a dead snake, heralded
domestic woe. A wagon driving past the house with a load of baskets