It was,
only at moments, however, as some slight impediment opposed itself to
his loitering progress, that his person, which, in its ordinary gait
seemed so lounging and nerveless, displayed any of those energies,
which lay latent in his system, like the slumbering and unwieldy, but
terrible, strength of the elephant. The inferior lineaments of his
countenance were coarse, extended and vacant; while the superior, or
those nobler parts which are thought to affect the intellectual being,
were low, receding and mean.
The dress of this individual was a mixture of the coarsest vestments
of a husbandman with the leathern garments, that fashion as well as
use, had in some degree rendered necessary to one engaged in his
present pursuits. There was, however, a singular and wild display of
prodigal and ill judged ornaments, blended with his motley attire. In
place of the usual deer-skin belt, he wore around his body a tarnished
silken sash of the most gaudy colours; the buck-horn haft of his knife
was profusely decorated with plates of silver; the marten's fur of his
cap was of a fineness and shadowing that a queen might covet; the
buttons of his rude and soiled blanket-coat were of the glittering
coinage of Mexico; the stock of his rifle was of beautiful mahogany,
riveted and banded with the same precious metal, and the trinkets of
no less than three worthless watches dangled from different parts of
his person.
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