Cherokee Phoenix and Indians' Advocate
Wednesday, August 19, 1829
Vol. II, no. 20
Page 2, col. 3b.

 It would be a pity not to preserve the following antedote, which displays so much accuracy of observation, which is known to be characteristic of our red brethren at the West:
 An Indian upon his return home to his hut one day discovered that his venison, which had been hung up to dry, was stolen.  After making observations upon the spot, he set off in pursuit of the thief, whom he tracked through the woods.  After going some distance, he met some persons, of whom he inquired, if they had not seen a little, old, white man, with a short gun and accompanied by a small dog, with a bob tail!  They replied in the affirmative & upon the Indian assuring them that the man thus described had stolen his venison, they desired to be informed how he was able to give such a minute description of a person whom he had not seen.  The Indian answered thus:  "The thief I know is a little man, by his having made a pile of stones to stand upon in order to reach the venison from the height I hung it, standing on the ground; that he is an old man I know by his short steps, which I have traced over the dead leaves in the woods; and that he is a white man I know by his short steps, which I have traced over the dead leaves in the woods; and that he is a white man, I know by his turning out his toes when he walks, which an Indian never does.  His gun I know to be short, by the mark which the muzzle made by rubbing the bark of the tree on which it leaned; that his dog is small, I knew by his tracks; and that he has a bob tail I discovered by the mark it made in the dust where he was sitting at the time his master was taking down the meat.

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