Our heroic females have sometimes
shot them under such circumstances. The smell of burning assafoetida
has a remarkable effect upon this animal. If a fire be made in the
woods, and a portion of this drug thrown into it, so as to saturate the
atmosphere with the odour, the wolves, if any are within the reach of
the scent, immediately assemble around, howling in the most mournful
manner; and such is the remarkable fascination under which they seem to
labour, that they will often suffer themselves to be shot down rather
than quit the spot. Of the very few instances of their attacking human
beings of which we have heard, the following may serve to give some idea
of their habits. In very early times, a Negro man was passing in the
night in the lower part of Kentucky from one settlement to another. The
distance was several miles, and the country over which he travelled
entirely unsettled. In the morning, his carcass was found entirely
stripped of flesh. Near it lay his axe, covered with blood, and all
around, the bushes were beaten down, the ground trodden, and the number
of foot-tracks so great, as to show that the unfortunate victim had
fought long and manfully.
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