MD3PAD 343-345

[Toby G Levy]

        The proprietor of the Dutch Rifle tavern asks why would two
surveyors looking for work be asking questions about the indian
massacre.  Dixon says it is of interest to all men of science.

        The men of Lancaster attempt to defend the actions of the Paxton
boys. They claim to be a line of defense before the city of
Philadelphia. They claim to be extracting an eye for an eye and now the
debt is settled.

        Dixon asks what the men are smoking and he is told that since
tobacco is scarce, they smoke twisted cigars called stogies. The smoker
blows a smoke ring that has one side and one edge. In a brief
parenthesis, Wicks is challenged on this point by his audience.

        It soon becomes clear that Mason and Dixon will not be allowed
to see the site of the massacre and  they retire to their rooms to spend
a restless night. Mason contemplates the reasons for the european need
to explore and classify everything in the new world. He posits that
people are looking for the realization of mythical kingdoms, such as the
garden of eden or the fountain of youth.  He mentions Prester John,
which was a medieval legendary ruler of a lost Christian kingdom in the
orient.

Toby