A hanged man hung overnight in the very tree above her lodging

Evidence

Did I know that a man was “strung” there yesterday? Had I not seen him hanging? He was on the big tree by the house, they said. Certainly, had I know what a ghastly burden that tree bore, I would have encountered the ice and gloom of the gulch rather than have slept there. — Isabella L. Bird, A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains, 198

Categorization

• FICTION: Sleeping unknowingly beneath a gallows tree that bore a corpse the previous day is a haunting image for a story about obliviousness to hidden violence.