Page:Scouting for girls, adapted from Girl guiding.djvu/126

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How to Hide Yourself.—When you want to observe wild animals you have to stalk them, that is, creep up to them without their seeing or smelling you.

A hunter when he is stalking wild animals keeps himself entirely hidden, so does the war scout when watching or looking for the enemy; a policeman does not catch pickpockets by standing about in uniform watching for them; he dresses like one of the crowd, and as often as not gazes into a shop window and sees all that goes on behind him reflected as if in a looking-glass.

If a guilty person finds himself being watched, it puts him on his guard, while an innocent person becomes annoyed. So, when you are observing people, don't do so by openly staring at them, but notice the details you want to at one glance or two, and if you want to study them more, walk behind them; you can learn just as much from a back view, in fact more than you can from a front view, and, unless they are scouts and look round frequently, they do not know that you are observing them.

War scouts and hunters stalking game always carry out two important things when they don't want to be seen.

Background.—One is—they take care that the ground behind them, or trees, or buildings, etc., are of the same color as their clothes.

And the other is—if an enemy or a deer is seen looking for them, they remain perfectly still without moving so long as he is there.

"Freezing."—In that way a scout, even though he is