Unnamed Men Who Live in the Big Bottom

Men who live in the swamp, “gaunt, malaria-ridden men” (210), appear in various combinations throughout the year to look at Lion. Many of them feel invested in Major de Spain’s attempts to hunt Old Ben, since the bear had ruined their crops or cattle. The swampers are described as those “who ran trap-lines for coons or perhaps farmed little patches of cotton and corn along the edge of the bottom, in clothes but little better than Sam Fathers’ and nowhere near as good as Tennie’s Jim’s, with worn shotguns and rifles” (210). The men come primarily to watch the hunt, not to shoot.