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For over thirty years I have been giving the talks and demonstrations that are gathered together in this book. Many of them have appeared in magazines or in the "Birch-Bark Roll" that has come out annually for eighteen years. But this is the first time in which a comprehensive collection has been made of the activities, customs, laws, and amusements that have been developed in my camps.
Some of the related subjects I have treated at too great length for enclosure in one book. Of this class are the "Life Histories of Northern Animals," "Animal Stories," and "Sign Language," which appear as separate works. All are merely parts of a scheme that I have always considered my life work, namely, the development or revival of Woodcraft as a school for Manhood.
By Woodcraft I mean outdoor life in its broadest sense and the plan has ever been with me since boyhood.
Woodcraft is the first of all the sciences. It was Woodcraft that made man out of brutish material, and Woodcraft in its highest form may save him from decay.
As the model for outdoor life in this country I took the Indian, and have thus been obliged to defend him against the calumnies of those who coveted his possessions. In giving these few historical extracts to show the Indian character, it must be remembered that I could give hundreds, and that practically all the travelers who saw with their own eyes are of one mind in the matter.
Commissioner Robert G. Valentine, of the Indian Bureau, the first Indian
Commissioner we have ever had who knew and sympathized with the Indians, writes
after reading my manuscript:
THIS is a time when the whole nation is turning toward the Outdoor Life, seeking in it the physical regeneration so needful for continued national existence—is waking to the fact long known to thoughtful men that those live longest who live nearest to the ground —that is who live the simple life of primitive times, divested however, of the evils that ignorance in those times begot.
Consumption, the white man's plague since he has become a house race, is vanquished by the sun and air and many ills of the mind also are forgotten when the sufferer boldly takes to the life in tents.
Half our diseases are in our minds and half in our houses. We can safely leave the rest to the physicians for treatment.
Sport is the great incentive to Outdoor Life; Nature Study is the intellectual side of the sport.
I should like to lead this whole nation into the way of living outdoors for at least a month each year, reviving and expanding a custom that as far back as Moses was deemed essential to the national well-being.
Not long ago a benevolent rich man, impressed with this idea, chartered a steamer
and took some hundreds of slum boys up to the Catskills for a day in the woods.
They were duly landed and told to "go in now and have a glorious time." It was
like gathering up a netful of catfish and
The boys sulked around and sullenly disappeared. An hour later, on being looked up, they were found in groups under the bushes, smoking cigarettes, shooting "craps," and playing cards—the only things they knew.
Thus the well-meaning rich man learned that it is not enough to take men out of doors. We much also teach them to enjoy it.
The purpose of this book is to show how Outdoor Life may be followed to advantage.
Nine leading principles are kept in view:
Camping has no great popularity to-day, because men have the idea that it is possible only after an expensive journey to the wilderness; and women that it is inconvenient, dirty, and dangerous.
These are errors. They have arisen because camping as an art is not understood. When intelligently followed, camp-life must take its place as a cheap and delightful way of living, as well as a mental and physical savior of those strained or broken by the grind of the over-busy world.
The wilderness affords the ideal camping, but many of the benefits can be got by living in a tent on a town lot, a piazza, or even a housetop.
(3) Self-government with Adult Guidance.
Control from without is a poor thing when you can get control from
within. As far as possible, then, we make these camps self- governing.
Each full member has a vote in affairs.
(4) The Magic of the Campfire. What is a camp
with- out a campfire?—no camp at all, but a chilly place in a
When first the brutal anthropoid stood up and walked erect—was man, the great event was symbolized and marked by the lighting of the first campfire.
For millions of years our race has seen in this blessed fire, the means and emblem of light, warmth, protection, friendly gathering, council. All the hallow of the ancient thoughts, hearth, fireside, home is centred in its glow, and the home-tie itself is weakened with the waning of the home-fire. Not in the steam radiator can we find the spell; not in the water coil; not even in the gas log; they do not reach the heart. Only the ancient sacred fire of wood has power to touch and thrill the chords of primitive remembrance. When men sit together at the campfire they seem to shed all modern form and poise, and hark back to the primitive—to meet as man and man—to show the naked soul. Your campfire partner wins your love, or hate, mostly your love; and having camped in peace together, is a lasting bond of union — however wide your worlds may be apart. The campfire, then, is the focal centre of all primitive brotherhood. We shall not fail to use its magic powers.
(5) Woodcraft Pursuits. Realizing that manhood, not scholarship, is the first aim of
education, we have sought out those pursuits which develop the finest
character, the finest physique, and which may be followed out of doors,
which, in a word, make for manhood.
By nearly every process of logic we are led primarily to
Woodcraft—that is, Woodcraft in a large sense—meaning every
accomplishment of an all-round Woodman—Riding, Hunting,
Camper-craft, Scouting, Mountaineering, Indian-craft, First aid,
Star-craft, Signaling, and Boating. To this we add all good Outdoor
Athletics and Sports, including Sailing and Motoring, and Nature Study,
of
Over three hundred deeds or exploits are recognized in these various departments, and the members are given decorations that show what they achieved. (Sec Woodcraft Manual.)
When two or three young people camp out, they can live as a sort of family, especially if a grown-up be with them; but when a dozen or more are of the party, it is necessary to organize.
What manner of organization will be practical, and also give full recognition to the nine principles of scouting? What form of government lends itself best to—
In my opinion, the Tribal or Indian form of organization.
Fundamentally, this is a republic or limited monarchy, and many experiments have
proved it best for our purpose. It makes its members self-governing; it offers
appropriate things to do outdoors; it is so plastic that it can be adopted
No large band of boys ever yet camped out for a month without finding it
necessary to recognize a leader, a senior form (or ruling set whose position rests on merit), some wise grown person to guide them in difficulties, and a
place to display the emblems of the camp; that is, they
have adopted the system of the Chief, Council, Medicine Man and Totem-pole.
Moreover, the Ideal Indian stands for the highest type of primitive life. He was a master of woodcraft, and unsordid, clean, manly, heroic, self-controlled, reverent, truthful, and picturesque always.
America owes much to the Redman. When the struggle for freedom came on, it was between men of the same blood and bone, equal in brains and in strength. The British had the better equipment perhaps. The great advantage of the American was that he was trained in Woodcraft, and this training which gave him the victory, he got from the Redman.
But the Redman can do a greater service now and in the future. He can teach us the ways of outdoor life, the nobility of courage, the joy of beauty, the blessedness of enough, the glory of service, the power of kindness, the super-excellence of peace of mind and the scorn of death. For these were the things that the Redman stood for; these were the sum of his faith.
NO WORLD-MOVEMENT ever yet grew as a mere doctrine. It must have some noble example; a living, appealing personality; some man to whom we can point and say, "This is what we mean." All the great faiths of the world have had such a man, and for lack of one, many great and flawless truths have passed into the lumber-room.
To exemplify my outdoor movement, I must have a man who was of this country and
climate; who was physically beautiful, clean, unsordid, high-minded, heroic,
picturesque, and a master of Woodcraft, besides which, he must be already
well-known. I would gladly have taken a man of our own race, but I could find
none. Rollo the Sea-King, King Arthur, Leif Ericsson, Robin Hood,
Leatherstocking, all suggested themselves, but none seemed to meet the
requirements, and most were mere shadows, utterly unknown. Surely, all this
pointed the same way. There was but one figure that seemed to answer all these
needs: that was the Ideal Indian of Fenimore Cooper and
Longfellow.
For this reason, I took the Native American, and called my organization
"Woodcraft Indians." And yet, I am told that the prejudice against the word
"Indian" has hurt the movement immensely. If so, it is because we do not know
what the Indian was, and this I shall make it my
We know more about the Redman to-day than ever we did. Indeed, we knew almost nothing of him twenty years ago. We had two pictures offered us; one, the ideal savage of Longfellow, the primitive man, so noble in nature that he was incapable of anything small or mean or wicked; the other was presented by those who coveted his possessions, and, to justify their robberies, they sketched the Indian as a dirty, filthy, squalid wretch, a demon of cruelty and cowardice, incapable of a human emotion, and never good till dead.
Which of these is the true picture? Let us calmly examine the pages of history, taking the words and records of Redmen and white, friends and foes of the Indian, and be prepared to render a verdict, in absolute accordance with that evidence, no matter where it leads us.
Let us begin by admitting that it is fair to take the best examples of the red race, to represent Indian philosophy and goodness; even as we ourselves would prefer being represented by Emerson, Tolstoi, Lincoln, Spencer, Peabody, General Booth, or Whitman, rather than by the border ruffians and cut-throat outlaws who were the principal exemplars of our ways among the Indians.
It is freely admitted that in all tribes, at all times, there were reprobates and scoundrels, a reproach to the people; just as amongst ourselves we have outcasts, tramps, drunkards, and criminals. But these were despised by their own people, and barely tolerated.
We must in fairness judge the Indian and his way of life and thought by the
exemplifications of his best types: Hiawatha, Wabasha I, Tshut-che-nau,
Ma-to-to-pa, Tecumseh, Kanakuk, Chief Joseph, Dull Knife, Washakie
If from these men we gather their beliefs, their teachings, and the common thoughts that guided their lives, we may fairly assume that we have outlined the creed of the best Indians.
THE INDIAN'S CREED
These are the main thoughts in the Redman's creed:
If we measure this great pagan by our Ten Command- ments, we shall find that he
accepted and obeyed them, all
These are the chief charges against the Indian:
First: He was cruel to his enemies, even torturing them
at the stake in extreme cases. He knew nothing about forgiving and loving
them.
In the main, this is true. But how much less cruel he was than the leaders of the Christian Church in the Middle Ages! What Indian massacre will compare in horror with that of St. Bartholomew's Eve or the Massacre of Glencoe? Read the records of the Inquisition, or the Queen Mary persecutions in England, or the later James II. abominations for further light!
There was no torture used by the Indians that was not also used by the Spainards. Every frontiersman of the Indian days knows that in every outbreak the whites were the aggressors; and that in every evil count—robbery, torture and massacre—they did exactly as the Indians did. "The ferocity of the Redman," says Bourke, "has been more than equaled by the ferocity of the Christian Caucasian." ("On the Border with Crook," p. 114.)
There are good grounds for stating that the Indians were cruel to their enemies,
but it is surprising to see how little of this cruelty there was in primitive
days. In most cases the enemy was killed in battle or adopted into the tribe;
very,
But we know now that the whites did use diabolical tortures in their dealings with the Indian, and deliberately and persistently misrepresented him in order to justify their own atrocities.
The whites, however, had print to state their case, while the Indians had none to
tell their story or defend them. Furthermore, it is notorious that all massacres
of Indians by the whites were accomplished by treachery in
times of peace, while all Indian massacres of whites were in time of war, to resist invasion. At present, I know
of no exception to this rule.*
In almost every case, it must be said that the army officers and men were
personally guiltless. They were impressed with the heroism of the Indians,
admired them for their bravery, were horrified by the wickedness of the orders
sent them, and did all they could to mitigate the atrocious policies of the
shameless Indian Bureau. But there were instances in which the army officers
showed themselves the willing tools of the politicians. Among the notorious
cases was the cold-blooded massacre, in 1864, by Col. J. H. Chivington, of
several hundred Cheyennes. Men, women, and children had surrendered and
disarmed, and were, indeed, at the time, under military protection. The fiendish
cruelty and cowardice of that one attack on these defenseless beings was enough
to more than justify
Still worse was the Baker massacre of Blackfeet, on January 23, 1870.
A border ruffian, a white man named Clark, had assaulted a young Indian, beating him severely, and the Indian, in retaliation, had killed Clark and gone off into Canada. Without troubling to find the guilty party, or even the band he belonged to, Brevet Col. E. M. Baker, major Second Cavalry, stationed at Fort Shaw, marched out, under orders from Gen. Philip H. Sheridan, to the nearest Indian village, on Marias River; as it happened, they were peaceable, friendly Indians, under Bear's Head. Without warning, the soldiers silently surrounded the sleeping village. But the story is better told by Schultz, who was on the spot later, and heard it all from those who saw:
In a low tone Colonel Baker spoke a few words to his men, telling them to keep cool, aim to kill, to spare none of the enemy; and then he gave the command to fire. A terrible scene ensued. On the day previous, many of the men of the camp had gone out toward the Sweetgrass Hills on a grand buffalo hunt; so, save for Chief Bear's Head and a few old men, none were there to return the soldiers' fire. Their first volley was aimed low down into the lodges, and many of the sleeping people were killed or wounded in their beds. The rest rushed out, men, children, women, many of the latter with babes in their arms, only to be shot down at the doorways of their lodges. Bear's Head, frantically waving a paper which bore testimony to his good character and friendliness tc the white men, ran toward the command on the bluff, shouting to them to cease firing, entreating them to save the women and children; down he also went with several bullet holes in his body. Of the more than four hundred souls in camp at the time, very few escaped. And when it was all over, when the last wounded woman and child had been put out of misery, the soldiers piled the corpse?
16 The Book of Woodcraft on overturned lodges, firewood and household property, and set fire to it all."Several years afterward I was on the ground. Everywhere scattered about in the long grass and brush, just where the wolves and foxes had left them, gleamed the skulls and bones of those who had been so ruthlessly slaughtered. 'How could they have done it?' I asked myself, time and time again. 'What manner of men were these soldiers who deliberately shot down defenseless women and innocent children?' They had not even the excuse of being drunk; nor was their commanding officer intoxicated; nor were they excited or in any danger whatever. Deliberately, coolly, with steady and deadly aim they shot them down, killed the wounded, and then tried to burn the bodies of their victims. But I will say no more about it. Think it over, yourself, and try to find a fit name for men who did this." ("My Life as an Indian," pp. 41-2.)
According to G. B. Grinnell, one hundred and seventy-six innocent persons were butchered on this day of shame; ninety of them women, fifty-five babies, the rest chiefly very old or very young men, most of the able-bodied hunters being away on a hunt. No punishment of any kind was given the monster who did it.
There is no Indian massacre of whites to compare with this shocking barbarity,
for at least the Indian always had the excuse thai war had
been declared, and he was acting on the defensive. Of a similar
character were the massacres at Cos Cob, 1641; Conestoga, 1763; Gnadenwhiitten,
1782; Coquille River, 1854; Wounded Knee, 1890; and a hundred more that could be
mentioned. And no punishment was ever meted out to the murderers. Why? First,
because apparently the Bureau at Washington approved; second, because "An Indian
has no legal status; he is merely a live and particularly troublesome animal in
the eye of the law." (New York Times, February 21,
1880.) (See "Century of Dishonor," p. 367.) Governor Horatio Seymour says:
"Every human being born upon our continent, or who cornea here from any quarter of the world, whether savage or civilized, can go to our courts for protection — except those who belong to the tribes who once owned this country. The cannibal from the islands of the Pacific, the worst criminals from Europe, Asia or Africa, can appeal to the law and courts for their rights of person and property — all save our native Indians, who, above all, should be protected from wrong." (Century of Dishonor," title-page.)
And this is the land whose Constitution grants equal rights to all alike. This is the land that waxes virtuously indignant when Russia expels or massacres Nihilists, Poles or Jews. Have we not enough courage left to face the simple truth that every crime of despotism in Russia has been more than doubled in atrocity by what has but recently been done in America? Nihilists, Jews and Poles were certainly breaking the law, usually plotting against the Government, when attacked. Russia never used burnings at the stake, as did the American unofficial Indian-killers. And never did Russia turn batteries of machine-guns on masses of men, women and children who were absolutely quiet, unarmed, helpless and submissive: who had indeed thrown themselves on the mercy of the Government, and were under its protection.
Americans were roused to a fury of indignation by doubtful newspaper accounts of Spanish misrule in Cuba. But the atrocities so credited to Spain pale into insignificance beside the unspeakable abominations proved against the United States by records of its own officials in its dealings with the native American race during the last hundred years.
There are many exceptions to this charge that the Indian is cruel to his enemies,
enough, almost, to justify a complete rebuttal, and among these was none more
honorably kind, at least, to their enemies; for he put
an end in his nation to all torturing of prisoners.
Above all whose history is fully known, Tecumseh was the ideal noble Redman realized; nevertheless, he was not alone; Wabasha, Osceola, Kanakuk, and Wovoka must be numbered among those whose great hearts reached out in kindness even to those who hated them.
Tecumseh taught, "Love your enemy after he is con- quered"; Kanakuk preached non-resistance to evil; Wovoka, "Be kind to all men."
Second: The Indian had no property instincts. He was a
Socialist in all matters of large property, such as land, its fruits, rivers,
fish, and game.
So were the early Christians. "And all that believed were together; had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need." (Acts, ii., 44-45.)
They considered that every child had a right to a bring- ing up, and every old person to a free living from the tribe. We know that it worked well, for there was neither hunger nor poverty, except when the whole tribe was in want. And we know also that there were among them no men of shameful, monstrous wealth.
Third: He was improvident. He is now, just like our own drunkards. He was not,
until after the Great Degradation that we effected in him. All the old
travelers, the
crimes for which we as a nation have yet to answer.
Fourth: He was dirty. Many dirty habits are to be seen
to-day among the Reservation Indians, but it was not so in the free days. A part
of the old Indian's religion was to take a bath every day the year round for the
helping of his body. Some tribes bathed twice a day. Every village had a Turkish
bath in continual use. It is only the degraded Indian who has become dirty, and
many of the whites who oftenest assail him as filthy never take a bath from
birth to judgment day.
Fifth: He was lazy. No one who saw the Indian in his
ancient form has preferred this charge. He was not fond of commercial
manufacturing, but the regular work of tilling his little patch of corn and
beans he did not shirk, nor the labor of making weapons and boats, nor the
frightful toil of portaging, hunting and making war. He undertook these at all
times without a murmur.
Many men will not allow their horses to bear such burdens as I saw the Chipewyans bear daily, without a thought of hardship, accepting all as a part of their daily lot.
Sixth: He degraded woman to be a mere beast of burden.
Some have said so, but the vast bulk of evidence to-day goes to show that while
the women did the household drudgery and lighter tasks, the men did all the work
beyond
Seventh: He was treacherous. Oh! how ill it becomes us to mention such a thing! Every authority tells us the
same—that primitive Redman never broke a treaty; his word was as good as
his bond; that the American Government broke every treaty as soon as there was
something to gain by doing so. Captain J. G. Bourke thus scores the continual
treachery of the whites: "The occasional treachery of the aborigines," says he,
"has found its best excuse in the unvarying Punic faith of the Caucasian
invader." ("On the Border with Crook," p. 114.)
But let us look for evidence of the Indian's character among those who saw with their own eyes, and had no object to serve by blackening the fair fame of the bravely dying race.
It would be easy to fill a large volume with startling and trustworthy testimony as to the goodness of the old Indian of the best type; I shall give a few pages bearing on the Indian life and especially relating to the various characteristics for which the Redman has been attacked, selecting the testimony preferably from the records of men who knew the Indian before his withering contact with the white race.
In 1832 George Catlin, the painter, went West and spent eight years with the
unchanged Indians of the Plains. He lived with them and became conversant with
their lives. He has left one of the fullest and bent records we have of the
"The North American Indian is everywhere, in his native state, a highly moral and religious being, endowed by his Maker with an intuitive knowledge of some great Author of his being, and the Universe, in dread of whose displeasure he constantly lives, with the apprehension before him of a future state, where he expects to be rewarded or punished according to the merits he has gained or forfeited in this world.
* * * * * * * "Morality and virtue I venture to say the civilized world need not undertake to teach them.
* * * * * * * "I never saw any other people of any color
who spend so much of their livesin humbling themselves before and worshipping the Great Spirit." (Catlin's " N. A. Indian," Vol. II., p. 243.)"We have been told of late years that there is no evidence that any tribe of Indians ever believed in one overruling power; yet, in the early part of the seventeenth century, Jesuits and Puritans alike testified that tribes which they had met, believed in a god, and it is certain that, at the present time, many tribes worship a Supreme Being who is the Ruler of the Universe.'" (Grinnell's "Story of the Indian," 1902, p. 214.)
"Love and adore the Good Spirit who made us all; who sup. plies our hunting-grounds, and keeps us alive." (Teachings of Tshut-che-nau, Chief of the Kansas. J. D. Hunter's "Captivity Among the American Indians," 1798-1816, p. 21).
And, again, Hunter says (p. 216):
"A day seldom passes with an elderly Indian, or others who are esteemed wise and good, in which a blessing is not asked, or thanks returned to the Giver of Life, sometimes audibly, but more generally in the devotional language of the heart.
22 The Book of Woodcraft "Every Indian of standing has his sacred place, such as a tree, rock, fountain, etc., to which he resorts for devotional exercise, whenever his feelings prompt to the measure; sometimes many resort to the same place." (P. 221).
A typical prayer is recorded for us by Grinnell.
A Pawnee, in dire distress and despair, through a strong enemy, decided to sacrifice his horse to the unseen powers, that they might intercede for him with the Creator, and thus prayed beforehand:
"My Father [who dwells] in all places, it is through you that I am living. Perhaps it was through you that this man put me in this condition. You are the Ruler. Nothing is impossible with you. If you see fit, take this [trouble] away from me. Now you, all fish of the rivers, and you, all birds of the air, and all animals that move upon the earth, and you, O Sun! I present to you this animal. You, birds in the air, and you, animals upon the earth, we are related; we are alike in this respect, that one Ruler made us all. You see how unhappy I am. If you have any power, intercede for me." (Grinnell's "Story of the Indian," p. 213.)
Capt. W. P. Clark, one of our best authorities on the Plains Indians, says: "There are no people who pray more than Indians." ("Indian Sign Language," 1885, p. 309.)
And, again, he says:
"Indians make vocal petitions to the God or Force which they wish to assist them, and also make prayer by pointing the long stem of the pipe. The Poncas call the sun God or Grandfather, and the earth Grandmother, and pray to both when making supplications. Running Antelope, a chief of the Uncapapa Band of Sioux, said in regard to pointing the pipestem, that the mere motion meant, 'To the Great Spirit: give me plenty of ponies; plenty of meat; let me live in peace and comfort with my wife, and stay long with my children. To the Earth, my23 The Spartans of the West Grandmother: let me live long; hold me good and strong. When I go to war, give me many ponies and let me count many "coups." In peace, let not anger enter my heart.'" (P. 309.)
But the best account of the Indian's belief and mode of worship is given to us by Dr. Charles A. Eastman, himself a Sioux Indian; he has written of the things that were his daily life in youth. He says:
"When food is taken, the woman murmurs a 'grace' as she lowers the kettle, an act so softly and unobtrusively performed that one who does not know the custom usually fails to catch the whisper: 'Spirit partake!' As her husband receives the bowl or plate, he likewise murmurs his invocation to the spirit. When he becomes an old man, he loves to make a notable effort to prove his gratitude. He cuts off the choicest morsel of the 'meat and casts it into the fire — the purest and most ethereal element." ("Soul of the Indian," 1911, pp. 47-48.)
"The first
hambeday, or religious retreat, marked an epoch in the life of the youth, which may be compared to that of confirmation or conversion in Christian experience. Having first prepared himself by means of the purifying vapor bath, and cast off, as far as possible, all human or fleshly influences, the young man sought out the noblest height, the most commanding summit in all the surrounding region. Knowing that God sets no value upon material things, he took with him no offerings or sacrifices, other than symbolic objects, such as paints and tobacco. Wishing to appear before Him in all humility, he wore no clothing save his moccasins and breech-clout. At the solemn hour of sunrise or sunset, he took up his position, overlooking the glories of earth, and facing the 'Great Mystery,' and there he remained, naked, erect, silent, and motionless, exposed to the elements and forces of His arming, for a night and a day to two days and nights, but rarely longer. Sometimes he would chant a hymn without words, or offer the ceremonial 'filled pipe.' In this holy trance or ecstasy the Indian mystic found his highest happiness, and the motive power of his existence." ("Soul of the Indian," Eastman, pp. 7-8.)
"In the life of the Indian there was only one inevitable duty, the duty of prayer—the daily recognition of the Unseen and Eternal. His daily devotions were more necessary to him than daily food. He wakes at daybreak, puts on his moccasins and steps down to the water's edge. Here he throws handfuls of clear cold water into his face, or plunges in bodily. After the bath, he stands erect before the advancing dawn, facing the sun as it dances upon the horizon, and offers his unspoken orison. His mate may precede or follow him in his devotions, but never accompanies him. Each soul must meet the morning sun, the new, sweet earth, and the Great Silence alone!
"Whenever, in the course of the daily hunt, the red hunter comes upon a scene that is strikingly beautiful or sublime—a black thunder-cloud, with the rainbow's glowing arch above the mountain; a white waterfall in the heart of a green gorge; a vast prairie tinged with the blood-red of sunset—he pauses for an instant in the attitude of worship. He sees no need for setting apart one day in seven as a holy day, since to him all days are God's." ("Soul of the Indian," Eastman; pp. 45-6.)
In the light of all this evidence, is it to be wondered that most of the early historians who lived with the primitive Indians of the Plains, were led to believe, from their worship of God, their strict moral code, their rigid laws as to foods clean and unclean, and their elaborate system of bathings and purifications, that in these red men of the New World, they had indeed found the long-lost tribes of Israel?
Nothing will convince some persons but that "Yankees have tails," because, in their nursery days, these persons always heard it was so. That is exactly the attitude of the world on the subject of dirty Indians.
Alexander Henry II., a fur and whiskey trader, who did his share in degrading the early Indians, and did not love them, admits of the Mandans, in 1806:
"Both men and women make it a rule to go down to the river and wash every morning and evening." ("Journal," Vol. I., p. 325.)
"These people, like their neighbors, have the custom of washing, morning and evening." ("Journal," Vol. 1., p. 348.)
Catlin, after eight years in their lodges (1832-40) says that notwithstanding many exceptions, among the wild Indians the "strictest regard to decency and cleanliness and elegance of dress is observed, and there are few people, perhaps, who take more pains to keep their persons neat and cleanly, than they do." (Vol. 1., p. 96.)
"In their bathing and ablutions at all seasons of the year, as a part of their religious observances—having separate places for men and women to perform these immersions—they resemble again [the Jews]." (Vol. II., p. 233.)
J. W. Schultz, who spent his life among the Blackfeet, comments on their wonderful hardiness. During the intensest zero weather, he, himself, wore twice as much clothing as they did, and yet was suffering severely, while "They never froze, nor even shivered from the cold. They attributed their indifference to exposure, to the beneficial effect of their daily baths, which were always taken, even if a hole had to be cut in the ice for the purpose. And they forced their children to accompany them, little fellows from three years of age up, dragging the unwilling ones from ther beds, and carrying them under their arms to the icy plunge." ("My Life as an Indian," pub. 1907; p. 63.)
This same experienced observer says:
"I have seen hundreds of white homes—there are numbers of them in any city—so exceedingly dirty, their inmates so slovenly, that one turns from them in absolute disgust, but I have seen nothing like that among the Blackfeet." (P. 413.)
Friendly enthusiasts like Catlin may sometimes get only part of the facts, but
the trained observers of the Smithsonian
"The Omahas generally bathe (hica) every day in warm weather, early in the morning and at night. Some who wish to do so, bathe also at noon. Jackson, a member of the Elkgens, bathes every day, even in winter. He breaks a hole in the ice on the Missouri River, and bathes, or else he rubs snow over his body. In winter the Omahas heat water in a kettle and wash themselves (kigcija). . . . The Ponkas used to bathe in the Missouri every day." (Dorsey, 3th Ann. Dep. Eth.; p. 269.)
Every Indian village in the old days had a Turkish bath, as we call it; a "Sweat Lodge," as they say, used as a cure for inflammatory rheumatism, etc. Catlin describes this in great detail, and says:
"I allude to their vapor baths, orsudatories, of which each village has several, and which seem to be a kind of public property — accessible to all, and resorted to by all, male and female, old and young, sick and well." (Vol. I., p. 97.)
The "Sweat Lodge" is usually a low lodge covered with blankets or skins. The patient goes in undressed and sits by a bucket of water. In a fire outside, a number of stones are heated by the attendants. These are rolled in, one or more at a time. The patient pours water on them. This raises a cloud of steam. The lodge becomes very hot. The individual drinks copious draughts of water. After a sufficient sweat, he raises the cover and rushes into the water, beside which, the lodge is always built. After this, he is rubbed down with buckskin, and wrapped in a robe to cool off.
This was used as a bath, as well as a religious purification
About one hundred years ago the notorious whiskey-trader, Alexander Henry, already mentioned, went into the Missouri region. He was a man of strange character, of heroic frame and mind, but unscrupulous and sordid. His only interest and business among the Indians was beating them out of their furs with potations of cheap alcohol. This fearless ruffian penetrated the far Northwest, was the first trader to meet certain Western tribes, and strange to tell he wrote a full, straightforward and shocking account of his wanderings and methods among the red folk he despised for not being white. In spite of arrogance and assumed superiority, his narrative contains much like the following:
"The Flatheads on the Buffalo Plains, generally encounter the Piegans and fight desperately when attacked. They never attempt war themselves, and have the character of a brave and virtuous people, not in the least addicted to those vices so common among savages who have had long intercourse with Europeans. Chastity is particularly esteemed, and no woman will barter her favors, even with the whites, upon any mercenary consideration. She may be easily prevailed upon to reside with a white man as his wife, according to the custom of the country, but prostitution is out of the question—she will listen to no proposals of that nature. Their morals have not yet been sufficiently debauched and corrupted by an intercourse with people who call themselves Christians, but whose licentious and lecherous manners are far worse than those of savages. A striking example is to be seen throughout the N. W. country, of the depravity and wretchedness of the natives; but as one28 The Book of Woodcraft advances into the interior parts, vice and debauchery become less frequent. Happy those who have the least connection with us, for most of the present depravity is easily traced to its origin in their intercourse with the whites. That baneful source of all evils, spirituous liquor, has not yet been introduced among the natives of the Columbia. To the introduction of that subtle poison among the savage tribes may be mainly attributed their miserable and wretched condition." [So at once he set about introducing it. E. T. S.] (A. Henry's Journal, 1811; pp. 710-11.)
Jonathan Carver, who traveled among the Sioux from 1766-9, says:
"Adultery is esteemed by them a heinous crime, and punished with the greatest rigor." (Travels, 1796; p. 245.)
George Catlin, after his eight years among the wild Mandans of the Missouri (1832), says of them:
"Their women are beautiful and modest—and amongst the respectable families, virtue is as highly cherished and as inapproachable, as in any society whatever." (Vol. I., p. 121.)
Colonel R. I. Dodge, an Indian fighter and hater, says:
"The Cheyenne women are retiring and modest, and for chastity will compare favorably with women of any other nation or people . . . almost models of purity and chastity." ("Hunting-grounds of the Great West," p. 302.)
I am well aware that the Crows, the Arapaho and some West coast tribes were shockingly immoral in primitive times, but these were the exceptions, and in consequence they were despised by the dominant tribes of the Plains.
Old-time travelers and modern Indian fighters agree that there was no braver man
on earth, alive or in history, than the Redman. Courage was the virtue he
chiefly honored. His whole life and training were with the purpose
Father Lafitau said of the Eastern Indians, in 1724:
"They are high-minded and proud; possess a courage equal to every trial; an intrepid valor; the most heroic constancy under torments, and an equanimity which neither misfortune nor reverses can shake." (Moeurs des Sauv. Amer.)
"An Indian meets death, when it approaches him in his hut, with the same resolution he has often faced him in the field. His indifference relative to this important article, which is the source of so many apprehensions to almost every other nation, is truly admirable. When his fate is pronounced by the physician, and it remains no longer uncertain, he harangues those about him with the greatest composure." (Carver's "Travels Among the Sioux," 1766-9; p. 261.)
"The greatest insult that can be offered to an Indian, is, to doubt his courage." (J. D. Hunter, "Captivity"; 1798-1816;
"These savages are possessed with many heroic qualities, and bear every species of misfortune with a degree of fortitude which has not been outdone by any of the ancient heroes either of Greece or of Rome." (Carver's "Travels Among the Sioux, X766-O; pp. 221-2.)
None of us are likely to question the Redman's prowess when we remember for example that Black Hawk with 40 warriors utterly routed 2 70 American riflemen in 1832, Chief Joseph in 1877 with inferior weapons beat the American soldiers over and over again with half their number, and in 1878 Dull Knife with 69 warriors fought and defied 2000 American troops for over four months.
Every Indian village in the old days had its granaries of corn, its stores of dried beans, berries, and pumpkin-strips, as well as its dried buffalo tongues, pemmican and deer's meat. To this day all the Fisher Indians of the north and west dry great quantities of fish, as well as berries, for the famine months that are surely coming.
Many of the modern Indians, armed with rifles, have
When, in 1684, De la Barre, Governor of Canada, complained that the Iroquois were
encroaching on the country of those Indians who were allies of the French, he
got a stinging reply from Garangula, the Onondaga Chief, and a general statement
showing that the aborigines had game-laws, not written,
indeed, but well known, and enforced at the spear-point, if need be: "We knock
the Twightwies [Miamis] and Chictaghicks [Illinois] on the head, because they
had cut down the trees of peace, which were the limits of our country. They have
hunted beaver on our lands. They have acted contrary to the customs of all
Indians, for they left none of the beavers alive, they killed both male and
female." (Sam G. Drake's "Indian Biog." 1832, p. 111.)
Hunter says of the Kansas Indians:
"I have never known a solitary instance of their wantonly destroying any of those animals [buffalo, elk, and deer], except on the hunting-grounds of their enemies, or encouraged to it by the prospect of bartering their skins with the traders." (Hun- ter's "Captivity," 1708-1816, p. 279.)
"After all, the Wild Indians could not be justly termed improvident, when the manner of life is taken into consideration. They let nothing go to waste, and labored incessantly during the summer and fall, to lay up provisions for the inclement season. Berries of all kinds were industriously gathered and dried in the sun. Even the wild cherries were pounded up, stones and all, made into small cakes, and dried, for use in soups, and for mixing with the pounded jerked meat and fat to form a much-prized Indian delicacy." ("Indian Boyhood," Eastman; pp. 237-8.)
Their wise men were not blind to the dangers of greed, as we know, from many sources, and, in particular, their attitude toward money-getting is full of interest:
"The Indians, except those who live adjoining to the European colonies, can form to themselves no idea of the value of money; they consider it, when they are made acquainted with the use's to which it is applied by other nations, as the source of innumerable evils. To it they attribute all the mischiefs that are prevalent among Europeans, such as treachery, plundering, devastations and murder." (Carver's "Travels, p. 158.)
Could we have a more exact paraphrase of "The love of money is the root of all evil?"
Beware of greed which grows into crime and makes men forget the poor. A man's life should not be for himself, but for his people. For them he must be ready to die.
This is the sum of Indian economic teaching. (See Eastman "Soul of Indian," pp. 94 and 99-103.)
Nothing seems to anger the educated Indian, to-day, more than the oft-repeated absurdity that his race was of a gloomy, silent nature. Any one that has ever been in an Indian village knows what a scene of joy and good cheer it normally was. In every such gathering there was always at least one recognized fun-maker, who led them all in joke and hilarious jest. Their songs, their speeches, their fairytales are full of fun and dry satire The reports of the Ethnological Bureau sufficiently set forth these facts.
Eastman, the Sioux, says on this subject:
"There is scarcely anything so exasperating to me as the idea that the natives of this country have no sense of humor and no32 The Book of Woodcraft faculty for mirth. This phase of their character is well under- stood by those whose fortune or misfortune it has been to live among them, day in and day out, at their homes. I don't believe I ever heard a real hearty laugh away from the Indians' fireside. I have often spent an entire evening in laughter with them, until I could laugh no more. There are evenings when the recognized wit or story-teller of the village gives a free entertainment which keeps the rest of the community in a convulsive state until he leaves them. However, Indian humor consists as much in the gestures and inflections of the voice, as in words, and is really untranslatable." (" Indian Boyhood," p. 267.)
And, again, Grinnell:
"The common belief that the Indian is stoical, stolid, and sullen, is altogether erroneous. They are really a merry people, good-natured and jocular, usually ready to laugh at an amusing incident or a joke, with a simple mirth that reminds one of children." ("Ind. To-day," p. 9.)
There is, however, an explanation of our widespread misconception. Many a time in Indian camp or village, I have approached some noisy group of children or hilarious ring of those more grown. My purpose was wholly sympathetic, but my presence acted as a wet-blanket. The children were hushed or went away. I saw shy faces, furtive glances, or looks of distrust. They hate us; they do not want us near. Our presence is an evil influence in their joy. Can we wonder?
We cannot, short of the Jews or the Chinese, perhaps, find more complete respect for their parents than among the Indians. Catlin says:
"To each other I have found these people kind and honorable, and endowed with every feeling of parental, of filial, and conjugal33 The Spartans of the West affection, that is met in more enlightened communities. I have found them moral and religious; and I am bound to give them credit for their zeal, which is often exhibited in their modes of worship, however insufficient they may seem to us, or may be in the estimation of the Great Spirit." (Vol. II., p. 242.)
While Hunter, after living with the Kansas Indians for nineteen years, says:
"They are very assiduous and attentive to the wants and comforts, particularly, of the aged; and kind to all who require their assistance. And an Indian who failed in these respects, though he otherwise merited esteem, would be neglected and despised. To the credit of their morals, few such are to be found, except where debauched by the vices of the white people." (Hunter's "Captivity," 1798-1816; p. 251.)
Among the maxims laid down by the venerable Chief of the Kansas, was:
"Obey and venerate the old people, particularly your parents. " (" Teachings of Tshut-che-nau, Chief of the Kansas;" Hunter; p. 21.)
Father J. F. Lafitau, the Jesuit missionary, was far from being predisposed in favor of savage ways or views, yet says of the Eastern Indians:
"Toward each other, they behave with a natural politeness and attention, entertaining a high respect for the aged. (Moeurs des Sauv, Am., 1724.)
"The Indians always took care of their aged and helpless. It was a rare exception when they did not. (Francis La Flesche, Conversation, April 27, 1912.)
There have been cases of Indians abandoning their very aged to die, but it was
always done by request of the victims,
During my Northern journey in 1907 I selected for one of my guides a fine young Indian named Freesay. At the end of our first journey I said to him: "Would you like to go with me still farther, to the Far North country, and see the things your people have not yet seen? I will give you good wages and a big present."
He replied: "Yes; I would like to go very much, but my uncle [his adoptive father] told me not to go beyond Pike's Lobstick, and so I cannot go." And he did not, though his uncle was 350 miles away. This was one case out of several noted, and many heard of. The Fifth Commandment is a very big, strong law in the wigwam.
At every first meeting of red men and whites, the whites were inferior in numbers, and yet were received with the utmost kindness, until they treacherously betrayed the men who had helped and harbored them. Even Christopher Columbus, blind and burnt up with avarice as he was, and soul-poisoned with superstition, and contempt for an alien race, yet had the fairness to write home to his royal accomplices in crime, the King and Queen of Spain:
"I swear to your Majesties that there is not a better people in the world than these; more affect innate, affable or mild. They love their neighbors as themselves, and they always speak smilingly. (Catlin, "N. A. Indian," II., p. 246.)
Jonathan Carver, who lived among the Sioux from 1766-9, after speaking of their severity in dealing with enemies, says:
"But if they are thus barbarous to those with whom they are at war, they are friendly, hospitable, and humane in peace. It may with truth be said of them, that they are the worst enemies and the best friends of any people in the whole world." ("Travels," p. 157.)
"We shall likewise see them sociable and humane to those whom they consider as their friends, and even to their adopted enemies: and ready to partake with them of the last morsel, or to risk their lives in their defence." (P. 269.)
And, again:
"No people are more hospitable, kind and free than the Indians." (P. 171.)
"Nothing can exceed the tenderness shown by them to their offspring." (P. 247.)
Catlin, writing of the Plain Indians generally, says:
"To their friends, there are no people on earth that are more kind; and cruelties and punishments (except for capital offences) are, amongst themselves, entirely dispensed with. (Vol. II., p. 241.)
Schultz evidently went among the Blackfeet with the usual wrong ideas about the Indians, but he soon wrote:
"I have read, or heard, that an Indian's loss of to-day is forgotten on the morrow. That is certainly not true of the Blackfeet, nor the Mandans. Often and often I have heard many of the Blackfeet mourn for one dead long years since. (My Life as an Indian," p. 154.)
And again:
"I have often heard the Blackfeet speak of various white men as utterly heartless, because they had left their parents and their youthful home to wander and seek adventure in a strange land They could not comprehend how one with right feeling might
36 The Book of Woodcraft absent himself from father and mother, as we do, for months and years. 'Hard hearts,' 'stone hearts,' they call us, and with some reason." (Schultz, p. 155.)"There are few people so generous as the Indians.
* * * * * * * In their religious and war ceremonies, at their feasts, festivals, and funerals, the widows and orphans, the poor and needy are always thought of; not only thought of, . . . but their poverty and necessity are relieved.
* * * * * * * "I have seen white men reduced to the last 'hard tack,' with only tobacco enough for two smokes, and with no immediate prospect of anything better than horse-meat 'straight.' A portion of the hard bread was hidden away, and the smokes were taken in secret. An Indian, undemoralized by contact with the whites, under similar circumstances, would divide down to the last morsel." (Clark's "Sign Language," p. 185 and 186.)
This is a point that needs little discussing, even the sworn enemy was safe, once he was admitted to an Indian lodge "as a guest."
Carver says of the Sioux, in 1766 ("Travels," p. 172):
"No people are more hospitable . . . and free than the Indians."
And, again, I found them ready to share with their friends the last morsel of food they possessed. (P. 269.)
The Jesuits testify of the Iroquois, 1656:
"Hospitals for the poor would be useless among them, because there are no beggars; those who have are so liberal to those who are in want, that everything is enjoyed in common. The whole village must be in distress before any individual is left in necessity." ("Century of Dishonor," p. 379.)
Catlin, in 1832-40, enthusiastically writes of the Plains Indians and their hospitality:
"I have been welcomed generally in their country, and treated to the best that they could give me [for eight years], without any charges made for my board." (Vol. I., p. 9.)
"No matter how great the scarcity of food might be, so long as there was any remaining in the lodge, the visitor received his share without grudging." (Grinnell, "Ind. of To-day," p. 9.)
The same authority writes me:
"When Lone Chief had gone into the Lodge of the Chief of the enemy, and food and water had been given to him, the Chief stood up and spoke to his tribespeople saying, 'What can I do? They have eaten of my food, I cannot make war on people who have been eating with me and have also drunk of my water.'" ("Pawnee Hero Stories," pp. 59-60.)
"The social condition of the North Americans has been greatly misunderstood. The place of woman in the tribe was not that of a slave or of a beast of burden. The existence of the gentile organization, in most tribes, with descent in the female line, forbade any such subjugation of woman. In many tribes, women took part in the councils of the chiefs; in some, women were even the tribal rulers; while in all, they received a fair measure of respect and affection from those related to them." (Grinnell's " Story of the Indian," p. 244.)
This is Grinnell's summing up of what every student of Indians has known for long. Here in addition are the statements of other good authorities:
"I have often heard and read that Indian women received no consideration from their husbands, and led a life of exceedingly hard and thankless work. That is very wide of the truth, so
38 The Book of Woodcraft far as the natives of the northern plains were concerned. It is true, that the women gathered fuel for the lodge — bundles of dry willows, or limbs from a fallen cottonwood. They also did the cooking, and, besides tanning robes, converted the skins of deer, elk, antelope, and mountain sheep, into soft buckskin for family use. But never a one of them suffered from overwork; when they felt like it, they rested; they realized that there were other days coming, and they took their time about anything they had to do. Their husbands, never interfered with them, any more than they did with him in his task of providing the hides and skins and meat, the staff of life. The majority—nearly all of them—were naturally industrious, and took pride in their work; they joyed in putting away parfleche after parfleche of choice dried meats and pemmican; in tanning soft robes and buckskins for home use or sale, in embroidering wonderful patterns of beads or colored porcupine quills upon moccasin tops, dresses, leggings and saddle trappings. When robes were to be traded, they got their share of the proceeds." (Schultz, p. 64.)"It has often been asserted that the 'Indian' did no work, even leaving the cultivation of the corn and squashes to the women. That the women in some of the tribes tended the crops, is true, but in others, like the Pueblos, they seldom or never touched hoe or spade. The Eastern men were hunting or building boats, or were on the war-path, hence it was necessary for the women to look after the fields." ("The N. A. of Yesterday," by F. S. Dellenbaugh, p. 333.)
Schultz tells us that the men had to make their own clothing. ("My Life as an Indian," p. 180.)
Prof. J. O. Dorsey writes of Omaha manners:
"Politeness is shown by men to women. Men used to help women and children to alight from horses. When they had to ford streams, the men used to assist them, and sometimes they carried them across on their backs." (Dorsey, 270-1; 3rd Ann. Rep. Ethn.)
"One of the most erroneous beliefs relating to the status and condition of the American Indian woman is, that she was, both before and after marriage, the abject slave and drudge of the
39 The Spartans of the West men of her tribe, in general. This view, due largely to inaccurate observation and misconception, was correct, perhaps, at times, as to a small percentage of the tribes and peoples whose social organization was of the most elementary kind politically and ceremonially, and especially of such tribes as were non-agricultural." ("Handbook of American Indians," Bur. Am. Ethn., p. 968.)"Among the Iroquoian tribes—the Susquehanna, the Hurons, and the Iroquois—the penalties for killing a woman of the tribe were double those exacted for the killing of a man, because in the death of a woman, the Iroquoian lawgivers recognized the probable loss of a long line of prospective offspring." ("Handbook American Indian," p. 971.)
"In most, if not in all, the highly organized tribes, the woman was the sole master of her own body." ("Handbook North American Indian," p. 972.)
"The men are the warriors and hunters, though an old woman of rank usually steers the war-canoe." ("Coast Indian"; Niblack; 1889; p. 253.)
"A mother possessed the important authority to forbid her sons going on the war-path, and frequently the chiefs took advantage of this power of the woman, to avoid a rupture with another tribe." ("Handbook North American Indian," p. 971.)
"Roger Williams, with reference to another subject, brings this same respect for woman to view; he wrote: 'So did never the Lord Jesus bring any unto his most pure worship, for he abhors, as all men, yea, the very Indians, an unwilling spouse to enter into forced relations." ("Handbook North America," p. 972.)
"At a later day, and in the face of circumstances adverse to the Indians, Gen. James Clinton, who commanded the New York Division in the Sullivan expedition in 1779, against the hostile Iroquois, paid his enemies the tribute of a soldier, by writing in April, 1779, to Colonel Van Schaick, then leading the troops against the Onondaga, the following terse compliment: 'Bad as the savages are, they never violate the chastity of any woman, their prisoners.'"
"Among the Sioux and the Yuchi, men who made a practice of seduction were in grave bodily danger, from the aggrieved women and girls, and the resort by the latter to extreme measures
40 The Book of Woodcraft was sanctioned by public opinion, as properly avenging a gross violation of woman's inalienable right—the control of her own body. The dower or bride-price, when such was given, did not confer it, it seems, on the husband, absolute right over the life and liberty of the wife: it was rather compensation to her kindred and household for the loss of her services." ("Handbook American Indian," pp. 972,3.)"It is the universal testimony, as voiced by Portlock (1787), that they [the Coast Indians] treat their wives and children with much affection and tenderness." ("Voyages," p. 290.) "In the approach to political and industrial equality of the sexes, and in the respect shown for the opinions of their females, these Indians furnish another refutation of the old misconception concerning the systematic mal-treatment of the women by savages. Such a thing is incompatible with the laws of nature. Good treatment of the female is essential to the preservation of the species, and it will be found that this ill-treatment is more apparent than real." (Niblack, "Coast Indian," 1889, p. 238-9.)
That is, the sum of evidence, according to all reliable authority, plainly shows that the condition of the women among the primitive Indians was much as with white folks. They had the steady, dreary work of the household, while the men did the intermittent, yet much harder work of portaging, hunting and fighting. But the Indian woman had several advantages over her white sister. She owned the house and the children. She had absolute control of her body. There could be no war without her consent; she could and often did become the Head Chief of the Nation.
Awashonks, the Woman Chief of Seconset, R. I. (1671), and Wetamoo, the beautiful woman Sachem of the Massachusetts Wampanoags (1662) were among the many famous women whose lives and positions give the lie to the tiresome calumny that the "Indian women were mere beasts of burden; they had no rights, nor any voice in their public affairs."
There has never been any question of the Redman's politeness. Every observer remarks it. I have seen countless cases of it, myself. The white who usurped his domain are immeasurably his inferiors in such matters.
For fuller testimony, let us note these records by early travelers:
"Toward each other, they behave with natural politeness and attention." (Pere Lafitau, 1724.)
Catlin says of the Mandans:
"They are handsome, straight, and elegant in their forms—not tall, but quick and graceful; easy and polite in their manners neat in their persons, and beautifully clad." (Catlin; Vol. I., p. 96.)
"The next and second Chief of the [Mandan] tribe is Ma-to- to-pa (The Four Bears). This extraordinary man, though second in office, is undoubtedly the first and most popular man in the nation. Free, generous, elegant and gentlemanly in his deportment—handsome, brave and valiant; wearing a robe on his back with the history of his battles emblazoned on it, which would fill a book of themselves, if properly translated. This readers, is the most extraordinary man, perhaps, who lives at this day, in the atmosphere of Nature's nobleman." (Catlin; Vol. I., p. 92.)
Omaha politeness:"When persons attend feasts, they extend their hand and return thanks to the giver. So, also, when they receive presents.* * * * * * * "If a man receives a favor and does not manifest his gratitude they exclaim, 'He does not appreciate the gift; he has no manners!'
* * * * * * * "Mothers teach their children not to pass in front of people if they can avoid it." (Dorsey, 3d Ann. Rep. Bur. Eth. 1881-2, p. 270.)
(Gathered chiefly from observations of actual practice, but in
many cases from formal precept.)
Catlin says:
"As evidence of . . . their honesty and honor, there will be found recorded many striking instances in the following pages.
* * * * * * * "I have roamed about, from time to time, during seven or eight years, visiting and associating with some three or four hundred thousands of these people, under an almost infinite variety of circumstances;
* * * * * * * and under all these circumstances of exposure, no Indian ever betrayed me, struck me a blow, or stole from me a shilling's worth of my property, that I am aware of." (Vol. I., p. 9-10.)
"Never steal, except it be from an enemy, whom it is just that we should injure in every possible way." ("Teachings of Tshut-che-nau, Chief of Kansas," Hunter; p. 21.)
"Among [between] the individuals of some tribes or nations,
44 The Book of Woodcraft theft is a crime scarcely known." (Hunter's "Captivity Among American Indians," 1708-1816; p. 300.)
"Theft was unknown in an Indian camp." (G. B. Grinnell; "Indians of To-day," p. 8.)
Every traveler among the highly developed tribes of the Plains Indians tells a similar story, though, of course, when at war, it was another matter.
Even that rollicking old cut-throat, Alexander Henry II, says after fifteen years among the Wild Indians: "I have been frequently fired at by them and have had several narrow escapes for my life. But I am happy to say they never pillaged me to the value of a needle." ("Journal" 1799-1814, p. 452.)
In my own travels in the Far North, 1907, I found the Indians tainted with many white vices, and in many respects degenerated, but I also found them absolutely honest, and I left valuable property hung in trees for months, without fear, knowing that no wild Indian would touch it.
There is a story told of Bishop Whipple:
He was leaving his cabin, with its valuable contents, to be gone some months, and sought some way of rendering all robber-proof. His Indian guide then said: "Why, Brother, leave it open. Have no fear. There is not a white man within a hundred miles!"
On the road to a certain large Indian Ojibway village in 1904 I lost a considerable roll of bills. My friend, the white man in charge, said: "If an Indian finds it, you will have it again within an hour; if a white man finds it, you will never see it again, for our people are very weak, when it comes to property matters."
Finally, to cover the far Southwest, I found that the experience of most travelers agrees with the following:
"I lived among the Wild Indians for eight years (1872-1880); I know the Apaches, the Navajos, the Utes, and the Pueblos, and I never knew a dishonest Indian." (Robert A. Widenmann, West Haverstraw, N. Y.)
"Falsehood they esteem much more mean and contemptible than stealing. The greatest insult that can be offered to an Indian, is, to doubt his courage: the next is to doubt his honor or truth!
* * * * * * * "Lying, as well as stealing, entails loss of character on habitual offenders; and, indeed, an Indian of independent feelings and elevated character will hold no kind of intercourse with any one who has been once clearly convicted." (Hunter's "Captivity Among Indians," 1797-1816, p. 301.)
"This venerable, worn-out warrior [the Kansas Chief, Tshut-che-nau, Defender of the People], would often admonish us for our faults and exhort us never to tell a lie." (Hunter, p. 21.)
"On all occasions, and at whatever price, the Iroquois spoke the truth, without fear and without hesitation." (Morgan's "League of the Iroquois," p. 330.)
"The honor of their tribe, and the welfare of their nation is the first and most predominant emotion of their hearts; and from hence proceed in a great measure all their virtues and their vices. Actuated by this, they brave every danger, endure the most exquisite torments, and expire triumphing in their fortitude, not as a personal qualification, but as a national characteristic." (Carver's "Travels," p. 271.)
The Indian's assent to a treaty was always binding. I cannot discover a case of
breach, excepting when the whites first broke it; and this does not mean the
irresponsible whites, but the American Government. The authorities at Washington
never hesitated to break each and every
Col. R. I. Dodge says:
"The three principal causes of wars with the Indians are: "First, Non-fulfilment of treaties by the United States Government.
"Second, Frauds by the Indian agents.
"Third, Encroachments by the whites." ("Hunting-grounds of the Great West," 1878, pp. XLIII-XLIV.)
Captain John G. Bourke, who served under General Crook in 1872, when the Apaches were crushed by over- whelming numbers and robbed of their unquestioned heritage, says:
"It was an outrageous proceeding, one for which I should still blush, had I not long since gotten over blushing for anything that the United States Government did in Indian matters. " ("On the Border with Crook," p. 217.)
"The most shameful chapter of American history is that in which is recorded the account of our dealings with the Indians. The story of our Government's intercourse with this race is an unbroken narrative of injustice, fraud and robbery." (Grinnell's "Blackfoot Lodge Tales," 1892, p. IX.)
In brief, during our chief dealings with the Redman, our manners were represented by the border outlaws, the vilest criminals the world has known, absolute fiends; and our Government by educated scoundrels of shameless, heartless, continual greed and treachery.
The great exception on American soil was that of William Penn. He kept his word. He treated the Indians fairly; they never wronged him to the extent of a penny, or harmed him or his, or caused a day's anxiety; but continued his loyal and trusty defenders." (See Jackson's "Century of Dishonor.")
How is it that Canada has never had an Indian war or an Indian massacre? Because the Government honorably kept all its treaties, and the Indians themselves were honorable, by tradition; they never yet broke a treaty. In northwestern Canada, there were two slight outbreaks of half-breeds (1871 and 1885), but these were misunderstandings, easily settled. There was little fighting, no massacres, and no heritage of hate in their track.
What wonder that all who could, among the Indian tribes, moved over the "Medicine Line," and dwell in Canada to-day!
When the white traders struck into the West with their shameful cargoes of
alcohol to tempt the simple savages, it was the beginning of the Great Degradation for which we must answer.
The leading Indians soon saw what the drink habit meant, and strove in vain to stem the rising current of madness that surely would sweep them to ruin.
About 1795, Tshut-che-nau, chief of the Kansas, did his best to save the youth of his people from the growing vice of the day.
'"Drink not the poisonous strong-water of the white people;' he said, 'it is sent by the Bad Spirit to destroy the Indians.' He preached, but preached in vain." (J. D. Hunter, p. 21.)
Pere Lafitau says, in 1724:
"They never permit themselves to indulge in passion, but always, from a sense of honor and greatness of soul, appear masters of themselves." (P. 378, "Century of Dishonor.")
In 1766, living among the Sioux, Carver writes:
"We shall find them temperate, both in their diet and potations (it must be remembered that I speak of those tribes who have little communication with Europeans) that they withstand with unexampled patience, the attacks of hunger, or the inclemency of the seasons, and esteem the gratification of their appetites but as a secondary consideration.' ("Travels," p. 269.)
Concerning the temperance of the Wild Indian, Catlin writes, in 1832:
"Every kind of excess is studiously avoided.
* * * * * * * "Amongst the wild Indians in this country, there are no beggars—no drunkards—and every man, from a beautiful natural precept, studies to keep his body and mind in such a healthy shape and condition as will, at all times, enable him to use his weapons in self-defense, or struggle for the prize in their manly games." (Catlin, Vol. I., p. 123.)
And, how was it he fell from these high ideals? Alas! we know too well. G. B. Grinnell has sent me a record which, in one form or another, might have been made about every western tribe:
"The Reverend Moses Merrill, a missionary among the Oto Indians from 1832 to the beginning of 1840, kept a diary from which the following account is taken:
"'April 14, 1837. Two men from a trading expedition in the Indian country called on me to-day. They state that one half of the furs purchased in the Indian country are obtained in exchange for whiskey. They also stated that the Shiennes, a tribe of Indians on the Platte River, were wholly averse to drink- ing whiskey, hut, live years ago—now (through I he influence of a trader, Captain Gant, who, by sweetening the whiskey, induced them to drink the intoxicating draught), they are a tribe of drunkards.'" ("Trans, and Repts. Nebraska State Historical Society, IV.," p. 181.)
After describing the rigid dieting that formed part of the Indian's training, Eastman adds:
"In the old days, no young man was allowed to use tobacco in any form until he had become an acknowledged warrior and had achieved a record." ("Ind. Boy.," p. 50.)
We need but little evidence on this head. All historians, hostile or friendly, admit the Indian to have been the finest type of physical manhood the world has ever known. None but the best, the picked, chosen and trained of the whites, had any chance with them. Had they not been crushed by overwhelming numbers, the Indians would own the continent to-day.
Grinnell says ("Indians of To-day," p. 7.):
"The struggle for existence weeded out the weak and the sickly, the slow and the stupid, and created a race physically perfect, and mentally fitted to cope with the conditions which they were forced to meet, so long as they were left to themselves."
Speaking of the Iroquois in primitive condition, Brinton
says that physically "they were unsurpassed by any other on the continent, and I
may even say by any other people in the world." ("The American Race," p.
82.)
The most famous runner of ancient Greece was Phidippides, whose record run was 152 miles in 2 days. Among our Indians such a feat would have been considered very second rate. In 1882, at Fort Ellice, I saw a young Cree who, on foot, had just brought in despatches from Fort Qu' Appelle (125 miles away) in twenty-five hours. It created almost no comment. I heard little from the traders but cool remarks like, "A good boy"; "pretty good run." It was obviously a very usual exploit, among Indians.
"The Tarahumare mail carrier from Chihuahua to Batopilas, Mexico, runs regularly more than 500 miles a week; a Hopi messenger has been known to run 120 miles in 15 hours." ("Handbook American Indians," Part II., p. 802.)
The Arizona Indians are known to run down deer by sheer endurance, and every student of southwestern history will remember that Coronado's mounted men were unable to overtake the natives, when in the hill country, such was their speed and activity on foot.
We know that white men's ways, vices, and diseases have robbed them of much of their former physique, and yet, according to Dr. Daniel G. Brinton ("The American Race," 1891.)
"The five Companies (500 men) recruited from the Iroquois of New York and Canada, during the Civil War, stood first on the list among all the recruits of our army, for height, vigor, and corporeal symmetry." (Grinnell's "Indian of To-day," p. 56.)
The wonderful work of the Carlisle Indian School football team is a familiar example of what is meant by Indian physique, even at this late date, when the different life has done so much to bring them low.
(While this was in press the all round athletic championship of the world was won at the Olympic games (1912) by James Thorpe, a Carlisle Indian. He was at best the pick of 300,000, while against him were white men, the pick of 300,000,000.)
The whole case, with its spiritual motive, is thus summed up by Eastman in his inspiring account of the religion of his people, the Dakotas:
"The moment that man conceived of a perfect body, supple, symmetrical, graceful, and enduring—in that moment be had laid the foundation of B moral life. No man can hope to maintain such a temple of the spirit beyond the period of adolescence.
51 The Spartans of the West unless he is able to curb his indulgence in the pleasures of the senses. Upon this truth the Indian built a rigid system of physical training, a social and moral code that was the law of his life."There was aroused in him as a child a high ideal of manly strength and beauty, the attainment of which must depend upon strict temperance in eating and in the sexual relation, together with severe and persistent exercise. He desired to be a worthy link in the generations, and that he might not destroy by his weakness that vigor and purity of blood which had been achieved at the cost of so much self-denial by a long line of ancestors.
"He was required to fast from time to time for short periods and to work off his superfluous energy by means of hard running, swimming and the vapor bath. The bodily fatigue thus induced, especially when coupled with a reduced diet, is a reliable cure for undue sexual desires." (Eastman's Soul of the Indian, pp. 90-92.)
In their wonderful physique, the result of their life-long, age-long training, in their courage, their fortitude, their skill with weapons, their devoted patriotism, they realize more than any other modern race has done the ideal of the Spartan Greek, with this advantage; that, in his moral code, the Indian was far superior.
"I admit," says Father Lallemant, of the Hurons, "that their habits and customs are barbarous in a thousand ways, but, after all, in matters which they consider as wrong, and which their public condemns, we observe among them less criminality than in France, although here the only punishment of a crime is the shame of having committed it." ("Century of Dishonor, p. 378.)
Even stronger is the summary of the Jesuit Father, J. F. Lafitau:
"They are high-minded and proud; possess a courage equal to every trial, an intrepid valor, the most heroic constancy under52 The Book of Woodcraft torments, and an equanimity which neither misfortunes nor reverses can shake. Toward each other they behave with a natural politeness and attention, entertaining a high respect for the aged, and a consideration for their equals which appears scarcely reconciliable with that freedom and independence of which they are so jealous." (Moeurs des Sauv. Amer., 1724, quoted in "Century of Dishonor" p. 378.)
Long afterward the judicial Morgan in his League of the Iroquois, says, (p. 55):
"In legislation, in eloquence, in fortitude, and in military sagacity, they had no equals.
"Crimes and offences were so infrequent, under their social system, that the Iroquois can scarcely be said to have had a criminal code."
Captain John H. Bourke, who spent most of his active life as an Indian fighter, and who, by training, was an Indian hater, was at last, even in the horror of an Indian-crushing campaign, compelled to admit:
"The American Indian, born free as the eagle, would not tolerate restraint, would not brook injustice; therefore, the restraint imposed must be manifestly for his benefit, and the government to which he was subjected must be eminently one of kindness, mercy and absolute justice, without necessarily degenerating into weakness. The American Indian despises a liar. The American Indian is the most generous of mortals; at all his dances and feasts, the widow and the orphan are the first to be remembered." (Bourke's "On the Border with Crook," p. 226.)
"Bad as the Indians often are," says this same frontier veteran, "I have never yet seen one so demoralized that he was not an example in honor and nobility to the wretches who enrich themselves by plundering him of the little our Government apportions for him." (Bourke's "On the Border with Crook," p. 445.)
Catlin's summary of the race is thus:
"The North American Indian, in his native state, is an honest, hospitable, faithful, brave; warlike, cruel, revengeful, relentless—yet honorable—contemplative and religious being." (Vol. I., p. 8.)
Omitting here what he gives elsewhere, that the Redman is clean, virtuous, of splendid physique, a master of woodcraft, and that to many of his best representatives, the above evil adjectives do not apply.
Bishop Whipple thus sums up the wild Indian, after intimate knowledge, during a lifetime of associations, ("Century of Dishonor," Jackson; p. VII.):
"The North American Indian is the noblest type of a heathen man on the earth. He recognizes a Great Spirit; he believes in immortality; he has a quick intellect; he is a clear thinker; he is brave and fearless, and, until betrayed, he is true to his plighted faith; he has a passionate love for his children, and counts it a joy to die for his people. Our most terrible wars have been with the noblest types of the Indians and with men who had been the white man's friends. Nicolet said the Sioux were the finest type of wild men he had ever seen."
Why, then, has he so long been caluminated? "Be- cause," explains the Bishop, "Ahab never speaks kindly of Naboth whom he has robbed of his vineyard. It soothes conscience to cast mud on the character of the one whom we have wronged."
When General Crook, after he had crushed, and enabled the nation to plunder the Apaches, was ordered to the northward on a similar expedition against the Sioux, a friend said to him, "It is hard to go on such a campaign," the General replied, "Yes, it is hard; but, sir, the hardest thing is to go and fight those whom you know are in the right." ("Century of Dishonor," p. VI.)
Finally, let me reproduce in full the account by Bonneville, from which I have already selected portions:
In 1834, he visited the Nez Perces and Flatheads, and thus sums up these wholly primitive Indians, for they were as yet uncorrupted by the whiskey-trader or those who preached the love of money.
"They were friendly in their dispositions, honest to the most scrupulous degree in their intercourse with the white man." (P. 200.) " Simply to call these people religious would convey but a faint idea of the deep hue of piety and devotion which pervades their whole conduct. Their honesty is immaculate, and their purity of purpose and their observance of the rites of their religion are most uniform and remarkable. They are certainly more like a nation of saints than a horde of savages." ("Captain Bonneville's Narrative;" by Washington Irving, p. 171, 1837.)
It would, I know, be quite easy to collect incidents—true ones—that would seem to contradict each of these claims for the Redman, especially if we look among the degraded Indians of the Reservations. But I do not consider them disproofs any more than I consider our religion disproved by the countless horrors and wickedness recorded every day as our daily history, in every newspaper in every corner of the land. The fact remains that this was the ideal of the Indian, and many times that ideal was exemplified in their great men, and at all times the influence of their laws was strong.
One might select a hundred of these great Indians who led their people, as Plato led the Greeks or as Tolstoi led the Russians, and learn from each and all that dignity, strength, courtesy, courage, kindness, and reverence were indeed the ideals of the teepee folk, and that their ideal was realized more or less in all their history—that the noble Redman did indeed exist.
The earliest of the northern Indians to win immortal fame was the great Mohawk, Hiawatha. Although the Longfellow version of his life is not sound as history, we know that there was such a man; he was a great hero; he stood for peace, brotherhood, and agriculture; and not only united the Five Nations in a Peace League, but made provision for the complete extension of that League to the whole of America.
Pontiac, the Napoleon of his people; Tecumseh, the chevalier Bayard, who was great as warrior and statesman, as well as when he proclaimed the broad truths of humanity; Dull Knife, the Leonidas of the Cheyennes; Chief Joseph, the Xenophon of the Nez Perces; Wabasha, Little Wolf, Pita-Lesharu, Washakie, and a hundred others might be named to demonstrate the Redman's progress toward his ideals.
Who that reads this record can help saying: "If these things be true, then, judging by its fruits, the Indian way must be better than ours. Wherein can we claim the better thought or results?"
To answer is not easy. My first purpose was to clear the memory of the Redman. To compare his way with ours, we must set our best men against his, for there is little difference in our doctrine.
One great difference in our ways is that, like the early Christians, the Indian was a Socialist. The tribe owned the ground, the rivers and the game; only personal property was owned by the individual, and even that, it was considered a shame to greatly increase. For they held that greed grew into crime, and much property made men forget the poor.
Our answer to this is that, without great property, that is
The Indian's answer is, that all good things would have been established by the nation as it needed them; anything coming sooner comes too soon. The price of a very rich man is many poor ones, and peace of mind is worth more than railways and skyscrapers.
In the Indian life there was no great wealth, so also poverty and starvation were unknown, excepting under the blight of national disaster, against which no system can insure. Without a thought of shame or mendicancy, the young, helpless and aged all were cared for by the nation that, in the days of their strength, they were taught and eager to serve.
And how did it work out? Thus: Avarice, said to be the root of all evil, and the dominant characteristic of our race, was unknown among Indians, indeed it was made impossible by the system they had developed.
These facts long known to the few are slowly reaching all our people at large, in spite of shameless writers of history, that have done their best to discredit the Indian, and to that end have falsified every page and picture that promised to gain for him a measure of sympathy.
Here are the simple facts of the long struggle between the two races:
There never yet was a massacre of Indians by whites—and they were many—except in time of peace and made possible by treachery.
There never yet was an Indian massacre of whites except in times of declared war to resist invasion.
There never yet was an Indian war but was begun by the whites violating their solemn treaties, encroaching on the Indians' lands, stealing the Indians' property or murdering their people.
There never yet was a successful campaign of whites against Indians except when the whites had other Indians to scout, lead and guide them; otherwise the Redmen were too clever for the whites.
There never yet was a successful war of whites against Indians except when the whites were in overwhelming numbers,with superior equipments and unlimited resources.
There cannot be the slightest doubt that the Indian was crushed only by force of superior numbers. And had the tribes been united even, they might possibly have owned America to-day.
Finally, a famous Indian fighter of the most desperate period thus summarizes the situation and the character of the dispossessed:
"History can show no parallel to the heroism and fortitude of the American Indians in the two hundred years fight during which they contested inch by inch the possession of their country against a foe infinitely better equipped, with inexhaustible resources, and in overwhelming numbers. Had they even been equal in numbers, history might have had a very different story to tell." (Gen. Nelson A. Miles, U. S. A., Letter, February 16, 1912.)
I never yet knew a man who studied the Indians or lived among them, without becoming their warm friend and ardent admirer. Professor C. A. Nichols, of the Southwestern University, a deep student of Indian life, said to me, sadly, one day last autumn: "I am afraid we have stamped out a system that was producing men who, taken all around, were better than ourselves."
Our soldiers, above all others, have been trained to hate the Redmen, and yet the evidence of those that have lived years with this primitive people is, to the same effect as that of missionaries and travelers, namely, that the high-class Indian was brave; he was obedient to authority. He was kind, clean and reverent. He was provident, unsordid, hospitable, dignified, courteous, truthful, and honest. He was the soul of honor. He lived a life of temperance and physical culture that he might perfect his body, and so he achieved a splendid physique. He was a wonderful hunter, a master of woodcraft, and a model for outdoor life in this country. He was heroic and picturesque all the time. He knew nothing of the forgiveness of sin, but he remembered his Creator all the days of his life, and was in truth one of the finest types of men the world has ever known.
We set out to discover the noble Redman. Have we entirely failed?
Surely,it is our duty, at least, to do justice to his memory, and that justice shall not fail of reward. For this lost and dying type can help us in many ways that we need, even as he did help us in the past. Have we forgotten that in everything the white pioneer learned of woodcraft, the Indian was the teacher? And when at length came on the white man's fight for freedom, it was the training he got from the Redman that gave him the victory. So again, to fight a different enemy to-day, he can help us. And in our search for the ideal outdoor life, we cannot do better than take this Indian, with his reverence and his carefully cultured physique, as a model for the making of men, and as a pattern for our youth who would achieve high manhood, in the Spartan sense, with the added graces of courtesy, honor and truth.
The world knows no higher ideal than the Man of Galilee; nevertheless, oftentimes, it is helpful to the Plainsmen climbing Mount Shasta, if we lead them, first, to Sheep-Rock Shoulder, before attempting the Dome that looks, down upon the clouds.
The Medicine Man, standing in front of the ready-laid fire, opens Council thus:
"Meetak Kola nayhoon-po omnichceyay
nee-chopi—Hear me, my friends, we are about to hold a council.
"Now light we the Council Fire after the manner of the Forest children, not in the way of the white man, but—even as Wakonda himself doth light his fire—by the rubbing together of two trees in the storm-wind, so cometh forth the sacred fire from the wood of the forest."
(He uses the drill; the smoke comes, the flame bursts forth.) "Now know we that Wakonda, whose dwelling is above the Thunder-bird, whose messenger is the Thunderbird, hath been pleased to smile on his children, hath sent down the sacred fire. By this we know he will be present at our Council, that his wisdom will be with us.
"This is a Council of Peace, so light we first the Pipe of Peace."
(Kneeling at the fire he lights the pipe. As soon as it is going, he lifts the pipe grasped in both hands, with the stem toward the sky, saying):
To Wakonda; that his wisdom be with us. Hay-oon-kee-ya. Noon-way.
(All answer): Noon-way. (Amen, or this is our
prayer.)
To Maka Ina, Mother Earth, that she send us food, Hay-oon-kee-ya. Noon-way.
(All answer): Noon-way.
To Weeyo-peata, the Sunset Wind, that he come not in his
strength upon us. Hay-oon-kee-oon-ee-ya-snee. Noon-way.
(Then blows smoke and holds the stem to the west.)
(All answer): Noon-way.
To Wazi-yata, the Winter Wind, that he harm us not with
his cold, Hay-oon-kee-oon-ee-ya-snee. Noon-way. (Pipe as
before.)
(All answer): Noon-way.
To Weeyo-hinyan-pata, the Sunrise Wind, that he trouble
us not with his rain. Hay-oon-kee oon-ee-ya-snee.
Noon-way. (Pipe as before.)
(All answer): Noon-way.
To Okaga, the Hot Wind, that he strike us not with his fierce heat, Hay-oon-kee-oon-ee-ya-snee. Noon-way. (Pipe as before.)
(All answer): Noon-way.
Then the Medicine Man stands holding the pipe in one hand and proclaims aloud:
"Now with the Blessing of Wakonda and respite from the Tah-tee-yay To-pa, we may deal with business of gravest import,
doubting nothing, for wisdom from above is with us."
If the assemblage is mixed, each brave selects a squaw for this, ten to thirty couples taking part; otherwise, twenty braves can do it. They come out of the woods in proces- sion, form a circle about the fire; standing with both hands raised they look upward and sing the Omaha Tribal Prayer (see page 61). They sit in a large circle, alternately brave and squaw. Each squaw has a club by her side.
Squaws begin to sing the Coona song (Cahuilla Bird Dance Song) (next page) or Omaha Love
Song (p. 50, Fletcher), guided by Medicine Man and drum.
After going once around, each is back again near his squaw, and she holds out to him the war club and utters the little squaw yelp. Each brave takes his club, and now begins the crouch dance. Going three times around, and each time crouching lower while the squaws stand or sit in a circle, arms down tight to side, but bodies swaying in time to music. In the fourth round all are crouching very low and moving sideways, facing inward.
The music suddenly changes, and all do the slow sneak toward the centre with much pantomime. The squaws watch eagerly and silently, leaning forward, shading their eyes with one hand. All the braves strike the fire together, utter the loud war whoop, and stand for a moment with hands and weapons raised high, then, in time to the fast drum, dance quickly erect with high steps and high heads to the squaws who utter the squaw yelp for welcome, and all sit down as before.
The squaws begin the singing again, repeat the whole scene, but this time the chief falls when the block is struck, and is left lying there when the other braves retire.
His squaw stands up, and says: Mee-heheenna tuk-tay-ay-hay
natang ee-lang-chang-keeng." ("Where is my chief, he who led you to
battle?")
All look and whisper; his wife gets up to seek. Soon she finds him, and flinging herself on his breast with clasped hands, breaks forth in the lament for the dead, which is a high-pitched, quavering wail. The warriors lift him up and slowly carry him off the scene, out of sight, followed by the squaws, who, with heads bent, sing:
The easiest of our campfire dances to learn, and the best for quick presentation, is the Caribou Dance. I have put it on for public performance, after twenty minutes' rehearsing, with fellows who never saw it before; and it does equally well for indoor gymnasium or for campfire in the woods.
In the way of fixings for this, you need four pairs of horns and four tails. I
have seen real deer horns used, but they are scarce and heavy. It is better to
go out where you can get a few crooked limbs of oak, cedar, hickory, or apple
tree; and cut eight pair, as near like a, b, c, in the
cut as possible, each about two feet long and one inch thick at the butt. Peel
these; point the square ends of the branches, then lash them in pairs, thus (d). A pair, of course, is needed for each caribou. These
are held in the hand and above the head, or in the hand resting on the head.
The tails are made each out of one third of a flat barrel hoop of wood. At one
end of the hoop make four holes in pairs, an inch apart; thus (see f in cut). These, are for cords that pass over the
wearer's belt and through the hoop.
The hoop is then wrapped with white muslin and finished with a tuft of white
muslin strips on the end. The tail finished, looks (g),
and is stuck inside the wearer's belt, which goes through the two cord loops,
(h), shows a way of fastening on the tail with cord
only.
The four caribou are best in white. Three or four hunters are needed. They should have bows but no arrows. The Medicine Man should have a drum and be able to sing the Mujje Mukesin, as given, or other Indian dance tune. One or two fellows who can howl like wolves should be sent off to one side, and another that can yell like a lynx or a panther on the other side, well away from the ring. Now we are ready for
The Medicine Man begins by giving three thumps on his drum to call attention; then says in a loud, singing voice: "The Caribou have not come on our hunting grounds for three snows. We need meat. Thus only can we bring them back, by the big medicine of the Caribou Dance, by the power of the White Caribou."
He rolls his drum, then in turn faces each of the Winds, beckoning, remonstrating
and calling them by name. Kitchi-nodin (West); Keeway-din, (North); Wabani-nodin
(East); Shawani-nodin (South). Calling last to the quarter whence the caribou
are to come, finishing the call with a long Ko—Kee—Na. Then as he thumps a slow single beat the white
caribou come in at a stately pace timed to the drum. Their heads are high, and
they hold the horns on their heads, with one hand, as they proudly march around.
After going round once in a sun circle (same way as the sun), they go each to a
corner. The drum stops; all four approach to salute the great mystery in the
Then they circle once, close to the fire; stop on opposite sides of it, facing
outward; march each to a corner or compass point; and then bow or honor that wind, bellowing long.
Now the Medicine Man begins any good dance song and beats double time. The caribou dance around once in a circle. The music stops. The first and second, and third and fourth, close in combat. They lower their heads, lock horns held safely away from the head, lash tails, snort, kick up the dust, and dance around each other two or three times.
The music begins again, and they circle once.
The music stops. Now the first and fourth and second and third lock horns and fight.
After a round or so, the music begins again and they circle, dancing as before.
Now the howling of wolves is heard in the distance, from the fellows already posted.
The caribou rush toward that side and face it in a row, threatening, with horns low, as they snort, stamp, and kick up the dust.
The wolf-howling ceases. The caribou are victorious. They turn away and circle once to the music, holding their heads high.
The wolf-howling, panther-yelling (or other menacing sound) is now heard in the other direction.
Again the caribou line up and defy it. When it ceases, they dance proudly around, heads up, chests out as they step, for they have conquered every foe.
But a band of hunters appears, crawling flat on their breasts and carrying bows.
They crawl half around the ring, each telling those behind by signs, "Here they
are; we have found them." "Four big fellows." "Come on,"
The Medicine Man says: "Behold, it never fails; the Caribou dance brings the Caribou. It is great medicine. Now there is meat in the lodge."
For a large ring, the number of caribou might be doubled, and variations introduced whenever we find some one who can make good imitation of any animal or bird.
This is a Shoshoni celebration.* A procession is formed. The leader carries a bucket, a stool, or a basket upside down, for a low stand. The next one carries a dog's skull, or something like one. Wc have used a loaf of bread, provided with eyes and teeth, or a big puff ball. The next has a dish or a flat Indian basket or tray. The next two or three have feathers, and the rest have crackers or candies. The last is fixed up with a dog's mask and tail and runs on all-fours.
The procession comes in dancing and barking to a little dance tune. Goes once around.
Then the leader puts down the stand. The skull is set on it, and the tray on the ground before. The rest sit in a half circle in front.
The leader then kneels down and addresses the skull thus: "Dog! In the days of our fathers you were the one who dragged the lodge poles from camp to camp. Without you, we could have had no comfortable place in which to sleep. So I will dance and sing in your honor to-night."
He puts a feather in the dog's head, then dances his best dance, while the rest sing, " Yap-yap, Yap-yap, Yap-yap, Yow-w-w-o" in imitation of a dog barking on a rising scale, finishing with a long howl.
The leader has now danced to the other end of the half-circle and sits down.
The next comes and addresses the skull: "Dog! In times of war you were the one who guarded the camp at night. No one could surprise us when you were on watch. Nothing could make you betray us. So I will dance and sing in your honor to-night!"
He adds a feather and dances his best, while the rest "Yap" the dog chorus. Then he sits at the opposite end of the circle.
The next comes and says, perhaps "Dog! In the days of our fathers, you were the one who could follow the wounded deer. You made the hunting a success. So I will dance and sing in your honor to-night." He adds a feather or a candy, and dances. (Yap, yap, as before.)
The next says: "Dog! When I was a little pappoose, I wandered from the village and fell in the river. No one saw me. I should have been drowned, but you jumped in and pulled me out. So I will dance and sing in your honor to-night." He adds his contribution and dances.
The next says, "Dog! You were the one who cleaned op the camp, so we were not troubled with flies."
Others thank the dog for finding the lost children, for giving alarm when an enemy approached, for killing a rattler, for finding the lost medicine bag, etc.
Then the last one, the boy dog, comes up and barks at the head.
Finally, the leader resumes, saying: "Yes, Dog! You were the one that dragged the lodge poles. You were the one that found the wounded deer, etc. And best of all, first, last, and all the time, you were our faithful friend, and all you asked in return was a bite to eat and a place to lie down. And so long as the blue sky is above the green grass you will be the friend of the prairie children. Then, when at last we cross over the great river, and see behind the Divide, we hope we shall find awaiting us our old friend, the Dog that we may take up our friendship again, and continue on and on in the good country where no white man or smallpox ever comes."
Then they pass around the dish and eat the crackers and candies; offering things to the dog, and honoring him as much as possible with a variety of stage "business. Finally, all go off, carrying the various things and barking as they came.
Select a good dancer for leader. All form line, holding hands, carefully graded so the least is last. Then dancing in step to the music, they set out in a line, follow-my-leader style, doubling the line on itself, and evoluting around the fire. Sometimes the dancers face alternately—that is, all the even numbers in the line look one way and the odd another.
A good finish is to curl in a tight spiral around the head, when the tail boy mounts on the back of the one before him end shakes a rattle, like a rattler rattling on its coil.
Any number of hunters up to twenty can take part in this game. Each one is armed with a war club. This is made of straw tied around two or three willow switches, and tightly sewn up in burlap. It should be about three feet long, one inch thick at the handle, and three or four inches through at the top.
Each hunter must make a wooden claw two inches long (see Cut*) and a wooden bead three quarters of an inch long. The bead is usually a piece of elder with the pith pushed out. The claw is painted black toward the base. The tip is left the natural color of the wood. The bead is painted red. These beads and claws are strung alternately to form a necklace. There should be twenty in each. Finally, a toy balloon is blown up tight and put in a small bag; this is the bear's heart.
Now select a bear. Take the biggest, if several offer. He may be made realistic with wool or fur. Put the necklace on him; strap the bag on his back; then give him a club, also three dens or mountains about one hundred yards apart.
First, the Big Bear comes in and addresses the audience:
Then he stalks off to his den.
Now the hunters come in, and, facing the audience, the leader says:
Or, as an alternative prose reading, he says:
"I am Chief of the Black Hawk Band. These are my chosen warriors; the pick of my tribe. We go to hunt the Mishi-Mokwa, the Big Bear of the mountains. He is big and terrible. He kills our people every day. Many of us may die in the fight, but living or dead, we shall win glory. Now we dance the war dance."
All give the war whoop and dance, imitating a bear on his hind legs. At intervals, when the music changes, every other one strikes his neighbor on the back with his club, at which he turns and growls horribly.
Chief: "Now we go to seek the foe."
They set out, looking for the trail. They find it and follow, studying the ground, smelling it, peeking and pointing here and there till they get pretty close to the Big Bear, whereupon he rouses up with a growl. The warriors spring back, but, encouraged by the Chief, they form a circle and approach the bear. The Chief shouts:
"Ho, Mishi-Mokwa, we have found you. Come forth now, for I mean to club your head, and take that necklace for my own neck. Come forth now. You are very brave when you find an77 Songs, Dances, and Ceremonies old squaw picking berries, but you do not like the looks of this band. If you do not come before I count a hundred, I shall brand you a coward wherever I go."
(As alternative reading, a verse):
The bear springs forth, growling. He uses his club freely, trying to knock the hunters' hats off. Once a hat is off, the owner is dead and must drop beside it.
The bear makes for his second mountain or den, and he is safe as long as he is in, or touching, a den. But again the hunters force him to come out, by taunts and by counting. He must continue to go the rounds of his three dens till either the bear or all the hunters are killed.
One good blow on the bear's heart breaks it with a loud "bang." Then the bear must fall; he is dead. The warrior who dealt the fatal blow, no matter who, now becomes the leader, the others join in with war whoops. He takes the necklace from the bear's neck. Then, standing with one foot on the bear, he brandishes his club, shouting, "Ha, ha, how, now, Mishi-Mokwa! Yesterday you did not know me. Now you know me; know my war club. I am none but Hiawatha."
The reviving hunters drag the bear before the grandstand
Hiawatha replies:
(Medicine Man): "What! is it true?"
(All answer): "Yes; Gray Wolf is dead; Whooping Crane," and so on.
(Medicine Man):
(All run to get these things.)
The Medicine Man makes a fire, throws in the things, and as the smoke goes up, he blows it with his robe to the four quarters of the heavens, saying:
(They all stir a little.)
(They stir again.)
(They all jump up and join the circle amid cheers and greetings from the others.)
(The Medicine Man now says):
All join in a war-dance to drum, around the body of the bear.
If, on the other hand, all the hunters are killed by the bear, he comes forward and hands the necklace to the Medicine Man, saying:
The Medicine Man takes the necklace, holds it up, and replies:
(He puts it on the bear's neck.)
(All jump up now, cheering. They dance around the bear, shaking his paw, and grunting, "How, how, how.")
The winner, whether bear or chief, keeps the necklace as his own, and may have the title if he desires it; in one case, of Mishi-Mokwa, in the other of Hiawatha, Bear-killer, or Grizzly-chief.
This is a French song game. Somewhat like our "Button, Button," or the Indian Moccasin Game. The players sit in a circle with hands on a cord which goes all around. On the cord is a ring, which is passed secretly from one to another as they sing the song on next page. Each time the singing ends, the one in the middle has to guess who holds the ring. If he fails he pays a forfeit. If he wins the loser takes his place.
Published by The Century Company, Union Square, New York City.
Published by Doubleday, Page & Company, Garden City, N. Y.
It will be found stimulating to offer a grand prize for the individual that scores the highest in the whole camp- out, according to a given scale of points. We usually call this a Robe Contest, because the favorite prize is a Sagamore's robe—that is, a blanket decorated with figures in colored wools or in appliqué work. A war shirt also makes a good prize. The standard for points used at our last camp was as follows: All events for which the fixed standards allow more than 5 minutes, 20 and 5 points as winner and loser. All less than 5 minutes, 10 and 2.
Sturgeon: The crews get, each, 10 for every sturgeon they land.
Deer hunt: The winners score 10 for each deer hunted; the losers score 2 for each deer hunted.
Each fellow who wished to be in it was allowed for his contribution to the Council entertainment: For songs: up to 25 points each; for long stories, up to 25 points each; for jokes, up to 25 points each; for stunts, up to 25 points each; for hand wrestling and other competitions, 5 on for winner, 5 off for loser. All challenges not given in Council must be handed to the committee for approval, three hours before running off.
Prizes: 1st man, 15; 2d, 10; 3d, 5 points.
All competitions must be on the present camp ground. Extra points up to 25 per day for neatness and extra service. Campfire up to 25 for each of the two keepers. Dock up to any number for breach of laws. For each hour of camp service, 10 points per hour. Articles made since camp began up to 50 points. All points must be handed in as soon as made. The Council may refuse those held back. Those who have won robes are not to enter for present contest. Those under 14, or over 35, get 10 per cent, handicap; those over 14 and under 18 get 5 per cent.
Each must get up and tell a short story. No excuses allowed. It is better to try
and fail, than not to try. The one who fails to try is a
quitter.
I think it is a good rule in hiking, never to set out with the determination that
you are going to show how hardy you are. It is as bad as
setting out to show how smart you are. "Smart Aleck"
always lands in the gutter. Do not set out to make a record. Record breakers
generally come to grief in the end. Set out on your hike determined to be moderate. That is, take a few fellows; not more than a dozen. Plan a moderate trip, of which not more than half the time must be consumed
in going and coming.
For example, if it is Saturday afternoon, and you must be home by six o'clock,
having thus four hours, I should divide it in two hours' travel, going and
coming, and two hours' exploration. Three miles is a moderate walk for
LET each Scout carve a fork and spoon out of wood, with his band totem on handle.
Make a needle case out of a fowl's leg or wing bone,
thus: Clean and smooth about three inches of the bone plug up one end with a
soft wood plug and make a, wooden stopper for the other end. Then with the point
of a knife decorate the bone. The lines should be scratched in deeply and then
have black paint rubbed into them. If no black paint is handy make a mixture of
soot and pine gum, with a little grease, butter or oil.
Make a tackle box or ditty box
2x2x6 inches carved out of solid wood.
Make peach-stone baskets, of a peach-stone shaped with a
file.
Turkey call. An interesting curio is the turkey call.
Take a small cigar box and cut off the end as in the figure. Get a piece of
slate about 2x3 inches long, or, failing slate, take a flat piece of wood and
rub it well with rosin. Draw the two curved edges of the box lightly up this one
way, and it will make a wonderfully good imitation of a turkey call.
A Chicken squawk. This is another call easily made. Take
any small round tin box—a condensed milk tin is good—and make a hole
through the bottom and into this put a cord. A knot on the inside prevents the
cord from
Picture frames as in the above illustrations.
Also make beds of willow rods, grass rugs, baskets of
spruce roots, etc. as described elsewhere.
Birch-bark boxes and baskets.
These are easily made if the bark be softened in hot water before you shape it.
The lacing is spruce roots, also softened with hot water.
(See "How to Make Baskets," by Mary White, Doubleday, Page & Co., $1 plus 10 cents postage.)
A good indoor activity of Scouts is the making of souvenir spoons. Some craftsmen are clever enough to make these out of wood or of silver. I have found that the best, easy-working material is bone, deer antler or horn. Go to any big drug shop and get one of the 25-cent horn spoons. It is already of a good spoon-shape, of course. The handle is hard, smooth, and ready to be ornamented with any device, cutting it with knife or file, into the owner's totem, or the clan or the tribal totems which naturally suggest themselves
The design should be sketched on with pencil or ink, then realized by shaping the outline with file or knife. The inner lines are merely scratched on the surface.
In general, one should avoid changing the main outline of the spoon handle or cutting it enough to weaken it. Always, rather, adapt the animal to fill the desired space.
There are several purposes the spoon can answer: First as a spoon in camp, especially when prizes are offered to the camp that makes most of its own equipment; next, as a salable article- third, as exhibition article when it is de- sired to get up a fine exhibit of handicraft products illustrating camp life.
The following are standard knots that an accomplished camper should know. Remember a perfect knot is one that's neither jambs nor slips.
An Indian showed me this, though I have since seen it among whites!
Put your hands together as in the drawing, palms also touching.
The thumbs are you and your brother. You can separate easily— like that.
The first fingers are you and your father, you can separate not quite so easily—like that:
The little fingers are you and your sister, you can separate, but that comes a little harder still—like that.
The middle fingers are you and your mother, you can separate, but it is hard—see that.
The ring fingers are you and your sweetheart, you cannot separate without everything else going first to pieces.
A Texan showed me an interesting trick on the table. He took six wooden toothpicks, bent them sharply in the middle, and laid them down in the form shown in "A."
"Now," he says, "when our people got possession of Texas, it was nothing but a
wilderness of cactus spines.
As we watched, the water caused the toothpicks to straighten out until they made the pattern of a star as in "B."
A good line of winter work is making bird boxes to have them ready for the spring birds.
Two styles of bird houses are in vogue; one a miniature house on a pole, the other is an artificial hollow limb in a tree.
First—the miniature cabin or house on a pole. This is very good for martins, swallows, etc., and popular with most birds, because it is safest from cats and squirrels. But most of us consider it far from ornamental.
To make one, take any wooden box about six inches square put a wooden roof on it
(a in Cut), then bore a hole in the middle of one end, making it one and one
half inches wide, and on the bottom nail a piece of two-inch wood with an inch
auger hole in it (b). Drive in a nail for a perch below the door and all is
ready for a coat o soft, dive, green paint. After this is dry, the box is
finished. When you set it in place, the end of the pole is shaved to fit tight
into the auger hole in the bottom, and the pole then set up, or fastened to the
end of the building. In the latter case a six or eight foot pole is long enough.
In some neighborhoods it is necessary to put tin as a cat and rat guard, on
These large apartment houses are very popular with the purple martin, as well as with the English sparrow if they are set up in town.
Alexander Wilson tells us that the Choctaw and Chicasaw Indians used to make bird
houses for the
But the wild-wood box or hollow limb is more sightly and for some birds more attractive. There are several ways of using the natural limb. One is, take a seven or eight inch stick of chestnut about twenty inches long, split four slabs off it: (O) then saw off three inches of each end of the "core " and nail the whole thing together again (P and Q), omitting the middle part of the core.
Another way is to split the log in half and scoop out the interior of each half (L and M). When nailed together again it makes a commodious chamber, about five inches wide and a foot or more deep.
Another plan is: Take a five-inch limb of green chest- nut, elm, or any other tough-barked tree Cut a piece eighteen inches long, make a long bevel on one end (e). Now carefully split the bark on one side and peel it Then saw the peeled wood into three pieces (f g h), leave out g and put the bark on again. Cut a hole in the bark on the longest side, at the place farthest from the beveled end (x in e), and your bird nest is finished The beveled end is there to make it easily nailed up; when in place, it is as at I. The front—that is, the side where the door is—should always be the under one; and the door in each case should be near the top.
But these methods presuppose a fine big stick of wood I have more often found it convenient to work with scraps.
Here is one easy way that I have long used: From a four or five inch round log
saw off two sections each two inches thick, or failing a log, cut out two
circles from a two-inch plank, for top and bottom parts (like f and h),
This last has the advantage of giving most room in a small log. Of course, if one can find a hollow limb, all this work is saved. By way of variety this one can be put up hanging from a nail, for which the wire loop is made.
To a great extent the size of hole regulates the kind of bird, as most birds like a tight fit.
For wrens make it about one inch; for bluebirds, and tree-swallows one and one half inches; for martins two and one half inches.
For latest ideas send to The Jacobs Bird House Company, 404 So. Washington Street, Waynesburg, Pa.
See also the "Making of a Hollow Tree," By E. T. Seton, Country Life in America, November, 1908, and seq.
"Putting up Bird Boxes," By B. S. Bowdish (special leaflet), Audubon Society, 141 Broadway, New York. 15 cents per dozen.
"Useful Birds and Their Protection," By E. H. Forbush, Massachusetts State Board Agriculture, p. 388.
A good Woodcrafter always "travels on his own steam." When you want to go camping, don't go round begging for the cash, but earn it. And a good time to do this is in the winter when you are forced to stay indoors.
How? One way, much in the line of our work, is making
You can either sell them in a lot to a man who has already a shop for garden stuff or hardware, or put them on a hand cart and sell them at much better prices yourself. It is useless to take them to a farmer, or to folks in town, but a ready sale will be found among the well-to-do in the suburbs, in a country town, or among the summer residents of the country. The simple boxes might fetch 50 cents each, the more elaborate $1.00 or $2.00 according to the labor they have cost you.
Another way is the manufacture of Indian stuff such as furniture, birch-bark boxes, baskets, rustic seats, etc., as described elsewhere in the book. See index.
I HAVE certainly made a thousand fires with rubbing-sticks, and have made at
least live hundred different experiments. So far as I can learn, my own record
of thirty-one seconds from taking the sticks to having the fire ablaze is the
world's record, and I can safely promise this: That every boy who will follow
the instructions I now give will certainly succeed in
making his rubbing-stick fire.
Take a piece of dry, sound, balsam-fir wood (or else cedar, cypress, tamarac, basswood or cottonwood, in order of choice) and make of it a drill and a block, thus:
Drill. Five eighths of an inch thick, twelve to fifteen
inches long; roughly rounded, sharpened at each end as in the cut (Cut I a).
Block, or board, two inches wide,
six or eight inches long, five eighths of an inch thick. In this block, near one
end, cut a side notch one half an inch deep, wider on the under side; and near
its end half an inch from the edge make a little hollow or pit in the top of the
block, as in the illustration (Cut I b).
Tinder. For tinder use a wad of fine, soft, very dry,
dead grass mixed with shredded cedar bark, birch bark or even cedar wood scraped
into a soft mass.
Bow. Make a bow of any bent stick two feet long, with a
strong buckskin or belt-lacing thong on it (Cut 1 c).
Socket. Finally, you need a socket. This simple little
thing is made in many different ways. Sometimes I use a pine or hemlock knot
with a pit one quarter inch deep, made by boring with the knife point. But it is
a great help to have a good one made of a piece of smooth, hard stone or marble,
set in wood; the stone or marble having in it a smooth, round pit three eighths
inch wide and three eighths inch deep. The one I use most was made by the
Eskimo. 4 view of the under side is shown in Cut 1 (fig. d).
Now, we are ready to make the fire:
Under the notch in the fire-block set a thin chip.
Turn the leather thong of the bow once around the drill: the thong should now be
quite tight. Put one point of the drill into the pit of the block, and on the
upper end put the socket, which is held in the left hand, with the top of the
drill in the hole of the stone (as in Cut 2). Hold the left wrist against the
left shin, and the left foot on the fire-block. Now, draw the right hand back
and forth steadily on level and the full length of the
bow. This causes the drill to twirl in the pit. Soon it bores in, grinding out
powder,
In the suggested programs I have given a number of outlines for one-day hikes.
For those who wish to find out
I remember a hike of the snow-track kind that afforded myself and two boy friends a number of thrills, more than twenty-five years ago.
There were three of us out on a prowl through the woods, looking for game. We saw
no live thing, but there had been a fall of soft snow, a few days before; tracks
were abundant, and I proposed that each of us take a track and follow it through
thick and thin, until he found the beast, which, if living and free, was bound
to be at the other end of the line; or, until he found its den. Then, each
should halloa to let the others know that his quarry was holed. Close by were
the tracks of a mink and of two skunks. The mink-track was my guide. It led
southward. I followed it through swamps and brushwood, under logs, and into
promising nooks. Soon I crossed the trail of the youngest boy, closely punning
his skunk. Later, I met my friend of skunk No. 2, but our trails diverged. Now I
came to a long hill clown which my mink had tobogganed six or eight feet, after
the manner of the otter. At last the trail came to an end in a perfect labyrinth
of logs and brush. I went all around this. The snow was clear and smooth. My
mink was certainly in this pile. So I let off a long halloa and got an answer
from one of the boys, who left his trail and came to me within a few minutes. It
happened that this one, Charlie, was carrying a bag with a ferret in it, that
I never did like a ferret. He is such an imp of murder incarnate. It always gives me the creeps to see the blood- thirsty brute, like a four-legged snake, dive into some hole, with death and slaughter as his job. I hate him; but, after all, there is something thrilling and admirable about his perfectly diabolical courage. How would one of us like to be sent alone into a dark cave, to find out and fight some unknown monster, much larger than ourselves, and able, for aught we know, to tear us into pieces in a moment!
But the ferret never faltered; he dived into the log labyrinth. It was a small
ferret and a big mink; I awaited anxiously. After a long silence, we saw our
four-footed partner at the farther end, unruffled, calm and sinuous.
Now, we heard the shout of hunter No. 2. We answered. He came to us to say that, after faithfully following his skunk-trail leader for two hours, through forest, field and fen, he had lost it in a host of tracks in a ravine some half-a-mile away.
So we gave our undivided attention to skunk No. 1, and in a few minutes had
traced him to a hole, into which there led a multitude of trails, and from which
there issued an odor whose evidence was beyond question. Again we submitted the
case to our subterranean representative, and nothing loth the ferret glided
down. But presently reappeared, much as he went, undisturbed and unodorized.
Again and again he was sent down, but with the same result. So at length we
thrust him ignominiously into the bag. The ferret's owner said there was no
skunk; the rest of us said there was, but that the ferret was "scared," "no
good," etc. Then, a plan suggested itself for clearing or convicting that best
of all ferrets. We plugged up the skunk hole, and went back to the house. It
seemed that the youngest brother of one of my companions had a tiny pet dog, a
toy, the darling of his heart—just such a dog as you read about; a most
miserable, pampered, cross, ill-bred, useless and snarling little beast, about
the size of a large rat. Prince was his name, for Abraham, his little master,
never lost an opportunity of asserting that this was the prince of all dogs, and
that his price was above rubies. But Prince had made trouble for Bob more than
once, and Bob was ready to sacrifice Prince on the altar of science, if need be.
Indeed, Satan had entered into Hob's heart and sketched there a Plausible but
wicked plan. So this boy set to work and
Soon afterward, Prince reappeared, howling. For some minutes he did nothing but
roll himself in the snow, rub his eyes and yell. So that after all, in spite of
our ferret's evidence, there was a skunk in the hole,
and the ferret had really demonstrated a vast discretion; in fact, was probably
the discreetest ferret in Canada.
We had got good proof of that skunk's existence but we did not get him, and had to go home wondering how we should square ourselves for our sacrilege in the matter of the pet dog. It was Bob's job to explain, and no one tried to rob him of the glory. He began by sowing a few casual remarks, such as, "Pears to me there must be a skunk under the barn." Then, later, when Prince bounded in, "Phew! 'pears to me that there fool purp has been after that skunk!"
Poor little Prince! It made him lose his nightly couch in Abraham's bosom and condemned him to be tubbed and scrubbed every day, and to sleep outdoors for a week. But he had his revenge on all of us; for he barked all night, and every night, under our windows. He couldn't sleep; why should we? And we didn't.
Of course, this instance is given rather as a dreadful example of error than as a model for others.
We got back from our hike that time with a lot of interesting wild animal experience, and yet you will note w« did not see any wild animal all the time.
(Another version)
(Still another)
If the sun goes down cloudy Friday, sure of a clear Sunday.
If a rooster crows standing on a fence or high place, it will clear. If on the ground, it doesn't count.
Fog in the morning, bright sunny day.
If it rains, and the sun is shining at the same time, the devil is whipping his wife and it will surely rain to-morrow.
If it clears off during the night, it will rain shortly again
Sun drawing water, sure sign of rain.
A circle round the moon means "storm." As many stars as are in circle, so many days before it will rain.
Sudden heat brings thunder.
A storm that comes against the wind is always a thunder- storm.
The oak and the ash draw lightning. Under the birch the cedar, and balsam you are safe.
East wind brings rain.
West wind brings clear, bright, cool weather.
North wind brings cold.
South wind brings heat. (On Atlantic coast.)
The rain-crow or cuckoo (both species) is supposed by all hunters to foretell rain, when its "Kow, kow, kow" is long and hard.
So, also, the tree-frog cries before rain.
Swallows flying low is a sign of rain; high, of clearing weather.
The rain follows the wind, and the heavy blast is just before the shower.
A settlement worker once said to me: "It's all very well talking of the pleasures of nature study, but what use is it to my little Italians and Polish Jews in the slums of New York? They get no chance to see the face of nature."
"If they do not," I replied, "it is their own fault. They watch the pavements too
much for coppers; they are forever looking down. To-night you ask them to look up. If the sky is clear, they will have a noble
chance."
Yes! the stars are the principle study for outdoors at night and above all in winter time; for not only are many of the woodcraft pursuits impossible now, but the nights are long, the sky is clear, and some of the most famous stargroups are visible to us only in winter.
So far as there is a central point in our heavens, that point is the Pole Star—Polaris. Around this all the stars in the sky seem to turn once in twenty-four hours. It is easily discovered by the help of the Pointers, or Dipper. known to every country boy in America.
Most of the star-groups are known by the names of human figures or animals. The modern astronomers laugh at and leave out these figures in the sky; but we shall find it a great help to memory and interest if we revive and use them; but it is well to say now that it is not because the form of the group has such resemblance, but because there is some traditional association of the two. For example:
The classical legend has it that the nymph Callisto, having violated her vow, was
changed by Diana into a bear, which, after death was immortalized in the sky by
Zeus. Another suggestion is that the earliest astronomers, the Chaldeans, called
these stars "the shining ones," and their word happened to be very like the
Greek Arktos (a bear). Another explanation (I do not
know who is authority for either) is that vessels in olden days were named for
animals, etc. They bore at the prow the carved effigy of their namesake, and if
the "Great Bear," for example, made several very happy voyages by setting out
when a certain constellation was in the ascendant, that constellation might
become known as the Great Bear's Constellation.
It is no doubt, because it is so conspicuous, that the Great Bear is the oldest
of all the constellations, in a human historical sense. Although it has no
resemblance to a Bear, the tail part has obvious resemblance to a Dipper, by which name it is known to most Americans.
Therefore, because so well known, so easily pointed out, and so helpful in
pointing out the other stars, this Dipper will be our starting point and shall
prove our Key to the whole sky.
If you do not know the Dipper, get some one who does to point it out; or look in the northern sky for the shape shown in Cut, remembering that it goes around the Pole Star every twenty-four hours, so that at different times it is seen at different places.
Having found the Dipper, note carefully the two stars marked b and a; these, the outer rim of the Dipper bowl are called the Pointers, because they point to, or nearly to, the Pole Star; the latter being about three dipper rims (a d) away from the Dipper.
Now, we have found the great Pole Star, which is called by Indians the "Star that
never moves" and the "Home Ursa minor; this Bear, evidently, of an extinct
race, as bears, nowadays, are not allowed such tails.
Now, let us take another view of the Dipper. Its handle is really the tail of the
Great Bear, also of the extinct long-tailed race. (Cut 2.) Note that it is
composed of seven stars, hence its name, "The Seven Stars." Four of these are in
the bowl and three in the handle; the handle is bent at the middle star, and
this one is called Mizar. Just above Mizar is a tiny star called Alcor. Can you
see Alcor? In all ages it has been considered a test of good eyesight to see
this little star, even among the Indians. They call the big one the Old Squaw,
and the little one the "pappoose on her back." Keep this in mind as a test. Can you see the pappoose?
If I give you the Latin names of the stars and the scientific theories as to their densities and relations, you certainly will not carry much of it away. But let us see if the old animal stories of the sky are not a help.
In Cut No. 2 of the Great Bear Hunt, for instance, you see the Dipper in the tail
of the long-tailed Bear; and not only is this creature hunted, but in many other
troubles. Thus, there is a swarm of flies buzzing about his ear, and another on
his flank below b of the Dipper. These swarms are really nebulæ or clusters of very small stars.
Close below the Bear are two Hounds of Boötes in leash and in full pursuit of Ursa. They also have annoyances, for there is a swarm of flies at the ear of each. On Ursa's haunch are two areas that, according to the star maps, belong to the Hounds, so we must consider them the bites the hounds are going to take out.
Last, and leading, is the great hunter "Boötes." If you follow the Dipper,
that is, the Bear's tail, in a curve for
Just above the head of Boötes is another well-known constellation, the
Northern Crown. (Corona borealis.) This very small and
very beautiful star-group has been called the "Diamond Necklace in the sky."
because it looks like a circle of jewels with one very large one in the middle
of the string. The Indians call it the Camp Circle of the Gods.
If you draw a line from the back rim of the Dipper through Mizar, that is, the star at the bend of the handle, and continue about the total length of the Dipper, it will touch the Crown.
The step from the Crown to the Cross is natural, and is easy in the sky. If you
draw a line upward from the middle of the Dipper bowl, straight across the sky,
about three total Dipper lengths, until it meets the Milky Way, you reach the
Northern Cross, which is also called Cygnus, the
One more easily known group is now in sight, that is, Cassiopeia in her chair. It is exactly opposite the Big Dipper on the other side of the Pole Star, and about as far from the latter as the Big Dipper is, that is, the Big Dipper and Cassiopeia balance each other; as the one goes up, the other goes down.
There is yet another famous constellation that every one should know; and that is "Orion, the great hunter, the Bullfighter in the sky." During the summer, it goes on in day-time, but in winter it rises in the evening and passes over at the best of times to be seen. February is a particularly happy time for this wonder and splendor of the blue.
If you draw a line from the inner rim of the Dipper, through the outer edge of
the bottom, and continue it about two and a half total lengths of the Dipper, it
will lead to the Star "Procyon" the "Little Dogstar," the principal light of the
constellation Canis minor. Below it, that is, rising
later, is Sirius the "Great Dogstar," chief of the Constellation Canis major, and the most wonderful star in the sky. It
is really seventy times as brilliant as the Sun, but so far away from us, that
if the Sun's distance (92,000,000 miles) be represented by one inch, the
distance of Sirius would be represented by eight miles;
and yet it is one of the nearest of the stars in the sky. If you see a star that
seems bigger or brighter than Sirius, you may know it is not a star, but a
planet, either Venus, Jupiter or Mars.
Having located the Dogstar, it is easy to go farther to the southward, and
recognize the Great Hunter Orion. The
Serviss tells us that the Pleiades have a supposed connection with the Great
Pyramid, because about 2170 B. C, when the beginning of spring coincided with
the culmination of the Pleiades at midnight, that wonderful group of stars was
visible just at midnight
Out of Orion's left foot runs the River Eridanus, to wander over the sky; and,
crouching for protection at the right foot of the Great Hunter, is Lepus the Hare.
Now, how many constellations have you learned? In Woodcraft you need fifteen. This sounds hard but. here you have already got seventeen, and I think will have little trouble in remembering them.
And why should you do so? There are many reasons, and here is one that alone would, I think, make it worth while:
An artist friend said to me once: "I am glad I learned the principal star groups when I was young. For my life has been one of wandering in far countries, yet, wherever I went, I could always look up and see something familiar and friendly, something that I knew in the dear bygone days of my boyhood's home, and something to guide me still."
This star group has always been considered a good test of eyesight.
I once asked a group of boys in camp how many of the Pleiades they could count with the naked eye. A noisy, forward boy, who was nicknamed "Bluejay," because he was so fond of chattering and showing off, said, "Oh, I see hundreds."
"Well, you can sit down," I said, "for you can do nothing of the kind."
Another steadier boy said, "I believe I see six," and he proved that he did sec them, for he mapped them out properly on a board with six pebbles.
That boy had good eyes, because poor eyes see merely a haze, but another boy
present had better eyes, for he saw,
The telescope reveals some 2,000 in the cluster.
The Indians call them the "Seven Dancers," and tell a legend that seems to explain their dancing about the smallest one, as well as the origin of the constellation.
Once there were seven little Indian boys, who used to take their bowl of succotash each night and eat their suppers together on a mound outside the village. Six were about the same size, one was smaller than the rest, but he had a sweet voice, and knew many songs, so after supper the others would dance around the mound to his singing, and he marked time on his drum.
When the frosty days of autumn were ending, and winter
They asked, but all were refused. Each father said, "When I was a little boy, I thought myself lucky to get even.a pot of succotash, and never thought of asking for venison as well."
So the boys assembled at the mound. All were gloomy but the little singer, who said:
"Never mind, brothers! We shall feast without venison, and we shall be merry just the same, for I shall sing you a new song that will lighten your hearts."
First, he made each of them fasten on his head a little torch of birch bark, then he sat down in the middle and thumped away at his little drum and sang:
And faster
And faster still, till now they were spinning round. Then:
They were fairly whirling now, and, as the singer gave this last whoop of the
last dance on the mound, they and he went dancing over the treetops into the
sky; light of heart and heels and bead, they went, and their parents rushed out
in time to see them go, but too late to stop them. And now you may see them
every clear autumn night as winter draws near; you may see the little torches
sparkling as they
There is another story of a little Indian girl called Two-Bright-Eyes. She was the only child of her parents. She wandered away one evening seeking the whippoorwill and got lost—you see, even Indians get lost sometimes. She never returned. The mourning parents never learned what became of her, but they thought they saw a new pair of twin stars rising through the trees not long after, and when their grief was so softened by time that they could sing about it, this is the song they made about their loss:
The stars we see are suns like our Sun, giving out light to worlds that go around
them as our world goes around our Sun; as these worlds do not give out light,
and are a long
They are so close to us that their distance and sizes are easily measured. They do not twinkle.
There are eight, in all, not counting the small Planetoids; but only those as large as stars of the first magnitude concern us. They are here in order of nearness to the Sun:
The Moon is one fifth the diameter of the Earth, about one fiftieth of the bulk,
and is about a quarter million miles away. Its course, while very irregular, is
nearly the same as the apparent course of the Sun. But "in winter the full Moon
is at an altitude in the sky near the limit attained by the Sun in summer, . . .
and even, at certain times, five degrees higher. It is the contrary in summer, a
season when the Moon remains very low" (F.).
The Moon goes around the Earth in twenty-seven and a quarter days. It loses nearly three quarters of an hour each night; that is, it rises that much later.
"Astronomy with an Opera Glass." Garrett P. Serviss, D. Appleton & Co., New York City. Price, $1.50.
When I was a boy we had no natural swimming pool, but there was a small stream across our farm; and I with my two friends succeeded in making a pool, partly by damming up the little stream, and partly by digging out the place above the dam.
The first things needed were two logs long enough to
This cribbing we now filled with clay dug out of the bed of the brook above the dam. Hammering it down hard, and covering the top with flat stones.
Finally we closed up the sluice-way with stakes and clay like the rest of it, and in one night the swimming hole filled up. Next morning there was a little cataract over the low place I had purposely left for an overflow. The water was four feet deep and many of us there learned to swim.
If you should miss your way, the first thing to remember is, like the Indian, "You are not lost; it is the teepee that is lost." It isn't serious. It cannot be so, unless you do something foolish.
The first and most natural thing to do is to get on a hill, up a tree, or other high lookout, and seek for some landmark near the camp. You may be so sure of these things:
In a word, "keep cool, make yourself comfortable, leave a record of your travels, and help your friends to find you."
Oftentimes, a camper may need a pair of tweezers or forceps to pull out a thorn or catch some fine end. If he happens to be without the real thing, he can supply the place with those of Indian style —these are simply a small pair of clam-shells, with edges clean and hinge unbroken.
The old-time Indians had occasionally a straggly beard. They had no razor, but they managed to do without one. As a part of their toilet for special occasion they pulled out each hair by means of the clamshell nippers.
If you happen to have a magnet, it is easy to make a compass. Rub a fine needle on the magnet; then on the side of your nose. Then lay it gently on the surface of a cup full of water. The needle will float and point north.
The cup must not be of metal.
To make an Indian shadow clock or sundial, prepare a smooth board about fifteen
inches across, with a circle divided by twenty-four rays into equal parts. Place
it on a level, solid post or stump in the open. At night set the dial so that
the twelve o'clock line points exactly north, as determined by the Pole Star and
nail it down. Then, fix a stick or pointer with its upper edge on the centre and
set it exactly pointing to the Pole Star (a b); that is, the same angle as the
latitude of the place, and fix it there immovably; it may be necessary to cut a
notch (c) in the board to permit of a sight line. The hours eight at night to
four next morning may as well be painted black. As a timepiece, this shadow
clock will be found roughly correct.
For camp use, there is nothing better than the Stonebridge folding lantern, with a good supply of candles. A temporary torch can readily be made of a roll of birch bark, a pine knot, or some pine-root slivers, in a split stick of green wood.
A fairly steady light can be made of a piece of cotton cloth or twisted rag, stuck in a clam-shell full of oil or melted grease. An improvement is easily made by putting the cotton wick through a hole in a thin, flat stone, which sets in the grease and holds the wick upright.
Another improvement is made by using a tin in place of the shell. It makes a steadier lamp, as well as a much larger light. This kind of a lamp enjoys wide use and has some queer names, such as slot-lamp, grease-jet, hunter's lamp, etc. (See Cut on next page.)
When nothing better is at hand, a woodman's lantern can be made of a tomato can. Make a big hole in the bottom for the candle, and punch the sides full of small holes, prefer- ably from the inside. If you have a wire to make a hanger, well and good; if not, you can carry it by the bottom. This lets out enough light and will not go out in the wind. If you want to set it down, you must make a hole in the ground for the candle, or if on a table, set V on two blocks. (Cut on next page.)
Another style is described in a recent letter from Hamlin Garland:
"Apropos of improved camp lights, I had a new one 'sprung on me,' this summer: A forest ranger and I were visiting a miner, about a mile from our camp. It came on dark, pitch dark, and when we started home, we could not follow the trail It was windy as well as dark, and matches did very little good. So back we went to the cabin. The ranger then picked up an old tomato cm, punched a hole in the side, thrust a candle Up through the hole, lighted it, and took the can by the disk which had been cut from the top. The whole thing was now a boxed light, shining ahead like a searchlight, and the wind did not a lied it at all! I've been camping, as you know, for thirty years, but this little trick was new to me. Perhaps it is new to you." H. G.
Still another style, giving a better light, is made by
The chief use of the camp loom is to weave mats for the beds of grass, straw, hay, or, best of all, sedge. I have made it thus:
A 3-foot cross-bar A is fast to a small tree, and seven
feet away, even stakes are driven into the ground 8 inches apart, each 3 feet
out of the ground.
Five stout cords are tied to each stick, and to the cross- bar, keeping them parallel. Then, between each on the cross-bar is attached another cord (four in all) the far end of which is made fast to a loose cross-bar, B.
One fellow raises the loose cross-bar B, while another lays a long bundle of
grass tight in the corner C. Then B is lowered to D, and another roll of grass
or sedge is tucked
A profitable amusement in camp, is weaving rugs or mats of inner bark, rags, etc., on a rough Navaho loom.
The crudest kind, one which can be made in an hour is illustrated on next page. I
have found it quite satisfactory for weaving rough mats or rugs. (A and B) are two trees or posts. (C) is the cross piece. (D) is the upper
yarn-beam, wrapped its whole length with a spiral cord. (E) is the lower yarn-beam, similarly wrapped. (F
F) are stout cords to carry the frame while the warp is being stretched
between the yarn-beams. (G G) is a log hung on for
weight. (H H) is a round stick fastened between the
yarns, odds on one side, evens on the other, to hold the yarns open until the
rug is all done, but about one inch when it is drawn out.
Now with a needle, the yarns or strings for the warp are stretched from one
yarn-beam to another, as a continuous string. The exact method is shown on a
larger scale in the upper figure (I I) The batten or
spreader (J) is a piece of light wood two inches wide and
one half inch thick, with square edges, but thin sharp point, and about as long
as the yarn beam.
Now we are ready to begin. Run the batten between the yarns under the sticks (H H.) Then drop it to the bottom and turn it flatwise,
thus spreading the yarns apart
Run the batten through alternate threads again, but the reverse way of last, and
this time it goes more slowly for the lack of a guide rod.* Lay a new line of
woof as
(H H) and fill the warp to the top.
Finally cut and draw out the spiral cords on each yarn-beam. This frees the rug, which is finished, excepting for trim and binding, when such are desired.
Those who want full details of the best Navaho looms and methods will find them in Dr. Washington Matthew's article on Navaho Weavers, 3d Annual Report, Bur. of Ethnology, 1881-2. Washington 1884.
A camp rake is made of forked branches of oak, beech, hickory, or other hard
wood, thus: Cut a handle an inch thick (B C) and 4 feet long, of the shape
shown. Flatten it on each side of A, and make a
gimlet-hole through. Now cut ten branches of the shape DE, each about 20 inches long. Flatten them at the E end, and make a gimlet-hole through each. Fasten all together, 5 on
each side of the handle,
There are two ways of making a camp broom. First, the twig broom. This is easily made as follows: Cut a handle an inch thick, and shape it to a shoulder, as in A B C. Lash on birch or other fine twigs, one layer at a time, until sufFiciently thick, as D E. Now at F, put a final lashing of cord. This draws the broom together, and binds it firmly to the handle. Trim the ends even with the axe, and it is ready for use.
The other style is the backwoods broom. This was usually made of blue-beech or
hickory. A 4-foot piece of a 4-inch green trunk is best. Slivers 18 inches long
are
Most camp sites are selected with a view to boating; certainly no camp is complete without it.
Winter is a good time to build a boat, if you have a workshop big enough to hold it.
The simplest kind of a craft is the best to start with. Get two boards, smooth and with as few knots as possible, 15 in. wide, and 15 ft. long; about 50 sq. ft. of tongue and groove flooring; a piece of 2 x 6 in. scantling, 15 in. long; and plenty of 3-in. nails.
Begin by beveling the stern post to an edge (a). Set
At a point about 7 feet from the bow, put in a temporary cross piece 3 1/2 ft. long (c), which can have the ends either plumb, or spreading wider toward the top.
Around this, bend the two side boards till their stern ends are but 3 ft. apart. Nail on an end piece (d e) to hold them there.
Now cut a strip of 1 x 2 in. stuff, and nail it inside along the lower edge of the side board, so as to give a double thickness on which to nail the bottom.
Turn the boat upside down and nail on the tongue and groove stuff to form the bottom.
Now, turn her over, remove the shaping board, put in the necessary stern and mid seats (see dotted lines), nail on a piece of board to double the thickness where the rowlocks are needed —each about 12 inches abaft the mid seat, add rowlocks, and the carpenter work is done.
Tar all the seams, caulking any that are gaping, and when the tar has set, paint her inside and out. As soon as this is dry, she is ready for the water.
She may leak a little at first, but the swelling of the wood has a tendency to close the seams.
This is the simplest form of boat. Great improvement can be made by making the sides deeper, and cutting the lower edge so that the bottom rises at bow and stern, also by setting the stem or bow-post at an angle, and finally by adding a keel.
If you cannot get a 15-in. board, use two or more narrow ones. Their joints can be made tight by caulking.
Basswood, tulip wood, and white pine were the favorite Woods for a dugout
canoe, though no one made one when
I wish every Camp would get a good camp horn or Michigan lumberman's horn. It is about four feet long, has a six-inch bell-mouth, and is of brass. Its sounds are made by mouth, but a good player can give a tune as on a post horn. Its quality is wonderfully rich, mellow and far reaching, and it can be heard for three or four miles. It is a sound to stir the echoes and fill the camp with romantic memories.
As you drive through New England in the evening, summer or winter, you must notice a great many beds out of doors, on piazza or on sun-deck. Many of these are beds of persons who are suffering from lung trouble. They have found out that this is the way to cure it. Some of them are the beds of persons who fear lung trouble, and this they know is the way to evade it.
Take, then, this lesson: If possible, every brave should sleep out of doors as much as possible; not on the ground, and not in the wind, but in a
bed, warm, dry, and rainproof, and he will be the better for it.
Whenever complete isolation from summer resorts op mixed company make it permissible, we have found it well to let the fellows run all day during warm weather, clad only in their shoes and their small bathing trunks, breech-clout or gee-string. This is the Gee-String or Indian Camp. Its value as a daily sun bath, a continual tonic and a mentally refreshing hark back to the primitive, cannot be overestimated.
DO YOU know the Sign Language?
If not, do you realize that the Sign Language is an established mode of communication in all parts of the world without regard to native speech?
Do you know that it is so refined and complete that sermons and lectures are given in it every day, to those who cannot hear?
Do you know that it is as old as the hills and is largely used in all public schools? And yet when I ask boys this question, "Do you use the Sign Language?" they nearly always say "No."
The first question of most persons is "What is it?" It is a simple method of asking questions and giving answers, that is talking, by means of the hands. It is used by all the Plains Indians, and by thousands of white people to-day, in cities, as well as in the western country, and to an extent that surprises all when first they come to think of it.
Not long ago I asked a boy whether the policemen on the crowded streets used Sign Language. He said, "No!" at least he did not know if they did.
I replied: "When the officer on Fifth Avenue wishes to stop all vehicles, what docs he do?"
"He raises his hand, flat with palm forward," was the reply.
"Yes, and when he means 'come on,' what does he do?"
"He beckons this way."
"And how does he say 'go left, go right, go back, come, hurry up, you get out?' " Each of these signs I found was well known to the boy.
The girls are equally adept and equally unconscious of it.
One very shy little miss—so shy that she dared not speak—furnished a good illustration of this:
"Do you use the Sign Language in your school?" I asked.
She shook her head.
"Do you learn any language but English?"
She nodded.
"What is the use of learning any other than English?
She raised her right shoulder in the faintest possible shrug.
"Now," was my reply, "don't you see you have already given me three signs of the Sign Language, which you said you did not use?"
After collecting popular signs for several years I found that I had about one hundred and fifty that are in established use in the schools of New York City.
Here are some of the better known. Each boy will probably find that he has known and used them all his schooldays:
My attention was first directed to the Sign Language in 1882, when I went to live in western Manitoba. There I found it used among the Crees and Sioux, the latter especially being expert sign-talkers. Later, I found it a daily necessity for travel among the natives of New Mexico and Montana.
One of the best sign talkers I ever met was the Crow Indian, White Swan, who had been one of Custer's Scouts. He was badly wounded by the Sioux, clubbed on the head, and left for dead. He recovered and escaped; but ever after was deaf and dumb. However sign talk was familiar to all his people and he was at little disadvantage in daytime. From him I received many lessons in Sign Language and thus in 1897 began to study it seriously.
Now I wish to teach it to the Scouts. If each of them would learn to use with precision the one hundred and fifty schoolboy signs and then add twice as many more, they would become fairly good sign-talkers. These additional signs they can find in the "Dictionary of the Sign Language."*
Why should you talk the Sign Language? There are many reasons:
It is a simple means of talking to an Indian or a Scout of
another nationality whose language you do not understand. This
indeed is its great merit. It is universal. It deals not with words but with ideas that
are common to all mankind- It is therefore a kind of Esperanto
already established.
So much for its advantages; what are its weaknesses? Let us frankly face them:
To meet the last two we have expedients, as will be seen, but the first two are insurmountable difficulties.
Remember then you are to learn the Sign Language because it is
silent, far-reaching, and the one
universal language.
Since it deals fundamentally with ideas, we avoid words and letters, but for proper names it is very necessary to know the one-hand manual alphabet,
For numbers we use the fingers, as
probably did the earliest men who counted.
Yes. The sign for "yes" is so natural
that one can see it instinctively made if we offer food to a
hungry baby. That is simply a nod. That is if you are near, but
far off, make your right hand with all fingers closed except
index and thumb which are straight and touching at top, advance,
bend toward the left side as though bowing, then returned and
straight again.
No. This also is a natural sign, we can
see it if we offer bitter medicine to a baby. The sign for "No,"
when near, is shake the head; but, when too far for that to be
seen, hold the closed right hand in front of the body, then
sweep it
Query. The sign for Question—that is, "I am asking you a question,"
"I want to know "—is much used and important. Hold up the
right hand toward the person, palm forward, fingers open,
slightly curved and spread. Wave the hand gently by wrist action
from side to side. It is used before, and sometimes after all
questions. If you are very near, merely raise the eyebrows.
The following are needed in asking questions:
How Many? First the Question sign, then hold the left hand open, curved,
palm up, finders spread, then with right digit quickly tap
each finger of left in succession, closing it back toward the
left palm, beginning with the little finger.
How Much? Same as How
many?
What? What are you doing? What do you
want? What is it? First give Question,
then hold right hand palm down, fingers slightly bent and
separated, and, pointing forward, throw it about a foot from
right to left several times, describing an arc upward.
When? If seeking a definite answer as to
length of time, make signs for Question, How
much, and then specify time by sign for hours, days,
etc. When asking in general "When" for a
date, hold the left index extended and vertical, other and thumb
closed, make a circle round left index tip with tip of extended
right index, others and thumb closed; and
Where? (What direction) Question, then with forefinger sweep the
horizon in a succession of bounds, a slight pause at the bottom
of each.
Which? Question, then hold left hand in
front of you with palm toward you, fingers to right and held
apart; place the end of the right forefinger on that of left
forefinger, and then draw it down across the other fingers.
Why? Make the sign for Question, then repeat it very slowly.
Who? Question, and then describe with the
right forefinger a small circle six inches in front of the
mouth.
Eat. Throw the flat hand several times
past the mouth in a curve.
Drink. Hold the right hand as though
holding a cup near the mouth and tip it up.
Sleep. Lay the right cheek on the right
flat hand.
My, mine, yours, possession, etc. Hold
out the closed fist, thumb up, and swing it down a little so
thumb points forward.
House. Hold the flat hands together like
a roof.
Finished or done.
Hold out the flat left hand palm to the right, then with flat
right hand chop down past the ends of the left fingers.
Thus "Will you eat?" would be a Question, you eat, but Have you eaten would be, Question, you eat, finished.
Way or road. Hold
both flat hands nearly side by side, palms up, but right one
nearer the breast, then alternately lift them forward and draw
them back to indicate track or feet traveling.
The Indian had much use for certain signs in describing the white trader. The first was:
Liar. Close the right hand except the
first and second
The second sign, meaning "very" or "very much," is made by striking the
right fist down past the knuckles of the left without quite
touching them, the left being held still.
Another useful sign is time. This is made
by drawing a circle with the right forefinger on the back of the
left wrist. It looks like a reference to the wrist watch, but it
is certainly much older than that style of timepiece and
probably refers to the shadow of a tree. Some prefer to draw the
circle on the left palm as it is held up facing forward.
If you wish to ask, "What time is it?"
You make the signs Question, then Time. If the answer is "Three o'clock,"
you would signal:
Time and hold up three fingers of the right hand.
Hours are shown by laying the right
forefinger as a pointer on the flat palm of the left and
carrying it once around; minutes by
moving the pointer a very little to the left.
If you wish to signal in answer 3:15. You give the signs for hours 3 and minutes 15. Holding all ten fingers up for 10, then those of one hand for 5.
It takes a good-sized dictionary to give all the signs in use, and a dictionary you must have, if you would become an expert.
I shall conclude with one pretty little Indian sign: First, Question sign,
then make an incomplete ring of your right forefinger and thumb,
raise them in a sweep until above your head, then bring the ring
straight down to your heart. This is the Indian way of asking,
"Is the sun shining in your heart?"—that is, "Are you
happy?" —your answer will, I hope, be made by the right
hand and arm standing up straight, then bowing toward the left,
followed by a sharp stroke of the right fist knuckles past those
of the left fist without their touching, which means "Yes, the
sun shines in my heart heap strong."
The written form of Sign Language is the picture-writing also
called Pictography, and Ideography, because it represents ideas and not words or letters. It is
widely believed that Sign Language is the oldest of all
languages; that indeed it existed among animals before man
appeared on earth. It is universally accepted that the
ideography is the oldest of all writing. The Chinese writing for
instance is merely picture-writing done with as few lines as
possible.
Thus, their curious character for "Hearing" was once a complete picture of a person
listening behind a screen, but in time it was reduced by hasty
hands to a few scratches; and "War," now
a few spider marks, was originally a sketch of "two women in one
house."
To come a little nearer home, our alphabet is said to be descended from hieroglyphic ideographs.
"A" or "Ah," for example, was the sound of an ox represented first by an outline of an ox, then of the head, which in various modifications, through rapid writing, became our "A."
"O" was a face saying "Oh," now simplified into the round shape of the mouth.
"S" was a serpent hissing. It is but little changed today.
We may also record our Sign Language in picture-writing, as was the custom of many Indian tribes, and we shall find it worth while for several reasons: It is the Indian special writing; it is picturesque and useful for decoration; and it can be read by any Indian no matter what language be speaks. Indeed, I think it probable that a pictograph inscription dug up 10,000 years from now would be read, whether our language was understood or not. When the French Government set up the Obelisk of Luxor in Paris and wished to inscribe it for all time, they made the record, not in French or Latin, but in pictographs.
It is, moreover, part of my method to take tin- boy through the stages of our race development, just as the young bird must run for a send-off, before it flies, so pictography being its earliest form is the natural first step to writing.
In general, picture writing aims to give on paper the idea of the Sign Language without first turning it into sounds. In the dictionary of Sign Language I give the written form after each of the signs that has a well established or possible symbol. Many of these are drawn from the Indians who were among the best scouts and above all noted for their use of the picture-writing. A few of them will serve to illustrate.
Numbers were originally fingers held up, and five was the whole hand, while ten was a double hand. We can see traces of this origin in the Roman style of numeration.
A one-night camp, a more permanent camp, a village and a town are shown in legible symbols.
An enemy, sometimes expressed as a "snake," recalls our own "snake in the grass." A "friend," was a man with a branch of a tree; because this was commonly used as a flag of truce and had indeed the same meaning as our olive branch. The "treaty" is easily read; it was a pair of figures like this done in Wampum that recorded Penn's Treaty.
"Good" is sometimes given as a circle full
of lines all "bad" they
are crooked and contrary. The wavy lines stood for water, so good
water is clearly indicated. The three arrows added mean
that at three arrow flights in that direction, that is a quarter
mile, there is good water. If there was but one arrow and it
pointed straight down that meant "good water here," if it
pointed down and outward it meant "good water at a little
distance." If the arrow was raised to carry far, it
The old Indian sign for peace, three angles all pointing one way that is "agreed," contrasts naturally with the "war" or "trouble" sign, in which they are going different Ways or against each other.
An animal was represented by a crude sketch in which its chief character was shown, thus chipmunk was a small animal with long tail and stripes. Bear was an outline bear, but grizzly bear, had the claws greatly exaggerated.
When the animal was killed, it was represented on its back with legs up.
Each chief, warrior and scout had a totem, a drawing of which stood for his name or for himself.
A man's name is expressed by his totem; thus, the above means, To-day, 20th Sun Thunder Moon. After three days "Deerfoot," Chief of the Flying Eagles, comes to our Standing Rock Camp.
When a man was dead officially or actually, his totem was turned bottom up.
Here is a copy of the inscription found by Schoolcraft on the grave post of Wabojeeg, or White Fisher, a famous Ojibwa chief. He was of the Caribou clan. On the top is his clan totem reversed, and on the bottom the White Fisher; the seven marks on the left were war parties he led.
The three marks in the middle are for wounds.
The moose head is to record a desperate fight he had with a bull moose, while his success in war and in peace are also stated.
This inscription could be read only by those knowing the story, and is rather as a memory help than an exact record.
First among the trail signs that are used by Scouts, Indians, and
white hunters, and most likely to be of use to the traveler, are
axe blazes on tree trunks. Among these some may vary greatly
with locality, but there is one that I have found everywhere in
use with scarcely any variation. That is the simple white spot
meaning, Here is the trail."
The Indian in making it may nick off an infinitesimal speck of bark with his knife, the trapper with his hatchet may make it as big as a dollar, or the settler with his heavy axe may slab off half the tree-side; but the sign is the same in principle and in meaning, on trunk, log or branch from Atlantic to Pacific and from Hudson Strait to Rio Grande. "This is your trail," it clearly says in the universal language of the woods.
There are two ways of employing it: one when it appears on back
and front of the trunk, so that the trail can be run both ways;
the other when it appears on but one side of each tree, making a
blind trail, which can be run one way
only, the blind trail is often used by trappers and prospectors,
who do not wish any one to follow their back track. But there
are treeless regions where the trail must be marked; regions of
sage brush and sand, regions of rock, stretches of stone, and
level wastes of grass or sedge. Here other methods must be
employed.
A well-known Indian device, in the brush, is to break a twig and
leave it hanging. (Second line.) Among
stones and rocks the recognized sign is one stone set on top of
another (top line) and in places where
there is nothing but grass the custom is to twist a tussock into
a knot (third line).
These signs also are used in the whole country from Maine to California.
In running a trail one naturally looks straight ahead for the next sign; if the trail turned abruptly without notice one might easily be set wrong, but custom has provided against this. The tree blaze for turn "to the right" is shown m Number 2, fourth row; "to the left" in Number 3. The greater length of the turning blaze seems to be due to a desire for emphasis as the same mark set square on, is understood to mean "Look out, there is something of special importance here." Combined with a long side chip it means "very important; here turn aside." This is often used to mean "camp is close by," and a third sign that is variously combined but always with the general meaning of "warning" or "something of great importance" Is a threefold blaze. (No. 4 on fourth line.) The combination (No. 1 on bottom row) would read "Look out now for something of great importance to the right." This blaze I have often seen used by trappers to mark the whereabouts of their trap or cache.
Surveyors often use a similar mark—that is, three simple spots and a stripe to mean, "There is a stake close at hand," while a similar blaze on another tree near by means that the stake is on a line between.
These signs done into stone-talk would be as in the top line of the cut.
These are much used in the Rockies where the trail goes over stony places or along stretches of slide-rock.
In grass or sedge the top of the tuft is made to show the
direction to be followed; if it is a point of great importance
The Ojibways and other woodland tribes use twigs for a great
many of these signs. (See second row.) The hanging broken twig
like the simple blaze means "This is the trail." The twig clean
broken off and laid on the ground across the line of march
means, "Here break from your straight course and go in the line
of the butt end," and when an especial warning is meant, the butt is pointed toward the one
following the trail and raised somewhat, in a forked twig. If
the butt of the twig were raised and pointing to the left, it
would mean "Look out, camp, or ourselves, or the enemy, or the
game we have killed is out that way." With some, the elevation
of the butt is made to show the distance of the object; if low
the object is near, if raised very high the object is a long way
off.
These are the principal signs of the trail used by Scouts, Indians, and hunters in most parts of America. These are the standards—the ones sure to be seen by those who camp in the wilderness.
There is in addition a useful kind of sign that has been mentioned already in these papers—that is, the Smoke Signal. These were used chiefly by the Plains Indians, but the Ojibways seem to have employed them at times.
A clear hot fire was made, then covered with green stuff or rotten wood so that it sent up a solid column of black smoke. By spreading and lifting a blanket over this smudge the column could be cut up into pieces long or short, and by a preconcerted code these could be made to convey tidings.
But the simplest of all smoke codes and the one of chief use to the Western traveler is this:
One steady smoke—"Here is camp."
Two steady smokes—"I am lost, come and help me."
I find two other smoke signals, namely:
Three smokes in a row—" Good news." Four smokes in a row— "All are summoned to council."
These latter I find not of general use, nor are they so likely to be of service as the first two given.
The old buffalo hunters had an established signal that is yet used by the mountain guides. It is as follows:
Two shots in rapid succession, an interval of five seconds by the watch, then one shot; this means, "where are you?" The answer given at once and exactly the same means "Here I am; what do you want?" The reply to this may be one shot, which means, "All right; I only warted to know where you were." But if the reply repeats the first it means, "I am in serious trouble; come as fast as you can."
A sign much used among the Utes was three flocks of geese flying one way meaning, "All at Peace." But two one way and one the other meant, "Look out! there is a war afoot."
Another Indian sign was a little heap of stones, meaning "We
camped here because one of us was sick." This originated in the
hot stones used for making steam
The Indians sometimes marked a spot of unusual importance by sinking the skull of a deer or a mountain sheep deep into a living tree, so that the horns hung out on each side. In time the wood and bark grew over the base of the horns and "medicine tree" was created. Several of these trees have become of historic importance. A notable example of this was the big Ramtree that by common consent demarked' the hunting grounds of the Blackfeet from those of the Nez Perces. It was held by these Indians in religious veneration until some white vandal deliberately destroyed it by way of a practical joke.
It would be easy to record many other Indian signs; the sign for the "first crow" of spring; the sign for "buffalo in sight"; the sign for a "war party coming"; the sign that a certain man "wants the arrows," that another man owes him, and the sign that the owner of the teepee is "praying and must not be disturbed." But these are things that arc quickly passing away and the Indians themselves arc for' getting them.
The most important of the signs used by men of the wilderness are herein described. They are interesting as a crude beginning of literature. The knowledge of such things appeals to most boys. They find pleasure in learning this crudest of writing. Furthermore, many a one in the past has owed his life to an inkling of this woodcraft knowledge, and there is no reason to doubt that many a wilderness traveler in the future will find it of equally vital service.
(Adopted for general use by the United States Signal Service on and after March 1, 1887.)
A red flag with a black centre indicates that a storm of marked violence is expected.
Most of us are familiar with some of the signals given by brakemen, conductors, or engineers, but not so many of us have sat right down to inspect the code, as officially fixed. A conductor on the Canadian Pacific Railway allowed me to copy it out from his "Trainman's Book," 1909, and since then I have been told that this is the code in universal use, so I give it in full.
It consists of color signals, hand and lantern signals, toots, and cord-pulls. It will add a new interest to the journey, at least when you can read the "Signs of the Iron Trail," and the "Talk of the Iron Horse."
(From C. P. R. "Trainman's Book," 1909 No. 7563; but in general use.)
Colors:
Hand, Flag and Lamp Signals:
Other Hand Signals, modifications of the
above:
Signals by Engine Whistle:
(o a short toot.—a long one)
Air-whistle or Cord-pull:
When the train is standing:
When the train is running:
(All but the 2nd are answered by 2 blasts
An engineer responds to there with two short toots, meaning "All right," except in the second, when the engineer answers in three short toots.
EVERY boy looks forward to camping out. Then it is that he gets the best chance to practise the things that are peculiar to scouting; and camping out is the only complete outdoor life.
When a boy, I was of course eager for a chance to camp out, but I had a very wrong idea about it. I believed that one must undergo all sorts of hardships, in order to be really "doing it"; such as, sleep on the ground with one blanket, go without proper food, etc. I know some boys that were injured for life by such practices.
It is well, then, to keep in mind that camping out offers a number of priceless benefits, and is also beset by one or two dangers. Let us aim to get all the good and avoid all the ill.
The good things are: The pure air, especially at night; the bracing and lung-healing power of the woods; the sun bath; the tonic exercise; and the nerve rest.
The bad things are: The danger of rheumatism from sleeping on the ground, or in damp clothes; the exhaustion from bad nights, through insufficient bed-clothes or an uncomfortable bed; and the dangers arising from irregular meals and badly cooked food.
I have seen boys go back from an ill-run camp, tired out and but
little benefitted; whereas, if properly guided, every
Many mothers ask with fear, "Won't my boy catch cold, if he camps out?" This is the last and least of dan, gers. Almost never does one catch cold in camp. I have found it much more likely that boys suffer through irregular hours of eating and sleeping; but these are troubles that the camp discipline is designed to meet.
The great evil that campers should beware of, is of course rheumatism. But none need suffer if they will take the simple precaution of changing their wet clothes when not in action, and never sleeping directly on the ground. A warm, dry place for the bed should be prepared in every tent and teepee.
As a rule, it is better to go on a trip with a definite object. If you go with a general vague determination to get healthy, you are likely to think too much about it. It is better to live correctly, and safely assume that you will be healthier for the trip. To illustrate: One of my trips was made to determine the existence of Wood Buffalo on the Great Slave River; another to prove that the Canadian Fauna reached the Lake of the Woods. Some of my friends have made trips to win the badge of expert canoe-man; others for the camper badge, and so forth, and I think it best to go a long way from home. Get as complete a change as possible.
Food to last six fellows one week:
Fresh fish and game are pleasant variations, but seem to make little difference in the grocery bill.
There are many styles of small tents on the market; almost any of them answer very well. For those who wish to equip themselves with the latest and best, a to x 12-foot wall tent of 10-ounce double-filled army duck, stained or dyed yellow, brown, or dull green, is best. It will accommodate a party of five or six.
For tramping trips, light tents of waterproof silk are made. One large enough for a man weighs only two or three pounds.
Any of the established makers can supply what is needed if they know the size of the party and nature of the outing.
The Indian teepee has the great advantage of ventilation and an open fire inside. It has the disadvantage of needing a lot of poles and of admitting some rain by the smoke-hole. (It is fully described on page 468.)
A new style of teepee, invented by myself some years ago, has been quite successful, since it combines the advan- i Ñor ,"4 1.A y , A tage of teepee and tent and needs only four poles besides the smoke-poles. It is, however, less picturesque than the old style.
This gives the great advantage of an open fire inside, and good ventilation, while it is quite rainproof.
It can be put up with four long poles outside the canvas, the holes crossing at the top as
in the Indian teepee. Of course the point of the cover is
attached before the poles are raised.
In selecting a good camp ground, the first thing is a dry, level
place near good wood and good water. If you have horses or oxen, you
must also have grass.
Almost all Indian camps face the east, and, when idea!, have some storm-break or shelter on the west and north. Then they get the morning sun and the afternoon shade in summer, and in winter avoid the coldest winds and drifting snows, which in most of the country east of the Rockies come from the north and west.
Sometimes local conditions make a different exposure desirable, but not often. For obvious reasons, it is well to be near one's boat-landing.
After pitching the tent or teepee, dig a trench around, with a drain on the low side to prevent flooding.
Each small camp or group of tents in a large camp, must have a latrine, that is a sanitary ditch or hole. For a small camp or short use, this is a narrow trench a foot wide, surrounded by a screen of bushes or canvas. It is made narrow enough to straddle. Each time after use, a shovelful of dry earth is thrown in.
But a large camp needs the regulation army latrine. This is a row
of seats with lids over a long trench which has a layer of
quicklime in the bottom. The wooden structure
All camps should be left as clear of filth, scraps, papers, tins, bottles, etc., as though a human being had never been there.
As soon as all are on the ground, with their baggage, let the Leader allot the places of each band or clan. Try to have each and every dwelling-tent about 25 feet from the next, in a place dry and easy to drain in case of rain and so placed as to have sun in the morning and shade in the afternoon.
Each group is responsible for order up to the halfway line between them and the next group.
Loose straw, tins, papers, bottles, glass, filth, etc., out of place are criminal disorder.
Pitch at a reasonable distance from the latrine, as well as from the water supply.
As much as possible, have each band or clan by itself.
As soon as convenient, appoint fellows to dig and prepare a latrine or toilet, with screen.
All will be busied settling down, so that usually there is Ho methodic work the first day.
But the second day it should begin.
After the routine of rising, bathing, breakfast, etc., there
should be called at eight o'clock a High Council. That is a
The other officers are:
Also, the High Council should appoint a Tally Keeper for the whole camp; he is to serve throughout the whole period of the encampments, keeping the records for every day. Sometimes the work is divided, but one fellow can do it better, if he is willing.
A band or clan prize for the whole term is always offered. The competition for this is judged by points, and for each of the above services to the camp, the band, to which the scout belongs, gets up to 25 points per day, according to his efficiency.
No fellow should leave camp without permission. If he does so, he may cause his Band to lose points.
In every large camp it is found well to follow the Indian custom in forming a Lodge of Dog Soldiers. These are a band of eight or ten of the strongest and sturdiest fellows. They act as police when needed, but wear no badge. They must at once run to any place where the signal (a loud baying) is heard, and act promptly and vigorously.
When the Chief has selected the huskies he wishes to have in the Dog Lodge, he invites all to meet secretly in some quiet teepee at night, explains the purpose and adds "I have called on you who are here. If any do not wish to serve, now is the time to retire."
The sacred fire is lighted in the middle, all stand in a ring about it, each with his right hand on a war club above the fire, his left holding a handful of ashes. Then all repeat this vow:
"As a Dog Soldier I pledge the might of my manhood to the cause of law and justice in this Camp for the term of the Camp or until released by the Chief, and if at any time I fail in my duty through fear entering into my heart, may I be dropped, scorned and forgotten like these ashes."
Then he scatters the ashes.
It is customary for each Tribe to adopt further a secret sign and password, which is taught to the Dog Soldiers as a finish.
Every day there is an inspection. It is best in the middle of the
morning. The Chief and his second go from
After the inspection, the Chief announces the winning Band or Clan saying: "The Horns of the High Hikers were won to-day by . . . . . Band." And the horns are accordingly hung on their standard, pole or other place, for the day. At the end of the camp, provided ten were present for at least a fortnight, Clan or Band that won them of tenest carries them home for their own; and ever afterward are allowed to put in one corner of their banner a small pair pf black horns.
What are they? Usually a pair of polished to buffalo horns with a fringed buckskin hanger, on which is an inscription saying that they were won by . . . . . Band at such a camp.
When buffalo horns cannot be got, common cow horns or even horns of wood are used.
In every large permanent camp I establish a propel Council-fire
Circle or Council Camp. The uses and
For the Council-fire Circle, select a sheltered, level place that
admits of a perfectly level circle 24 feet
across; 18 feet has been used, but more
room gives better results. On the outer rim of this, have a
permanently fixed circle of very low seats; 8 inches is high enough, but they should have a back,
and for this, the easiest style to make is that marked K. L. on
page 481. Each Band or Clan should make its
own seat, and always go there in Grand Council. On the back of
the seat should be two loops of wire or string in which to put
their standard. Back of the first row should be a slightly
higher row. If the ground slopes up, all the better, but in any
case there should be fixed seats enough for
all the camp. The place should be carefully leveled and
prepared, and kept always in order, for it will be used several
times each day, either for councils or for games, dances and
performances.
At one side of the ring in a conspicuous place should be the
throne of the Chief (p. 481); close by this
a desk and seat for the Tally Keeper and on the desk should be a
lantern holder; in the exact middle of the ring is the Council-
fire, never a bonfire.
Directly opposite the Chief's throne, on the outer edge of the camp, should be the Totem-pole. This I always set up as soon as possible in all permanent camps. Its purpose is, 1st, to typify the movement; 2nd, to display the Totems of all the Tribes, or Bands that camp here; 3rd, to serve as a place of notice. Any document posted on the Totem-pole Is considered published.
Three kinds of Councils are held in the Council Place:
Of all things, the camper's bed is the thing most often made wrong, and most easily made right, when one knows how; and of all things comfort at night is most essential.
Every dealer in camp outfits can produce an array of different camp beds, cots, and sleeping bags, that shows how important it is to be dry and warm when you sleep.
The simplest plan is the oldest one—two pair of blankets and waterproof undersheet on a neatly laid bed of evergreen boughs, dry leaves, or dry grass. The ideal way of laying the boughs is shown in the figure below.
But there are few places now in eastern America where you are allowed to cut boughs freely. In any case you cannot take the bough bed with you when you move, and it takes too much time to make at each camp.
Sleeping bags I gave up long ago. They are too difficult to air, or to adjust to different temperatures.
Rubber beds are luxurious, but heavy for a pack outfit, and in
cold weather they need thick blankets over them, otherwise they
are too cool. So the one ideal bed for the
If there is swamp or pond, but no pure water at hand, you can dig an Indian well in half an hour. This is simply a hole about 18 inches across and down about 6 inches below water-level, a few paces from the pond. Bail it out quickly; let it fill again, bail it a second time, and the third time it fills, it will be full of filtered water, clear of everything except matter actually dissolved.
It is now well known that ordinary vegetable matter does not cause disease. All contamination is from animal refuse or excreta, therefore a well of this kind in a truly wild region is as safe as a spring.
If you are camping in mosquito or fly season, the trip may be ruined, if you are not fully prepared.
For extreme cases, use the ready-made head-nets. They are hot, but effectual. You can easily get used to the net; no man can stand the flies. In my Arctic trip of 1907, we could not have endured life without the nets. Indians and all wore them.
Of the various dopes that are used, one of the simplest and best is Colonel N. Fletcher's, given in Kephart's "Book of Camping and Woodcraft":
Mix cold in a mortar. If you wish, you can add 3 per cent. carbolic acid to above. Some make it 1½ ozs. tar."
Most drug shops keep ready-made dopes under such names as Citronella, Repellene, Lollakapop, etc.
In certain crowded camps there is danger of head lice and body vermin. I have heard washing in potato water recommended as a sure cure. Potato water is the water potatoes have been boiled in. Most drug shops have tobacco ointment and blue ointment; a very little of these applied to the body where there is hair is a sure cure.
The day Columbus landed (probably) the natives remarked; "White man fool, make big fire, can't go near; Indian make little fire and sit happy."
We all know that a camp without a campfire would be no camp at all; its chiefest charm would be absent.
Your first care, then, is to provide for a small fire and prevent its spreading. In the autumn this may mean very elaborate clearing, or burning, or wetting of a space around the fire. In the winter it means nothing.
Cracked Jimmy, in "Two Little Savages," gives very practical directions for lighting a fire anywhere in the timbered northern part of America, thus:
If you have no birch bark, it is a good plan to shave a dry soft-wood stick, leaving all the shavings sticking on the end in a fuzz, like a Hopi prayer stick. Several of these make a sure fire kindler. Fine splinters may be made quickly by hammering a small stick with the back of the axe.
In the case of a small party and hasty camp, you need nothing but a pot hanger of green wood for a complete kitchen, and many hundreds of times, on prairie and in forest, I found this sufficient.
A more complete camp grate is made of four green logs (aspen preferred), placed as in the illustration. Set the top logs 3 inches apart at one end, 10 inches at the other. The top logs should be flattened in the middle of their top sides—to hold the pot which sits on the opening between the top logs. The fire of course is built on the ground, under the logs. Sometimes stones of right size and shape are used instead of the logs, but the stones do not contribute anything to the heat and are less manageable.
In addition to this log grate, more elaborate camps have a kitchen equipped with a hanger as below, on which are pot hooks of green wood.
In wet weather, an axeman can always get dry wood by
On the prairies and plains, since buffalo chips are no more, we use horse and cow chips, kindled with dry grass and roots of sage-brush, etc.
To keep a fire alive all night, bank the coals: i. e., bury them in ashes.
Always put out the fire on leaving
camp.
It is a crime to leave a burning
fire.
Use buckets of water if need be.
The Council-fire is a very different thing from the cooking fire or the so-called bonfire. And there are just as many ways of making it wrong.
These are the essentials:
For an all-evening Council-fire, at least three times as much should be in stock as on the fire when started.
Here are some wrong methods.
The high pyramid or bonfire, (a) goes off like a flash, roasts every one, then goes dead.
The shapeless pile (b), is hard to light and never bright.
The bonfire is always bad. It wastes good wood; is dangerous to the forest and the camp; is absolutely unsociable. A bonfire will spoil the best camp-circle ever got together. It should be forbidden everywhere.
Experience shows that it is unwise to have firearms in camp. And no one under fourteen years of age should be allowed the use of a gun or pistol under any circumstances.
The didn't-know-it-was-loaded fool is the cause of more sorrow than the deliberate murderer.
For any one to point a firearm at another is a crime. If he didn't know it was loaded, he should be still more severely punished.
Never let the muzzle of the gun sweep the horizon.
Never carry a gun full-cock or hammer down. The half- cock is made for safety. Use it.
Never pull a gun by the muzzle.
Never shoot at anything about which you are in doubt.
(See Horace Kephart's "Book of Camping and Woodcraft.")
In most camps the staples are: Coffee (or tea), bacon, game, fish and hardtack, bannocks or biscuit, usually and most appropriately called "sinkers" and "damper."
To make these necessary evils, take
When worked into smooth dough, shape it into wafers, half an inch thick, and three inches across. Set in a greased tin, which is tilted up near a steady fire. Watch and turn the tin till all are browned evenly.
For other and better but more elaborate methods of making bread, see Kephart's book as above.
For cooking fish and game the old, simple standbys are the frying-pan and the stew-pan.
As a general rule, mix all batters, mush, etc., with cold water, and always cook with a slow fire.
There is an old adage:
This reflects perhaps the castle kitchen rather than the camp,
but it has its measure of truth, and the reason why
During my Barren Ground trip I hit on a remarkably successful roaster that, so far as I know, was never tried before.
The usual pot-stick is set in the ground (if no tree be near), and the roast hung by a wire and a cord; where they meet is a straight or fiat piece of wood, or bark, set in a loop of the wire.
The wind strikes on this, causing the roast to turn; it goes till the cord is wound up then unwinds itself and goes on unceasingly. We used it every day. It was positively uncanny to see the way in which this thing kept on winding and unwinding itself, all day long, if need be.
Every brave in camp should have a war-sack. This is a sack of waterproofed canvas to hold clothing and anything that is unbreakable. It has several advantages over a trunk. It is cheap ($1.50), waterproof, light, a comfortable pack to carry or to stow in a canoe, collapsible when empty, safe to float in an upset, and at night it serves as a pillow.
Its disadvantages are that it will not protect breakables, and you have to take out most of the things to find an article not on the top. Nevertheless, all old campers use the war- sack. They can be had of any camp outfitter.
On the Plains, when a button is lost or needed, it is easy to make one of leather. Usually a piece of an old strap is is used. Cut it the right size, make two holes in it, and sew it on as an ordinary button. This never breaks or fails. As the old plainsman who first showed me, said, " There's a button that'll be right there when the coat's all wore away from behind it."
If you need a lace or thong and have no leather long enough, take a square piece, round the corners, then cut it round and round, till it is all used up. Pull and roll the thong produced, until it is small and even, with-, out kinks.
I HAVE always taken the ground that interest is as essential to exercise as relish is to digestion. And fot this reason have no use for the Indian clubs or dumb- bells. An ideal exercise is in the open air, employing not only every member vigorously—not violently—but also the faculties including the great coördinating power that is the crowning gift of the athlete—the power to make all parts play the game in the measure needed to secure the best total result.
How needful is it then to have interesting pursuits that inspire the Scout to do and be his very best.
The appeal to the imagination that is assumed by such games as Spear-throwing and Dispatch-runner is the greatest and most elevating of all. Without some such magical power, no fellow really does the best that is in him. It makes a live wire of every fibre in his make-up.
A simple and useful part of the Tribe's outfit that should be
made ready before going into camp is a supply of tilting-
spears. I have seen a good many campers try tilting in the water
or on the land, and make an utter failure of it, by reason of
the absurdly clumsy, heavy spears used. A green
The correct spears always used in our camps are made thus: Take 8 feet of the butt-end of an ordinary bamboo fishing-rod—or, if anything, a little heavier than ordinary. Get a 2-inch plank of any light wood, and from this cut a disk 3 inches across, bevel off and round the edges. Bore a hole (about I inch) in the middle, and put this on the top of the bamboo, so that it sets against a shoulder or knot. Drive a circular plug in the hollow of the bamboo for a wedge, and make all secure with one or two Fo,losh^et Head very thin nails driven in (No. 7).
Now pad the head an inch thick with the ordinary horsehair stuffing that is used in furniture, and bind all with strong burlap, sewing it at the seams, and lashing it around the bamboo with string (No. 8). This completes the dry land spear. If for use in the water, make a final cover out of rubber cloth. This keeps the spear dry. A completed spear weighs about 1½ lbs.
Each band should have a half-dozen of these spears. They serve a number of purposes, some of them quite different from that originally intended.
When used in the water, the ordinary rules of canoe-tilting are
followed. Each spearman stands in the bow of his boat, on the
bow-seat. His crew bring him within 8
It is a foul to strike below the knee, or to use the spear as a club.
The umpire may dock up to 25 points for fouls.
When canoes are used, the spearman stands on the bottom, so all points are by loss of spear, or by going overboard.
But by far the most of the tilting is done on land, around 'the campfire. For this we use two stools, about 14 inches across. These are set level, exactly a spear length apart, centre to centre.
Each fighter takes his place on a stool, and his game is to put the other off the other stool. To prevent accidents, we have usually a catcher behind each man. The umpire stands alongside, near the middle.
It is a foul to use the spear as a club, or to push below the knees, or to push the stool, or to seize the other man's spear in your hand, or to touch the ground with your spear.
A foul gives the round to the other man.
The round is over when one man is off.
It is a draw when both go off together.
They change stools after each round.
If one drops his spear, and recovers it without going off, it is all right.
The battle is usually for 3, 5, or 7 rounds.
I do not know of any good thrusts having been invented, but several good parries are well known. One is to use your spear-handle as a single stick. The best players parry much by wriggling the body. Often, when overbalanced, one can regain by spinning completely around.
So much for the game. It is immensely popular at night by the blazing campfire, and is especially used in initiations.
The deer is a dummy, best made with a wire frame, on which soft hay is wrapped till it is of proper size and shape, then all is covered with open burlap. A few touches of white and black make it very realistic.
If time does not admit of a well-finished deer, one can be made of a sack stuffed with hay, decorated at one end with a smaller sack for head and neck, and set on four thin sticks.
The side of the deer is marked with a large oval, and over the heart is a smaller one.
Bows and arrows only are used to shoot this deer.
A pocketful of corn, peas, or other large grain is now needed for scent. The boy who is the deer for the first hunt takes the dummy under his arm and runs off, getting ten minutes' start, or until he comes back and shouts "ready!" He leaves a trail of corn, dropping two or three grains for every yard and making the trail as crooked as he likes, playing such tricks as a deer would do to baffle his pursuers. Then he hides the deer in any place he fancies, but not among rocks or on the top of a ridge, because in one case many arrows would be broken, and in the other, lost.
The hunters now hunt for this deer just as for a real deer,
either following the trail or watching the woods ahead; the best
hunters combine the two. If at any time the trail is quite lost
the one in charge shouts "Lost Trail!"
After that the one who finds the trail scores two. Any one
giving a false alarm by shouting "Deer"
is fined five.
Thus they go till some one finds the deer. He shouts "Deer!" and scores ten for finding it. The others shout "Second," "Third," etc., in order of
seeing it, but they do not score.
The finder must shoot at the deer with his bow and arrow from the
very spot whence he saw it. If he misses, the second hunter may
step up five paces, and have his shot. If he misses, the third one goes five, and so on till
some one hits the deer, or until the ten-yard limit is reached.
If the finder is within ten yards on sighting the deer, and
misses
A shot in the big oval is a body wound;
that scores five. A shot outside that is
a scratch; that scores two. A shot in the small oval or heart
is a heart wound; it scores ten, and ends the hunt. Arrows which do
not stick do not count, unless it can be proved that they passed
right through, in which case they take the highest score that
they pierced.
If all the arrows are used, and none in the heart, the deer
escapes, and the boy who was deer scores twenty-five.
The one who found the dummy is deer for the next hunt. A clever deer can add greatly to the excitement of the game.
Originally we used paper for scent, but found it bad. It littered
the woods, yesterday's trail was confused with that of to-day,
etc. Corn proved better, because the birds
It is strictly forbidden to any hunter to stand in front of the firing line; all must be back of the line on which the shooter stands.
There is no limit to the situations and curious combinations in this hunt. The deer may be left standing or lying. There is no law why it should not be hidden behind a solid tree trunk. The game develops as one follows it. After it has been played for some time with the iron hoof mark as above, the boys grow so skilful on the trail that we can dispense with even the corn. The iron mark like a deer hoof leaves a very realistic "slot" or track, which the more skilful boys readily follow through the woods. A hunt is usually for three, five, or more deer, according to agreement, and the result is reckoned by points on the whole chase.
This is played by half a dozen or more boys. Each has a club
about the size and shape of a baseball club, but made of straw tied around two or three switches
and tightly sewn up in burlap.
One big fellow is selected for the bear. He has a schoolbag tightly strapped on his back, and in that a toy balloon fully blown up. This is his heart. On his neck is a bear- claw necklace of wooden beads and claws. (See Cut.)
He has three dens about one hundred yards apart in a triangle. While in his den the bear is safe. If the den is a tree or rock, he is safe while touching it. He is obliged to come out when the chief hunter counts ioo, and must go the rounds of the three till the hunt is settled.
The object of the hunters is to break the balloon or heart; that is, kill the bear. He must drop dead when the heart bursts. The hunter who kills him claims the necklace.
But the bear also has a club for defence. Each hunter must wear a hat, and once the bear knocks a hunter's hat off, that one is dead and out of this hunt. He must drop where his hat falls.
Tackling of any kind is forbidden.
The bear wins by killing or putting to flight all the hunters. In this case he keeps the necklace.
The savageness of these big bears is indescribable. Many lives are lost in each hunt, and it has several times happened that the whole party of hunters has been exterminated by some monster of unusual ferocity.
This game has also been developed into a play.
This water game is exceedingly popular and is especially good for public exhibition, being spectacular and full of amusement and excitement.
The outfit needed is:
The game. Each boat has a base or harbor;
this is
The sturgeon is landed when the prow of the boat that has it in tow touches its proper base, even though the spear of the enemy is then in the fish: or it is landed when the fish itself touches base if it is also in tow at the time. The boats change bases after each heat.
Matches are usually for one, three, or five sturgeon. Points are counted only for the landing of the fish, but the referee may give the decision on a foul or a succession of fouls, or the delinquent may be set back one or more boat- lengths.
Sometimes the game is played in canoes or boats, with one man as spearman and crew.
Rules: It is not
allowed to push the sturgeon into a new position with
the spear or paddle before striking.
It is allowed to pull the sturgeon under
the boat or pass It around by using the line after spearing.
It is allowed to lay hands on the other
boat to prevent a collision, but otherwise it is forbidden to
touch the other boat or crew or paddle or spear or line, or to
lay hands on the fish or to touch it with the paddle or oar, or
touch your own spear while it is in the fish, or to tie the line
around the fish except so far as this may be accidentally done
in spearing.
It is allowed to dislodge the enemy's
spear by throwing your own over it. The purpose of the barbs is
to assist in this.
It is allowed to run on to the sturgeon
with the boat.
It is absolutely forbidden to throw the spear
over the Who boat or over the heads of your crew.
In towing the sturgeon the fathom-mark must be over the gunwale—at least six feet of line should be out when the fish is in tow. It is not a foul to have less, but the spear-man must at once let it out if the umpire or the other crew cries "Fathom!"
The spearman is allowed to drop the spear and use the paddle or oar at will, but not to resign his spear to another of the crew. The spearman must be in his boat when the spear is thrown.
If the boat is upset the judge's canoe helps them to right.
Each crew must accept the backset of its accidents.
Any number of canoes or boats may engage in this. A rubber
cushion, a hot-water bag full of air, any rubber football, or a
cotton bag with a lot of corks in it is needed. The game is to
tag the other canoe by throwing this into it.
The rules are as in ordinary cross-tag.
Scouts are sent out in pairs or singly. A number of points are marked on the map at equal distances from camp, and the scouts draw straws to see where each goes. If one place is obviously hard, the scout is allowed a fair number of points as handicap. All set out at same time, go direct, and return as soon as possible.
Points are thus allowed:
Last back, zero for traveling.
The others count one for each minute they are ahead of the last.
Points up to 100 are allowed for their story on return.
Sometimes we allow io points for each Turtle they have seen; io for each Owl seen and properly named; 5 for each Hawk, and i each for other wild birds; also 2 for a Cat; for a Dog.
No information is given the Scout; he is told to go to such a point and do so and so, but is fined points if he hesitates or asks how or why, etc.
Take two boards about a foot square, divide each into twenty-five squares; get ten nuts and ten pebbles. Give to one player one board, five nuts, and five pebbles. He places these on the squares in any pattern he fancies, and when ready, the other player is allowed to see it for five seconds. Then it is covered up, and from the memory of what he saw the second player must reproduce the pattern on his own board. He counts one for each that was right, and takes off one for each that was wrong. They take turn and turn about.
This game is a wonderful developer of the power to see and memorize quickly.
Take two six-inch squares of stiff white pasteboard or whitened wood. On each of these draw an outline Rabbit, one an exact duplicate of the other. Make twenty round black wafers or spots, each half an inch across. Let one player stick a few of these on one Rabbit-board and set it up in full light. The Other, beginning at ioo yards, draws near till he can see the spots well enough to reproduce the pattern on the other which he carries. If he can do it at 75 yards he has wonderful eyes. Down even to 70 (done 3 times out of 5) he counts high honor; from 70 to 60 counts honor. Below that does not count at all.
Each competitor is given a long, straight stick, in daytime, and told to lay it due north and south. In doing this he may guide himself by sun, moss, or anything he can find in nature—anything, indeed, except a compass.
The direction is checked by a good compass corrected for the locality. The one who comes nearest wins.
It is optional with the judges whether the use of a timepiece is to be allowed.
The game of Rabbit-hunting is suited for two. hunters in limited grounds.
Three little sacks of brown burlap, each about eight inches by twelve, are stuffed with hay.
At any given place in the woods the two hunters stand in a io-foot circle with their bows and arrows. One boy is blindfolded; the other, without leaving the circle, throws the Rabbits into good hiding places on the ground. Then the second hunter has to find the Rabbits and shoot them without leaving the circle. The lowest number of points wins, as in golf. If the hunter has to leave the circle he gets one point for every step he takes outside. After he sees the Rabbit he must keep to that spot and shoot till it is hit once. One shot kills it, no matter where struck. For every shot he misses he gets five points.
After his first shot at each Rabbit the hider takes alternate shots with him.
If it is the hider who kills the Rabbit, the hunter adds ten points to his score. If the hunter hits it, he takes ten off his score.
If the hunter fails to find all the Rabbits, he scores twenty-five for each one he gives up.
The hider cannot score at all. He can only help his friend into trouble. Next time the two change places.
A match is usually for two brace of Rabbits.
This is a good one for challenges between two bands of equal numbers, say six on a side.
Each brave is armed with a bow and arrows (blunt preferred). Let the two bands stand in a row opposite a given bank, Io to 20 yards away. Against this bank should be a row of 12-inch wooden or card disks (wooden dishes do well) set on edge lightly in stakes. Each brave is represented by a disk, which is opposite his enemy or corresponding number. Thus six disks, number one to six, represent the Wolf Band; they are opposite the Eagles, and vice-versa.
At the word go each shoots at the disks
that represent his enemies. As soon as the disk that represents
himself is shot, he must fall; he is out of the fight. The
battle continues until all of one side are down. A truce may be
arranged to recover the arrows.
Hanging from the Totem-pole is a red or yellow horsetail. This is
the Grand Medicine Scalp of the band. The Hostile Spy has to
capture it. The leader goes around on the morning of the day and
whispers to the various braves, "Look out—there's a spy in
camp." At length he goes secretly near the one he has selected
for spy and whispers, "Look out, there's a spy in camp, and you are it." He gives him at the same
time some bright-colored badge, that he must wear as soon as he
has secured the Medicine Scalp. He must not hide the scalp on
his person, but keep it in view. He has all day till sunset to
get away with it. If he gets across the river or other limit,
with warriors in close pursuit, they give him ten arrowheads
(two and one half cents each), or other ransom agreed on. If he
gets away safely and hides it, he can come back and claim
fifteen arrowheads from the Council as ransom for the scalp. If
he is caught, he pays his captor ten arrowheads, ransom for his
life.
This is played with a scout and ten or more Hostiles, or Hounds, according to the country; more when it is rough or wooded.
The scout is given a letter addressed to the "Military Commandant"* of any given place a mile or two away. He is told to take the letter to any one of three given houses, and get it endorsed, with the hour when he arrived, then return to the starting-point within a certain time.
The Hostiles are sent to a point halfway, and let go by a starter at the same time as the scout leaves the camp. They are to intercept him.
If they catch him before he delivers the letter he must ransom his life by paying each two arrowheads (or other forfeit) and his captor keeps the letter as a trophy. If he gets through, but is caught on the road back, he pays half as much for his life. If he gets through, but is over time, it is a draw. If he gets through successfully on time he claims three arrowheads from each Hostile and keeps the letter as a trophy.
They may not follow him into the house (that is, the Fort), but may surround it at one hundred yards distance. They do not know which three houses he is free to enter, but they do know that these arc within certain narrow limits.
The scout should wear a conspicuous badge (hat, shirt, coat, or feather), and may ride a wheel or go in a wagon, etc., as long as his badge is clearly visible. He must not go in female dress.
On ......day, 1913, the Sinawa Tribe of Cos Cob, Conn., will send
a letter by one man into the town of
This is an indoor game, founded on the familiar "Hunt the Thimble."
We use a little dummy coon; either make it or turn a ready-made toy rabbit into one, by adding tail and black mask, and cropping the cars. Sometimes even a little rag ball with a face painted on it.
All the players but one go out of the room. That one places the coon anywhere in sight, high or low, but in plain view; all come in and seek. The first to find it sits down silently, and scores i. Each sits down, on seeing it, giving no clue to the others.
The first to score 3 coons is winner, usually. Sometimes we play till every one but one has a coon; that one is the booby. The others arc first, second, etc.
Sometimes each is given his number in order of finding it. Then,
after 7 or 8 coons, these numbers are added up, and the lowest is winner.
An eagle feather hung on a horsehair, so as to stand upright, is worked by a hidden operator, so as to dance and caper. The dancer has to imitate all its motions. A marionette may be used. It is a great fun maker.
This is an indoor, wet-weather game.
The players hold a blanket on the knees or on the table. A soft feather is put in the middle. As many may play as can get near. They may be in sides, 2 or 4, or each for himself. At the signal "Go!" each tries to blow the feather off the blanket at the enemy's side, and so count one for himself.
A game is usually best out of 7, x 1, or 13.
Make 2 stout sticks, each 2 feet long (broomsticks will do). Pad each of these on the end with a ball of rag. These are the spurs. Make an 8-foot ring. The two rivals are on their hunkers, each with a stick through behind his knees, his hands clasped in front of the knees, and the arms under the ends of the spurs.
Now they close; each aiming to upset the other, to make him lose his spurs or to put him out of the ring, any of which ends that round, and scores 1 for the victor. If both fall, or lose a spur, or go out together, it is a draw. Battle is for 3, 5, 7, II, or 13 rounds.
In this the two contestants stand upon one leg, holding up the ankle grasped in one hand behind. Points are scored as above, but it is a defeat also to drop the up leg.
The two contestants stand right toe by right toe, right hands
clasped together; left feet braced; left hands free.
Battles are for best out of 3, 5, 7, or II rounds.
The two contestants, on hands and knees, face each other. A strong belt or strap is buckled into one great loop that passes round the head of each; that is, crosses his nape. Halfway between them is a dead line. The one who pulls the other over this line is winner.
The contestant can at any time end the bout by lowering his head so the strap slips off; but this counts 1 against him.
Game is best out of 5, 7, 11, or 13 points.
This is an ancient game. A circle about three feet across is drawn on the ground. The players, holding hands, make a ring around this, and try to make one of the number step into the poison circle. He can evade it by side-stepping, by jumping over, or by dragging another fellow into it.
First to make the misstep is "it" for the time or for next game.
Sometimes we use a newspaper with a switch lying across it. Each when stung sits down. When one only is left he is the Rattler, and may sting each of the others with the switch across their hand.
When I was among the Chipewyan Indians of Great Slave Lake, in 19(37, I made myself popular with the young men, as well as boys, by teaching them the old game of bat-ball or Buffalo Chips.
The players (about a dozen) put their hats in a row near a house, fence, or log (hollows up) A dead-line is drawn io feet from the hats; all must stand outside of that. The one who is "it" begins by throwing a soft ball into one of the hats. If he misses the hat, a chip is put into his own, and he tries over. As soon as he drops the ball into a hat, the owner runs to get the ball; all the rest run away. The owner must not follow beyond the dead-line, but must throw the ball at some one. If he hits him, a chip goes into that person's hat; if not, a chip goes into his own.
As soon as some one has 5 chips he is the Buffalo; he wins the booby prize: that is, he must hold his hand out steady against the wall, and each player has 5 shots at it with the ball, as he stands on the dead-line.
Each player has a large, smooth, roundish stone, about 4 or 5 inches through. This is his rat. He keeps it permanently.
The lodge is any low boulder, block, stump, bump, or hillock on level ground. A dead-line is drawn through the lodge and another parallel, 15 feet away, for a firing line.
The fellow who is "it," or "keeper," perches his rat on the lodge. The others stand at the firing-line and throw their rats at his. They must not pick them up or touch them with their hands when they are beyond the deadline. If one does, then the keeper can tag him (unless he reaches the firing-line), and send him to do duty as keeper at the rock.
But they can coax their rats with their feet, up to the dead-line, not beyond, then watch for a chance to dodge tack to the firing-line, where they arc safe at all times.
If the rat is knocked off by any one in fair firing, the keeper is powerless till he has replaced it. Meantime, most of the players have secured their rats and got back safe to the firing-line.
By using bean bags or sandbags instead of stones this may be made an indoor game.
This is a game we often play in the train, to pass the time pleasantly.
Sometimes one party takes the right side of the road with the windows there, and the other the left. Sometimes all players sit on the same side.
The game is, whoever is first to see certain things agreed on scores so many points. Thus:
The winner is the one who first gets 25 or so points, as agreed.
When afoot, one naturally takes other things for points, as certain trees, flowers, etc.
A good trailing stunt to develop alertness and observation is managed thus: One fellow wearing the tracking irons is deer. He is given too beans, 3o slices of potato and to minutes start. He has to lay a track, as crooked as he pleases, dropping a bean every 3 or 4 yards and a slice
The target should be a burlap sack stuffed tight with straw and ranged as for archery. Make it big, 6 feet square, if possible, and always begin so close to it that you at least hit the sack nearly every time. Afterward you can work off to the correct range of 30 feet.
Given a hatchet and knife, I match, a 2-quart pail, 7 inches or less in diameter, one quart of water and a block of soft wood about 2 feet long and 5 or 6 inches through.
Any one should have the water boiling in 10 minutes. The record is said to be 7.59
First cut plenty of wood. Spend three minutes on it. Support your pail on four pegs driven in the ground. If water is handy dip the pegs in it before placing.
The water must be jumping and bubbling all
over the surface or it is not boiling.
If the first match goes out, contestants are usually allowed a second, but are penalized by having 2 minutes added to their time.
The following competition in Medley Scouting took place at one of my camps. A prize was offered for the highest points in the following:
For each of the first 20 competitors, points were given; the prize adjudged by the total.
Some of these stunts may seem trivial, but there was a purpose in each, and that purpose was served. In the Indian widow, for example, we wished to select the best actor for play. Most of the fellows failed. Two were good, but one, nearly the smallest in camp, was so fine that he brought tears into the eyes of many.
The selection of the various leaves impressed these kinds on all, especially those who failed to bring the right ones.
The song and dance was introduced to cultivate the spirit of going fearlessly in and doing one's best, however poor it might be; and the elements of handicraft were recognized in birch-bark vessel and war club.
By the bed competition, all were taught how easy it is to make one's self comfortable in the woods.
The water-boiling was particularly instructive and was tried twice. The first time the winner took 14 minutes, and the second best 20. The last time, the winner's time was 8 minutes, and the second one's 10.
Even the imitations of monkey, lynx, cat, panther, moose, etc., developed a keen observation, and a lot of good natural history that was intensely interesting as well as amusing.
FIRST AID. (Rudimentary)
(Second Aid, and
best, is bring the doctor)
TO REVIVE FROM DROWNING
Exclude the air by covering the burn with a thin paste of baking-soda, starch, flour, vaseline, olive oil, linseed oil, castor-oil, lard, cream, or cold cream. Cover the burn first with the smear; next with a soft rag soaked in the smear.
Shock always accompanies severe burns, and must be treated.
This is usually from the lungs or stomach. If from the lungs, the blood is bright-red and frothy, and is coughed up; if from the stomach, it is dark, and is vomited. Cause the patient to lie down, with head lower than body. Small pieces of ice should be swallowed, and ice-bags, or snow, cold water, etc., applied to the place whence it comes. Hot applications may be applied to the extremities, but avoid stimulants, unless the patient is very weak.
After making sure that no dirt or foreign substance is in the wound, the first thing is tight bandaging—to close it and stop the bleeding. The more the part is raised above the heart—the force-pump—the easier it is to do this.
If the blood comes out in spurts, it means an artery has been cut; for this, apply a twister or tourniquet—that is, make a big knot in a handkerchief, tie it round the limb, with the knot just above the wound, and twist it round with a stick till the flow is stopped.
To revive one stunned by a thunderbolt, dash cold water over him.
A person suffering from shock has pale, dull face, cold skin, feeble breathing, rapid, feeble pulse, listless, half-dead manner. Place him on his back with head low. Give stimulants, such as hot tea or coffee, or perhaps one drink of spirits. Never remove the clothing, but cover tho person up. Rub the limbs and place hot-water bottles around the body. Most persons recover in time, without aid, but those with weak hearts need help.
Fainting is caused by the arrest of the blood supply to the
brain, and is cured by getting the heart to correct the lack. To
aid in this have the person lie down with the head lower than
the body. Loosen the clothing. Give fresh air.
Put a tight cord or bandage around the limb between the wound and the heart. Suck the wound many times and wash it with hot water to make it bleed. Burn it with strong ammonia or caustic or a white-hot iron; or cut out the wounded parts with a sharp knife or razor, if you can, not get to a doctor.
Wash with oil or weak ammonia, or very salt water, or paint with iodine.
Hold a cold mirror to the nostrils or mouth. This shows at once if there is any breath. Push a pin into the flesh. If living, the hole will close again; if dead, it will remain open.
Can be removed with the tip of a lead-pencil, or the wet end of a tiny roll of soft paper. I have seen a woman lick the cinder out of her child's eye when other means were lacking.
"First Aid" By Major Charles Lynch. P. Blakiston Sons & 1017 Walnut St., Philadelphia, 1911. 30 cents.
(In case no standard remedies be at
hand.)
For trees mentioned, but not illustrated here,
see Forestry section.
230 The Book of Woodcraft
A Turkish bath in the woods is an interesting idea. The Indians have always used this style of treatment and, with their old-time regard for absolute cleanliness, took the bath once a week, when circumstances permitted.
Their plan was to make a low, round-topped lodge, about five feet
high and as much across, by bending over a number of long willow
poles with both ends stuck in the ground. A few slender
cross-bars lashed on here and there completed the skeleton dome.
This was covered over with a number of blankets, or waterproof
covers of canvas, etc. A shallow pit was dug near one side. The
patient stripped and went in. A fire was made previously close
at hand, and in this a number of stones heated. When nearly
red-hot, these were rolled in, under the cover of the Sweat
Lodge into the pit. The patient had a bucket of water and a cup.
He poured water on the hot stones, a dense steam arose, which
filled the Lodge, causing the intense heat, which could be
modified at will. The more water on the stones the greater, of
course, the steam. Meantime, the patient drinks plenty of water,
and is soon in a profuse sweat. Half an hour of this is enough
for most persons. They should then come out, have a partial
rub-down, and plunge into cold water, or have it thrown over
them. After this a
This is fine to break up a cold or help a case of rheumatism. I have found it an admirable substitute for the Turkish bath.
Nothing in camp is more important than the latrine or toilet. It is fully described on page 178.
Near-sightedness. An eminent eye doctor,
Dr. W. H. Bates of New York, has found out how you can have
sight as keen and eyes as good as those of the Indians who live
out of doors. After eight years' study of the subject he has
established the following:
a. The defect known as near-sight or short-sight seldom exists at birth, but is acquired.
b. Besides being acquirable, it is preventable and in some cases curable.
c. It comes through continual use of the eye for near objectit only, during the years of growth.
The Remedy. The remedy is, give the eye
regular muscular exercise every day for far-sight by focussing it for a few minutes on distant
objects. It is not enough to merely look at the far-off
landscapes. The. eye must be definitely focussed on something,
like print, before the necessary Muscular adjustment is perfect
and the effect obtained.
The simplest way to do this is—get an ordinary eye testing
card, such as is sold for a nickel at any optician's.
By such exercises during the years of growth almost all short-sight or near-sight, and much blurred sight or astigmatism, may be permanently prevented.
An interesting proof is found by Dr. Casey Wood in the fact that while wild animals have good sight, caged animals that have lost all opportunities for watching distant objects are generally myopic or short-sighted. In other words, nature adapts the tool to its job.
A certain minister knowing I had much platform experience said to me once, "How is it that your voice never grows husky in speaking? No matter how well I may be my voice often turns husky in the pulpit."
He was a thin, nervous man, very serious about his work and anxious to impress. I replied: "You arc nervous before preaching, which makes your feet sweat. Your socks are wet when you are in the pulpit, and the sympathy between soles and voice is well known. Put on dry socks just before entering the pulpit and you need not fear any huskiness."
He looked amazed and said: "You certainly have sized me up all right. I'll try next Sunday."
I have not seen him since and don't know the result, but I know that the principle is sound—wet feet, husky throat.
This was the title of an essay by George Catlin, a famous outdoor
man, who lived among the Indians, and wrote about
When you see a man whose toes are excessively turned out, you may know he was born and brought up on sidewalks. He is a poor walker and will not hold out on an all day-tramp.
The mountaineer and the Indian scout always keep their feet nearly straight. It is easier on the feet and it lengthens the stride; makes, in short, a better traveler. A glance at his tracks will tell you how a person walks.
No Indian was allowed to use tobacco until a proven warrior. It was injurious to the young they said, but in the grown man if used only as a burnt sacrifice it helped in prayer and meditation.
Some of the finest Indians, Spotted-tail for example, never smoked as a habit.
In the New York Literary Digest for
December 30, 1911, there appeared the following important
article:
INJURIOUSNESS OF TOBACCO
The opinion that tobacco is injurious to the young and apparently
harmless to adults, quoted in these pages recently from American Medicine, is adjudged by the
editor of Good Health (Battle Creek,
Mich., December) to be one of those half-truths which Tennyson
tells us are "ever the blackest lies." American
Medicine, he asks, never heard of tobacco blindness?
And how about cancer of the lip and of the throat, diseases
almost confined to smokers? Bouchard, of Paris, an authority on
diseases of the heart and blood- vessels, names tobacco, the
writer goes on to say, as one of the leading causes of this
deadly class of maladies. And this is by no means a new idea.
Medical examiners tell us that nine tenths of the rejected
applicants for the Army are refused on account of tobacco-heart.
We read further:
"King Edward died of tobacco-heart. Mark Twain was another victim of this disease. A king of Hungary fell off his horse some time ago and lost his life because of defective vision due to smoking. The death-rate from disease of the heart and blood-vessels has increased, within the last ten years, from 6 per 100,000 to 24 per 100,000 or 400 per cent. Is there no evidence from these facts that it is not 'harmless to adults'?
"No experienced coach will allow men in training for athletic events to make use of tobacco, so well known are its effects upon the heart. A well-known physician said to the writer just before the Yale-Harvard boat-race: 'I am sure Yale will be beaten, for the coach permits the men to use tobacco.'
"The ill effects of tobacco upon the kidneys are familiar to all physicians. Statistics gathered some years ago showed that lo per cent. of all smokers have albumen in the urine. The physician forbids the use of tobacco or very greatly restricts its use in cases of Bright's disease.
"But even on
a priorigrounds it may be safely said that tobacco is anything but harmless. The deadly effects of tobacco are well enough known. In very minute doses nicotin produces deadly effects. One tenth of a grain killed a goat, and a much smaller dose killed a frog. The farmer uses tobacco leaves and stems to kill ticks on sheep. An eminent German botanist has recently shown that tobacco, even in minute quantities, produces pernicious effects on plants."Numerous investigators have shown that pigeons are proof against anthrax, a disease very deadly to sheep. Charrin showed that after giving to a pigeon a very small dose of nicotin the creature quickly dice when infected with the anthrax germ.
239 Health and Woodland Medicine "Doctor Wright, of London, showed that nicotin lowers the tuberculo-opsonic index of the blood; that is, it lowers the power of resistance of the body against tuberculosis. He cited the case of a young man who was a great smoker and whose tuberculoopsonic index was zero instead of ioo. The young man was suffering from tuberculosis and died within a few weeks.
"Post-mortem examination made at the Phipps Institute showed that smokers are twice as subject to tuberculosis as non-smokers."
These are only a few of the thousand facts, the writer goes on, that might be cited on his side of the question. Nothing in them shows that there is any distinction between the child and the adult, and the fact that the effects are often less apparent in the latter is due, we are told, solely to the fact that they possess greater vital resistance than children. Finally, he remarks:
"We would remind the editor to review the study of physiologic chemistry and pathology, and consult a few up-to-date standard works on the practice of medicine in relation to the cause of Bright's disease, arteriosclerosis, angina pectoris and other maladies involving the heart and blood-vessels, the death- rate from which has kept even pace along with the increase of tobacco during the last thirty or forty years."
Some of our best authorities tell us that more than half of our diseases, mental and physical, come from ignorance and consequent abuse of our sexual powers.
We have long known and realized vaguely that virtue and strength are synonymous; that the Puritan fathers, for example, notwithstanding their narrowness and their unlovely lives, were upon the whole a people of pure life, who reaped their reward in their wonderful mental, moral, and physical strength, not entirely gone to-day.
All men realize the desirability of virtue; and hitherto we have
attempted to keep our young people virtuous by keeping them
ignorant. Most thinking men to-day admit ignorance is a
sad failure.
It is far better for the parent to teach the child the truth—the sacred truth—by degrees, as he or she is ready for it. Most children are ready at seven or eight to know something about the process of procreation, especially it they live on a farm where they see it all about them.
No boy is any the worse for learning of these things. All are better for knowing them.
Rest assured of this, more nations have been wiped out by sex abuse than by bloody war. The nation that does not bring up its youth with pure ideals is certainly going to destruction.
Every leader of boys should talk frankly to his charges and read to them or have them read:
"From Youth Into Manhood," by Dr. Winfield S. Hall. Y. M. C. A. Press, 124 East Twenty-eighth Street, New York.
For a man who is lost, the three great dangers in order of
importance, are Fear, Cold, and Hunger. He may endure extreme hunger for
a week and extreme cold for a day, but extreme fear may undo him in an hour. There is no way
of guarding against this greatest danger excepting by assuring
him that he is fortified against the other two.
Starvation is rare in warm regions and I suppose that no one ever starved during the late summer and early autumn. The woods then are full of roots, nuts, and berries that, as a rule, are wholesome and palatable, and usually there is a large amount of small game at this season.
The greatest danger of starvation is in the far north during winter. Fly the far north I do
not mean the Polar regions, where few go and where life usually
depends on a thousands of travelers each year, and
where each year one hears of some one dying of starvation,
through ignorance of the few emergency foods that abound in that
country.
Fish are not included among these foods, for the wanderer in the snow is not likely to be equipped with fish hook, spear or net. The fish, moreover, are in winter protected by ice of great thickness. Animal food is exceedingly scarce at such times, the forms most likely to be found arc rabbits, mice, insect-borers, ants, and rawhide gear. Of course the mounted Indian never starved, because he would bleed his horse each day and live on the blood; taking care that his steed had fodder enough to keep up his strength. But we must assume that this source of food is not available—that our traveler is on foot.
A well-known explorer states in his book that northern expeditions should be undertaken chiefly or only in rabbit years—that is, when rabbits arc at the maximum of their remarkable periodic increase. While there is some truth in this, we must remember, first, a rabbit year in one region is not necessarily a rabbit year in another, so we could not foretell with certainty what would be a season of abundant food in the region proposed for the expedition; second, men will at any risk go into the vast northern wilderness every year, for it is destined to be the great field for exploration, and every traveler there ought to know the foods he can count on finding at all times.
Rabbits. If when in straits for food he
have the luck to be in a rabbit country, he should select a
thicket in which their tracks and runs are very numerous. By
quietly walking around it, he is likely to see one of these
silent, ghostlike hares, and can easily secure it with his gun.
Without a gun his next best reliance is on snares. String,
The snare is fast to the end of the pole, and spread open in a
well-worn runway. The loop is about four inches across and
placed four inches from the ground. The pole twitch-up is held
down by placing the cross-piece of the snare under some
projecting snag, as shown. The rabbit, bounding along, puts his
head in the noose, a slight jerk frees the cross piece from its
holder, and in a moment the rabbit is dangling in the air. The
cross piece can be dispensed with if the snare be wrapped three
or four times around a snag. The squaws often build a little
hedge across a rabbit thicket, so as to close all but three or
four
Mice swarm in all the northern country
wherever there is heavy sedge, or where the ground is deeply
buried in moss, and that means most of the Far North. If I were
seeking for mice I should pick out a sedgy hollow, one evidently
not actually a pond in summer, and dig through snow and tangle
down to the runways, at the level of the ground. If one has
traps they may be set here with the certainty of taking some
game within a few hours. But usually the mice are so common that
they may be caught by hand. I have frequently done this, taking
a hint from the method of a fox hunting mice. He advances very
slowly, watching for a movement in the cover. As soon as this is
seen he seizes the whole tussock, and, after the death squeeze,
separates his victim from the grass.
Deep snow, unfortunately, puts the mice beyond reach, and excludes them from the bill of fare when most needed.
Ants, the next on our list, are usually
to be found dormantvi dead and hollow trees, sometimes in great
numbers. Bears and flickers eat them in quantities, and I have
met with men who claim to have done so, but I never tried them
myself and suspect that they are unpleasantly acid.
Insect-borers. These are the fat white
grubs that winter under the bark of trees and in dead timber.
They are accounted acceptable food by bears and by most birds,
which is almost if not quite conclusive evidence that they are
good for human food. Their claws, nippers, and spines should be
removed. To get them one must have an axe.
Rawhide, or even leather, if boiled for hours, will make a nutritious
soup. Many a man has bridged the awful gap by boiling his hoots,
whence the phrase to express the final extreme, "I'll at my
boots first." Mark Twain was once
But the hardest case of all is the best for present discussion. That is the case of the man who has not happened on a rabbit region and who has neither gun nor axe, string nor rawhide. He must look entirely to the vegetable world for sustenance, as do all the northern natives in times of direst famine.
Bark and buds. In the forest region are
several foods that are available in the depth of winter. First
of these is the thin green outer skin or bark, the white
innermost bark, and the buds (not the middle brown bark) of
quaking asp or white poplar. The brown bark is highly charged
with a bitter principle, partly tannin, that makes it
unpalatable as well as unwholesome. Aspen bark is a favorite
food with elk, deer, beavers, squirrels, rabbits, and mice in
winter. I found that by boiling it for some hours it is reduced
to a gelatinous and apparently nutritious mass. I have also
found the buds of basswood a palatable food supply. In my early
days, in the backwood of Canada, we children frequently allayed
our hunger with basswood buds and spruce and tamarac shoots.
Dr. C. C. Curtis informs me that in British Columbia the natives
eat the inner bark of willows, hemlock,
and other trees, and I have often heard of the Indians eating
the innermost bark of birch.
All these are common foods with herbivorous animals. Man, having a less capable stomach, will do well to predigest such by roasting or long boiling.
Toadstools. There is yet another supply
that is commonly shunned, namely—toadstools. No toadstool
growing on trees is known to be poisonous, and most contain
nutriment—especially the birch polyporus, which grows on
birch trees and has pores instead of gills. A toadstool gnawed
Lichens. But the surest food supply of
all is that from the lowly lichens.,
which exist in enormous quantities throughout the great land of
big hunger and little sticks.Doctor C. C. Curtis says:
"All lichens are rich in carbohydrates; lichen starch or lichenin, constituting 40 to 60 per cent, of the bulk of the higher forms."
They supply winter food to all the northern quadrupeds. The reindeer, the white hare, the musk-ox, and the lemming find in them their chief support; and those which do not live directly on the lichen do so indirectly by preying on those who do.
They are not choice dainties for human food. But Richardson, the famous northern naturalist, and the party with him, as well as unnumbered Eskimos and travelers, have lived for weeks on the lichens when other food has failed.
The kinds most useful are the Iceland moss (Cetraria icelandica), the reindeer moss (Cladonia rangiferina), and the
rock-tripe or famine-food (Umbilicaria
arctica), and other species. To these we might add the
Lucanora esculenta or manna lichen,
the manna of the Bible; but as this is an old-world species it
is not within the intended scope of this article.
The Iceland mossis a rigid, erect,
brandling moss, almost like a seaweed, and of brown color. It
abounds in most northern latitudes. Richardson speaks of the
Barren Grounds being covered with Cetraria of two species. When
The reindeer moss is by far the most
abundant of the food lichens. There are thousands of square
miles in the barren northern country, deeply covered with
reindeer moss. It is indeed the most abundant form of vegetable
life, the main support of the reindeer, and the ever-present and
obvious guarantee to the traveler that he need not starve. It is
readily known by its soft gray-green color and its branching
like a little tree without leaves. It grows on rocks or on the
ground, and masses sometimes like sponges. It is said to be a
nutritious food. It is gritty unless collected carefully and
washed. This latter, fortunately, is easily done, for grit sinks
in the water and the moss floats when fresh.
Boiling is the usual way of cooking it. Reindeer moss from Connecticut, however, I boiled for several hours without producing any evident change. It continued to be tough and unpalatable, and tasteless except for a slight suggestion of fish oil.
Roasting was more successful than boiling. When carefully
browned, I found it tasted not unlike burnt bread
Rock-tripe. But the last, the rock-tripe or famine
food of the Indians, has proved the most satisfactory
of all the starvation foods that I have experimented with. Every
one knows it as the flat leathery crinkle-edged lichen that grows on rocks. It is blackish and brittle in dry
weather, but dull dark greenish on the upper side in wet. It is
largely composed of nutritious matter that can be assimilated by
the human stomach. Unfortunately it is also a powerful purge,
unless dried before being boiled, as food. Specimens gathered
from the rocks in Connecticut— it is very widely
distributed even in New England—after drying and two or
three hours boiling, produced a thick mucilaginous liquid and a
granular mass of solid jelly, that were Cetraria, etc. Indeed, it was
sweetish, with a slight flavor of licorice and of sago, far from
unpalatable at any time, and to a starving man, no doubt, a boon
from heaven. It is less abundant in the north country than the
reindeer moss, but yet of general distribution and to be found
in great quantities and at all seasons of the year.
Rock-tripe is the food that saved the life of Sir John Franklin
and Dr. J. Richardson on their long and desperate journey for
three months, in the summer and autumn of 1821, on foot from
Fort Enterprise to the Polar Sea and back. The record of that
expedition shows that when they were out of game, as soon
happened, their diet was varied with burnt bones when they could
find them and toasted
Drinks. It will be a fitting conclusion
to this question of foods if we note one or two possible drinks.
Franklin and Richardson used Labrador tea
as a hot drink. This is an infusion of the plants figured here.
But good and slightly nourishing drinks are made also of the
buds, sprouts, or inner bark of spruce, basswood, tamarac,
birch, and especially of slippery elm.
THE Bald Eagle or White-headed Eagle (Haliaeetos leucocephalus) is the emblem of America.
It is three to four feet from beak to tail, and six or seven
feet across the wings. When fully adult it is known by its white
head, neck and tail, and the brown body; but when young it is
brownish black, splashed and marked with dull white.
The only other eagle found in the United States is the Golden or War Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos).
This is a little larger. When full grown it is dark brown, with
the basal half of tail more or less white. The plumage of the
young birds is somewhat like that of the young Bald Eagle; but
the two species may always be distinguished by the legs. The War
Eagle wears leggings— his legs are feathered to the toes.
He is ready for the warpath. The Bald Eagle has the legs bald,
or bare on the lower half.
Redtailed Hawk or Henhawk (Buteo
borealis). The common hawks of America are very
numerous and not easy to distinguish. The best known of the
large kinds is the Redtail. This is about two feet long and four
feet across the wings. In general it is dark brown above and
white beneath, with dark brown marks; the tail is clear reddish
with one black bar across near the tip. In young birds
The Barred or Hoot Owl (Strix varia).
This Owl is known at once by the absence of horns, the black
eyes and the plumage barred acrossthe
chest and stripedbelow that. It is about
twenty inches long, in general gray-brown marked with white. It
is noted for its loud hooting; it is the noisiest owl in our
woods. Found in the wooded parts of America up to about latitude
so degrees, east of the Plains.
Great Horned Owl or Cat Owl (Bubo
virginianus). This is the largest of our Owls. About
twenty-four inches long and four feet across the wings. It is
known at once by its great ear tufts, its yellow eyes, its
generally barred plumage of white, black and buff, and its white
shirt front. This is the winged tiger of the woods. Noted for
its destruction of game and poultry, it is found throughout the
timbered parts of North America.
Screech Owl (Otus asio). This is not
unlike the Horned Owl in shape and color but is much
smaller—only ten inches long. Sometimes its plumage is red
instead of gray. It feeds on mice and insects and has a sweet
mournful song in the autumn—its lament for the falling
leaves. It is found in the timbered parts of North America.
Turkey Vulture or Buzzard (Cathartes
aura). The Turkey Vulture is about two and a half feet
long and about six feet across its wings. It is black everywhere
except on the under side of the wing which is gray, and the head
which is naked and red. It is known at once by the naked head
and neck, and is famous for its splendid flight. It is found
from Atlantic to Pacific and north to the Saskatchewan. It preys
on carrion.
In the Southern States is another species—the Black Vulture or Carrion Crow—which is somewhat smaller and wears its coat collar up to its ears instead of low on the neck; also its complexion is dusky not red.
Loon (Gavia immer). The common Loon is
known by its size—thirty-two inches long and about four
feet across the wings—and its brilliant black and white
plumage. It is noted for its skill as a fisher and diver. Its
weird rolling call is heard on every big lake in the
country.
Common Seagull (Larus argentalus). The
common Seagull is twenty-four inches long and four feet across.
The plumage is white with blue-gray back, when adult; but
Pelican (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos). The
white Pelican is known at once by its great size—about
five feet long and eight feet across the wings— by its
long beak, its pouch, and its feet fully webbed. Its plumage is
white, but the wing tips are black. It is found in the interior
of America up to Great Slave Lake.
Wild Duck or Mallard (Anal
platyrhynchos). Of all our numerous wild ducks this is the
best known. It is about twenty-three inches long. Its
bottle-green head, white
Wood Duck or Summer Duck (Aix sponsa).
This beautiful duck is about eighteen inches long. Its head is
beautifully variegated, bottle-green and white. Its eye is red,
its breast purplish chestnut, checkered with white Spots, while
its sides are buff with black pencilings. This
Wild Goose, Canada Goose or Honker (Branta
canadensis). This fine bird is about three feet long.
Its head and neck are black; its cheek patch white; its body
gray; its tail black with white coverts above and below. It is
found up to the Arctic regions, and breeds north of about
latitude 45 degrees. It is easily tamed and reared in
captivity.
Swan. There are two kinds of Swan found
in America: The Trumpeter (Olor
buccinator), which is almost extinct, is very large and
has a black bill, and the Whistling Swan (Olorcolumbianus), which is smaller—about five
feet long and seven feet across. Its plumage is pure yellow spot near
the eye. It is found generally throughout North America but is
rare now.
Bittern (Botaurus lengtiginosus) . This
bird of marshes is about twenty-eight inches long and can stand
nearly three feet high. Its general color is warm yellowish
brown splashed with dark brown. The black mark on the side
of the neck is a strong feature, and its bright green
legs and beak are very distinctive. It is famous for its
guttural call notes in the marshes, and is found throughout
North America up to about latitude Go in the interior.
Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias). This
bird is commonly called Blue Crane. Its great size will
distinguish it. In general it is blue-gray above, white below;
head,
Quail or Bobwhite (Colinus virginianus).
This famous and delicate game bird is about ten inches long. Its
plumage is beautifully varied with reddish brown, lilac, and
black markings, on a white ground. Its whistle sounds like "Bob
White." It is found in eastern North America up to Massachusetts
and South Ontario.
Ruffed Grouse or Part ridge Ruffed Grouse or
Partridge (Bonasa umbellus). It is known by its mottled
and brown plumage, its broad and beautiful fan tail, and the
black ruffs on each side of the neck. It is noted for its
drumming, which is usually a love song—a call to its mate.
Found in the heavy woods of North America, north of the Gulf
States.
Dove (Zenaidura macroura). This is an
abundant inhabitant of the farming country as far north as wheat
13 now grown. It is about twelve inches long, and known
Downy Woodpecker (Dryobates pubescens).
About six and and a half inches long, black and white. In the
male the nape is red, the outer tail feathers white, with black
spots. Carefully distinguish this from its large relation the
Hairy Woodpecker which is nine and a half inches long and has no
black spots on the white outer tail feathers. A familiar
inhabitant of orchards the year round, it is found in woods
throughout eastern North America.
Flicker or Ilighhole (Colaptes auratus).
This large and beautiful woodpecker is twelve inches long. Its
head is ashy gray behind, with a red nape in the neck, and
brown- gray in front. On its breast is a black crescent. The
spots below and the little bars above are black, and the under
side of wings and tail are bright yellow. The rump is white. Its
beautiful plumage and loud splendid " clacker " cry make it a
joy in every woodland. It is found throughout North America,
cast of the Rockies up to the limit of trees.
Ruby-throated Hummingbird (Trochilus
colubris). Every one knows the Hummingbird. The male
only has the throat of ruby color. It is about four inches long
from tip of beak to tip of tail. This is the only Hummingbird
found in the Northern States or Canada cast of the Prairies.
Kingbird (Tyrannus tyrannus). This bird
is nearly black in its upper parts, white underneath, and has a
black tail with white tip. Its concealed crest is orange and
red. It is eight and a half inches long. Famous for its intrepid
attacks on all birds, large and small, that
Bluejay (Cyanocitta cristata). This bird
is soft purplish blue above, and white underneath. The wings and
tail are bright blue with black marks. It is found in the
Common Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos). The
Crow is black from head to foot, body and soul. It is about
eighteen inches long and thirty wide. It makes itself
a nuisance in all the heavily wooded parts of E. North America.
Bobolink or Redbird (Dolichonyx
oryzivorus). This bird is about seven and a half inches
long. The plumage is black and white, with brown or creamy patch
on nape; and the tail feathers all sharply pointed. The female,
and the male in autumn, are all yellow buff with dark streaks.
Though famous for its wonderful song as it flies over the
meadows in June, it is killed by the thousands to supply the
restaurants in autumn and served up under
Baltimore Oriole (Icterus galbula). The
Oriole is about eight inches long, flaming orange in color, with
black head and back and partly black tail and wings. The female
is duller in plumage. Famous for its beautiful nest, as
well as its gorgeous plumage and ringing song, it is
abundant in Eastern North America in open woods up to Northern
Ontario and Lake Winnipeg.
Purple Grackle or Crow Blackbird (Quiscalus
quiscala). This northern bird of paradise looks black
at a distance but its head is shiny blue and its body
iridescent. It is twelve inches long. When flying it holds its
long tail with the edge raised like a boat, hence "boat tail."
In various forms it is found throughout the eastern States, and
in Canada up to Hudson Bay.
Snowbird (Plectrophenax nivalis). About
six and a half inches long, this bird is pure white, overlaid
with brown
Song-Sparrow (Melospiza melodia). The
Song-sparrow is about six and a half inches long—brown
above—white underneath. It is thickly streaked with
blackish marks on flanks, breast and all upper parts. All the
tail feathers are plain brown. There is a black blotch on the
jaw and another on the middle of the breast. Always near a
brook.
Scarlet Tanager (Piranga erythromelas).
This gorgeous bird is about seven inches long. The plumage of
the male is of a flaming scarlet, with black wings and tail; but
the female is dull green in color. The Scarlet Tanager is found
in the woods of eastern America, up to Ottawa and Lake
Winnipeg.
Purple Martin (Progne subis). About eight
inches in length, with long wings and forked tail, the Purple
Martin
is everywhere of a shiny bluish or purplish black.
Like the Kingbird it attacks any intruder on its lower range.
This swallow is found in the wooded regions of east temperate
America, north to Newfoundland and the Saskatchewan.
Barn Swallow (Hirundro erythrogaster).
About seven inches long, this bird is steel-blue above, chestnut
on
Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos). About
ten inches long, soft gray above, dull white beneath, wings and
tail
black and white, with no black on head—the
Mockingbird is famous for its song, and is found in United
States north to New Jersey.
Catbird (Dumetella carolinensis). This
northern Mockingbird is about nine inches long, dark slate in
color, with a black-brown cap, black tail and a red patch "on
the seat of its pants." It abounds in the Eastern States and
Canada, north to Ottawa, Saskatchewan and British Columbia.
Common House Wren (Troglodytes (aedon).
This little fairy is about five inches long; soft brown above
and brown-
Chickadee (Penthestes atricapillus).
This cheerful little bird is five and a half inches long. Its
cap and throat are
black. Its upper parts are gray, its under parts
brownish, its cheeks white, no streaks anywhere. It does not
migrate, so it is well known in the winter woods of eastern
America up to the Canadian region where the Brown-Capped or
Hudson Chickadee takes its place. Its familiar song chickadee dee dee has given it its
name.
Wood Thrush (Hylocichla mustelinus).
About eight
Robin (Planesticus migratorius). The
Robin is about ten inches long, mostly dark gray in color, but
with black on head and tail, its breast is brownish red. The
spots
about the eye, also the throat, the belly and the
marks in outer tail feathers are white. Its mud nest is known in
nearly every orchard. Found throughout the timbered parts of
America north to the limit of trees.
Bluebird (Sialia sialis). About seven
inches long, brilliant blue above, dull red-brown on breast,
white below. Found in eastern North America, north to about
latitude 50 degrees in the interior, not so far on the
coast.
(By E. T. S. from Country Life, July,
1904)
A boy found a bird that was lying dead in the woods. Its beautiful plumage, its form and its markings delighted his eye. He carried it home to show to his mother and to ask its name. She admired it with him but she could not tell him what it was, and at length said, "Now go and bury it before it begins to smell."
The boy had not given a thought to the history of the bird, nor had its death caused him a touch of sorrow. He was interested in it as a strange and beautiful thing, and the idea of burying all that beauty, or—worse—seeing it corrupt, now gave him a deep regret.
"How I wish I knew how to stuff it," he said, feeling that
then he might always renew his present enjoyment. He was
expressing the feeling of most young people when they see a
dead bird. All would like to save its beautiful plumage at
least. They know it can be done, but have well, that not many men in the world to-day can do
it. As with all arts, there can be but few masters. But the
main process itself is easy to learn; and if the boy who
tries to do it fails in making a life-like bird of his
specimen, he at least does three things: he saves its
beautiful plumage; he adds to his bird acquaintance; and he
gains a keener appreciation of the work of others.
While each taxidermist has his own methods, all agree in the main. The directions here given are those, recommended by good authorities, and that I have found most practical in my own work.
There are two ways of preserving a bird:
The first is removing and preserving the skin in such a way that it may always serve to show what the bird's Plumage is like.
Most naturalists prefer to keep their specimens as skins, not only because it is easier and cheaper to do so, but because then they take up less room, and the skin may be properly mounted at any later time.
These are the tools and materials used in making a skin:
A sharp knife, a pair of stout, short scissors, and a pair of small forceps. (It is, however, quite possible to dispense with all but the knife and scissors in making a bird skin. I rarely use any tool but the scissors.)
For materials you will need cotton wool, needle and thread,
arsenical soap (some naturalists prefer dry white arsenic)
and cornmeal (or fine hardwood sawdust). Some
The hardest birds to begin on are the very large ones, and the next hardest, perhaps, are the very small ones. The easiest birds are those about the size of a robin or bluejay (leaving out the woodpeckers).
Supposing the specimen to be skinned is a robin:
First put a little plug of cotton wool in its throat and mouth, also into any wounds the bird may have, to stanch the flow of blood, etc. This should be done the moment the bird comes into your possession.
Now lay the bird on its back, tail toward your right hand, part the feathers, and make a slit from near the end of the breast-bone into the vent (S.V. Fig. 1 p. 356), taking care to cut only the skin, not the walls of the abdomen. Separate the skin from the flesh by pushing it with the finger nail or knife-blade. As soon as the flesh is exposed, put a pinch of meal on it to keep the feathers from sticking, and also to soak up oil, blood, etc. Some use plaster for this; but plaster is disagreeable under the finger nails, it takes the gloss off the feathers, and if the specimen happens to be a game-bird it injures the meat for the table. The plaster is better however for white, fluffy birds, as meal or sawdust lodges in the down.
Push the skin from the body till the leg is reached. Work the leg out of the skin till the knee-joint is clear on the inside of the skin; (H L, Fig. 2) cut the leg off at the knee, taking great care not to cut or tear the skin. The severed leg now hangs to the skin. When both legs are thus cut, work around the base of the tail, freeing the skin. Then cut straight through the bone and all, with the scissors, at the part marked with arrow and black line in Fig. 3 ó leaving the tail bone with the tail hanging to the skin.
This is one of the most difficult parts of the skinning. It is so hard to get at, and so easy to tear the skin, that one is to be congratulated if in the first lesson he safely "rounds Cape Horn."
At all stages keep the meal applied to the body as fast as it is exposed, and in quantity enough to soak up all moisture; and avoid stretching the skin.
With the tail and legs free, there is no difficulty in pushing the skin off until stopped by the wings.
Cut them off at the shoulder joint deep in the muscles of the breast (W. W, Fig. 4), leaving them attached to the skin, just as the legs and tail are.
The skin is now inside out. It can readily be worked along the neck and onto the head. Here it is stopped by the cars. In the robin these are like pockets of skin tucked into the small skull and may be easily pulled out Without cutting. In large birds the knife must be used. The next and last difficulty is the eyes. The skin must be cut free from them, carefully avoiding injury to the eyelids or the eyeballs.
Now the skin is attached only to the forepart of the skull (Fig. 4). Cut off the neck at the back of the skull and the skin is freed from the body, but needs careful cleaning.
Dig the eyes out of the sockets, taking great care not to break the eyeballs, as their liquid is very difficult to remove from the feathers. Cut out a section of the skull so as to enlarge the hole behind by extending it downward and sideways, as shown in Fig. 5, and remove the brains through this. Cut off any lumps of flesh left about the jaws, but do not break the jaw bone or its joints.
Next turn attention to the wings. Push the skin back to the
first joint (the elbow) in each. Cut and scrape the meat
from the bone. But there is a joint beyond
Clean off the leg bones in the same way as the first wing Joint, turning the skin back as far as the heel joint (H in Fig. 2). Carefully scrape off any lumps of fat left on the skin, and especially remove the grease and flesh about the tail bones.
Now this is the time I have usually found most convenient to remove stains from the plumage.
If of blood, hold the stained feathers on the inside run of a cup of lukewarm water and wash till clear. Then dry the feathers with cornmeal. The shaking and turning they get in the next operation will make them fluff out as before.
If the stain is grease, use a cream made of benzine and plaster of Paris. Let this dry on the feathers. It dries as powder and falls off, taking the grease with it.
The next thing I now do is to tie the wing bones with a stout linen thread, so that their ends are shackled together as far apart as in life, (Fig. 6.) Some do not do this, but it strengthens the skin, and I find it a great help in several ways.
Now comes the poisoning. After trying dry arsenic for long,
I have come back to the old-fashioned arsenical rap. It is
much less liable to poison any one, since it is not blown
about by the wind. It does not look like anything but soap
and hence is unlikely to be mistaken
Every part of the under side of the skin and of the bones exposed is to be painted with this cream of the soap. It is well now to lay a thin film of cotton over the skin or sprinkle it lightly with sawdust to keep the feathers from sticking in the soap.
Make two tight round plugs of cotton each as big as the eyeball, put one into each eye-socket.
Now push the head back into its place. This is easy when the neck is slippery with the soap. Work the wing and legs back into their places after wrapping each of the bones with enough cotton to take the place of the flesh cut off. This wrapping is not necessary with very small birds, but the larger the bird, the more it is needed.
Make a neck of the cotton, push it with the forceps up the neck skin, and well into the skull. Let it hang Into the body part, under the string that joins the wing bones. Push another soft wad up the neck and into the throat.
Shape a large piece of cotton for the body; set it in place, and draw the skin gently over it till the opening is closed. In large birds it is well to stitch this up, but it is not needed in small ones. All that is needed now is the prinking. Use a needle through the openings of the eyes to fluff out the cotton balls in each, till they fill out the sides of the head properly.
Set the innermost wing bones parallel with each other. Aim to arrange the feathers by arranging the skin and bones to which they are attached, rather than by prinking the feathers themselves.
If the wing was slit open as at X J, (Fig. I), fill the space with cotton and close with a few stitches.
If at any time it is necessary to leave the specimen half
In skinning large birds, a strong hook, attached to a string from the wall in front and above, is a great help. As soon as the tail is cut off stick this hook into the bony pelvis. It holds the bird away from you and answers as a third hand.
Finally, make a little shroud out of a sheet of cotton and wrap the bird in this before setting it to dry.
Cross the legs as in Fig. 7, and attach a label to these, giving date, sex and place where the bird was taken.
The work is now done. But it is wise to lift the skin the next morning and see if all goes well. In a few days it will be dry and safe from ordinary corruption, but must be protected from moth and insects.
This is a museum skin. It can be kept indefinitely in this shape, or at any time it can be softened up and mounted.
For mounting the bird some additional tools and materials are needed, namely:
The firstpart of the mounting is the skinning carried out
exactly as in making the skin, up to the point where the
cotton is put in Now there is a difference. You
If it is a dry skin that is to be mounted remove the cotton body and replace it with a lump of cotton soaked with water. Wrap damp cloth or cotton around the outside of each leg, and on the bend of each wing. Shut this up in a tin box for twenty-four hours and it will be soft and can be treated like a fresh skin.
Cut a wire (of stovepipe size) about a foot long. File a sharp point at one end and bend the other end into a hook (Fig. 8). Take tow in long strips and lash it tight over, around and through the hook -- stitching it tight and binding it on with plenty of packthread ó until you have a body the size and shape of the one you took out of the robin, with a neck on it also, like the bird's own neck (Figs. 9 and 10). Of course the real body should be at hand to give the measurements. Keep the neck lower than it appears, because the real neck is supple and drops low between the shoulders in a way not possible for the substitute. This body should be hard enough to hold a pin or needle driven into it; indeed some taxidermists use bodies carved out of cork.
Put the point of the wire up the neck, and out through the top of the skull between the eyes (N. W. Fig. 11). Gently work the neck up to the back of the skull and the body into its place.
Now make two other sharpened wires. Work one 11P through each foot under the skin of the leg, under the wrapping, and on straight through the hard body ó it enters about the middle of I he side (X in Fig. 9). When this is far enough through clinch it and drive it back firmly into the body; taking care to avoid tearing the skin, by casing up the leg on the wire, as it is drawn back.
Do the same for the other leg. Get the tail into its right place; drive a sharpened 3-inch wire through the pope's nose or tail bone into the body to hold it there; work the skin together till the opening can be closed with a few stitches; and now we are ready for the stand. The simplest is the best for the present purpose. A piece of a board slightly hollowed on the under side is got ready in a few minutes. With an awl bore two holes through this about one inch apart and run a foot-wire through each. Clinch them on the under side, fastening them firmly with tacks or small staples. Now we are ready to give the robin its natural pose. This is done by bending the wires in the neck and legs. A wire or a large pin will have to be driven into each wing to hold it to the side, at least while drying (X, Fig. II); and another in the middle of the back (B P, Fig. II).
The prinking of the specimen is now done chiefly with needles reaching through the feathers to the skin. Pins may be driven into the body anywhere to hold the skin or feathers in place; and cotton thread may be lashed around the body or the wings and around the projecting wire till everything is held in the position that is wished. Then the bird is set away to dry.
In a week the specimen should be ready for the finishing touch—the putting in of the eyes. A plug of damp cotton is fastened on each eye-place the night before. In the morning the eyelids are once more soft. The eyes are put through the opening in the sockets, the lids neatly set around them. Some prefer to set them in a bed of putty or plaster of pans. Cut off the projecting wires flush, so that the feathers hide what is left, remove the thread lashings and the mounting of the robin is finished.
The process is much the same for all birds, but the larger
If the bird is to have its wings spread, each wing must be wired to the body in the way already set forth for the legs.
If the bill keeps open when you want it shut, put a pin through the lower jaw into the palate toward the part in front of the eyes, or even wind a thread around the bill behind the pin (see Fig. II).
The mistakes of most beginners are: making the neck too long, stuffing it too full, or putting the body so fai into it as to stretch the skin and show bare places.
To make good accessories for a group of mounted bird: is another very special business. It involves a knowledge of wax flowers, imitation woods, water, stones, etc., and is scarcely in the line of the present book. Therefore the beginner is advised to use the simplest wooden stands.
Not every one has the taste for natural history, but those who have will find great pleasure in preserving their birds. They are not urged to set about making a collection, but simply to preserve such specimens as fall in their way. In time these will prove to be many, and when mounted they will be a lasting joy to the youthful owner. If the museum should grow too large for the house, there arc many public institutions that will be glad to offer their hospitality and protection.
There is, moreover, a curious fatality attending a beginner's collection. It hardly ever fails. He speedily has the good luck to secure some rare and wonderful specimen that has eluded the lifelong quest of the trained and professional expert.
Mounting a mammal, popularly called animal, is a much more difficult thing than
mounting—that is, stuffing— a bird.
The tools necessary for measuring mammals are a pair of compasses or dividers, a steel rule graduated in millimeters, and two large pins. Dividers with round points are better than those with triangular points.
All measurements should give the distance in a straight line between the
points indicated. They should be taken by means of
dividers, or by driving pins into a board to mark the
points between which the measurement is desired. They
should never be made with a tape-line over the
convexities or inequalities of the surface.
The three most important measurements, and those which should always be taken in the flesh are:
Skin all mammals as soon as possible
after death.
Lay the animal on its back, and make an incision along
the middle of the belly from just behind the fore legs
nearly to the vent. Be careful not to stretch the skin
while removing it, and exercise great caution in
skinning around the eyes and lips, which are easily cut.
Skin as far down on the feet as possible, but leave in
the bones of the legs. Remove the bone from the tail by
pulling it between the fingers (in the larger species a
split stick answers well). Take out the skull, being
careful not to cut or injure it in any way, and wash out
the brains by means of a syringe or jet of water. Remove
the tongue, and cut off the thick flesh from the sides
and base of the skull. Tie a tag to the skull, bearing
the same number
Remove all fat and tags of flesh that adhere to the skin. In cleaning off blood or dirt that may have soiled the hair an old toothbrush and a liberal supply of cornmeal will be found serviceable.
Poison all parts of the skin with dry arsenic (or better still, with a mixture of powdered arsenic and alum in the proportion of four parts arsenic to one part alum), being particular to put an extra supply in the feet and tail. Put a wire in the body, letting it extend to the extreme tip of the tail, but he careful not to stretch the tail. Use annealed iron wire of as large size as will fit easily into the tip end of the tail. In rabbits, foxes, and wildcats put wires in the legs also.
Stuff the skin to nearly its natural size with cotton or
tow (never use wool, feathers, or other animal
substances); sew it up along the belly, and place it
flat on a board to dry (belly down), with the fore legs
extended in front and parallel to the body (i. e., not projecting sideways),
and the hind legs and tail directed backward. The
accompanying cut (Fig. I) shows the appearance of a
well-made skin.
Attach to each skin a label hearing the same number that
is given the skull. On this label should be stated the
sex, locality, date of capture (name of month should always be written in
full), and name of collector.
All skins should be thoroughly dry before they are packed for shipment. They should be carefully wrapped cotton and packed in small wooden boxes. Cigar-boxes do very well for the smaller species.
WASHINGTON, D. C., March, 1889.
Trapping wild animals with steel traps is a wretchedly cruel business and will doubtless be forbidden by law before long. The old-fashioned deadfall which kills the animal at once is quite sufficient for all the legitimate work of a trapper. But many boys wish to capture animals alive without doing them any injury, and this is easily managed for most species if a ketchalive is used. The ketchalive or old-fashioned box trap is made in a hundred different ways; but the main principles are shown in the illustration. The lock on the side is necessary for some species, such as skunks, that would easily lift the lid and escape.
For skunks, cats, weasels, mink, rats, etc., use a piece of chicken as bait.
For rabbits use bread, turnip, apple, or other vegetable.
The trap should be visited every morning or not used at all.
It was Fenimore Cooper who first put the good Indian on
paper— who called the attention of the world to
the Wonderful woodcraft of these most wonderful savages.
Fenimore Cooper has had many imitators, just as Uncas has had many successors. The fine art of trailing is still maintained in the Far West, and it has always seemed strange to me that none has endeavored to give it permanent record, other than superlative adjectives of outside praise.
What is trailing? The fox-hunter has some idea when he sees a superb pack follow a faint scent through a hundred perplexing places, discerning just which way the fox went, and about how long ago. The detective does another kind of trailing when he follows some trifling clue through the world of thought, tracing the secret of an unknown man along an invisible path, running it to earth at last in the very brain that conceived it. In his trailing the Indian uses the senses of the "animal" to aid the brain of the man. To a great extent his eyes do the work of the hound's nose, but the nose is not idle. When the trail disappears, he must do the human detective work; but under all circumstances his brains must be backed by the finest senses, superb physique, and ripe experience, or he cannot hope to overmatch his prey.
When, in 1882, I began my dictionary of tracks (see "Life
Histories of Northern Animals"), I found that there was
The trailer's first task is to learn the trails he means
to follow. The Red Indian and the Bushman, of course,
simply memorize them from their earliest days, but we
find it helpful and much easier to record them in some
way. Apart from other considerations, a form is always
better comprehended if we reproduce it on paper. As a
general principle, no two kinds of animals leave the
same track. As a matter of fact, no two individuals
leave the same just as surely as there are differences
in size and disposition, so there will be corresponding
differences in its trail; but this is refining beyond
the purposes of practicability in most cases, and for
the present we may be satisfied to consider it a general
rule that each species
Whenever in America during the winter I have found myself with time to pass between trains, I endeavor to get out into the country, and rarely fail to find and read one of these more or less rewarding chapters, and thus get an insight into the life of the animal, as well as into the kinds that are about; for most quadrupeds are nocturnal, and their presence is generally unsuspected by those who do not know how to read the secrets of the trail.
The first trails to catch the eye and the best for first study are those nearest home. Two well-marked types are the tracks of cat and dog. Most anatomists select the cat as the ideal of muscular and bony structure. It is the perfect animal, and its track also is a good one to use for standard. (Illustration I, p. 290.)
In these separate prints the roundness of the toe-pads
tells the softness; their spread from each other shows
the suppleness of the toes; the absence of claw-marks
tells of the retractability of these weapons. The front
and hind
The next track likely to be seen is that of the dog (Illustration 2). In this the harder, less pliant foot and the non-retractile claws are clearly seen. But the trail shows the dog is not a correct walker. His tracks are "out of register" as a printer would say. And he has a glaring defect—the result no doubt of domestication, of long generations on pavements and in houses—he drags his toes. All these things contribute to make the dog a noisy walker in the woods.
It is well at this time to compare the track of the dog with that of the wolf. I have made dozens of drawings, casts, prints, photographs, and studies of wolf and dog tracks; and have not found a single reliable feature that will distinguish them. One hunter says the wolf has the relatively small outer toes. Yes, sometimes; but not when compared with a collie. Another says that the wolf's foot is longer; but not when compared with that of a greyhound, staghound, or lurcher. Another, the wolf's foot is larger; yet it will not rank in size with that of a St. Bernard or a great Dane. The wolf lifts his feet neatly without dragging his toes; but so do many dogs, especially country dogs. Thus all these diagnostics fail. On the whole a wolf is a better walker than a dog. His tracks do usually register, but not always, and in some wolves rarely.
If a wolf-track in the snow be followed for a mile or
two, It Will be found to go cautiously up to an unusual
or promising object. (Illustration 3.) It is obviously
the trail of a suspicious, shy creature while the
dog-trail
I have often heard inexperienced hunters boast that they could "tell them every time"; but old hunters usually say, "No man can tell for sure."
America is well provided with rabbits and hares. A score or more of species arc now recognized, and two very well-known types are the cottontail of the woods and the jack-rabbit of the plains.
The cottontail is much like an English rabbit, but it is a little smaller, has shorter ears, and the whole under part of the tail is glorified into a fluffy, snowy powder-puff. It leads the life of a hare, not making burrows, but entering burrows at times under the stress of danger. The track of a New England cottontail is given in Illustration 4.
As the cottontail bounds, the hind feet track ahead of the front feet, and the faster he goes the faster ahead his hind feet get. This is true of all quadrupeds that bound, but is more obvious in the rabbits, because the fore and hind feet differ so much in size.
The jack-rabbit of Kansas is the best known of the long-eared jacks. His trail, compared with that of the cottontail, would be as in Illustrations 5 and 6.
The greater size of the marks and the double length of the bounds are the obvious but not important differences, because a young jack would come down to the cottontail standard. The two reliable differences I found are:
First, the jack's feet are rarely paired when he is bounding at full speed, while the cottontail pairs his hind feet but not his front ones. (Animals which climb usually pair their front feet in running, just as tree-birds hop when on the ground.)
Second, the stroke that is shown (x in Illustration 5) Is diagnostic of the southern jack-rabbit; it is the mark made by the long hanging tail.
Each of the four types of hare common in the temperate
The northern or white-tailed jack carries his snowy- white tail out straight behind, so its general pure-white is visible;
The southern or black-tailed jack has his tail jet-black on the upper part, and he carries it straight down;
The varying hare has an inconsequent, upturned tuft, like a tear in his brown pantaloons, showing the white undergarment;
The cottontail has his latter end brown above, but he keeps it curled up tight on his back, so as to show nothing but the gleaming white puff of cotton on a helpful background of rich brown. The cottontail's tail never touches the ground except when he sits down on it.
The most variable features of any animal are always its most specialized features. The jack-rabbit's tail-piece is much subject to variation, and the length and depth of the little intertrack-ial dash that it makes in the snow is a better guide to the individual that made it than would be the tracks of all four feet together.
During February of 1902, I found myself with a day, to
spare in the hotel office at Newton, Kan. I asked the
usual question, "Any wild animals about here?" and got
the usual answer, "No, all been shot off." I walked down
the street four blocks from the hotel, and found a
jack-rabbit trail in the snow. Later I found some
cottontail tracks, though still in town. I walked a mile
into the country, met an old farmer who said that "No
rabbits were ever found around here." A quarter of a
mile away was an orchard, and beside it a fence half
buried it
When a jack runs without fear of any enemy at hand, he goes much like a fox or an antelope, leaving a trail, as in No. 5. But when an enemy is close at hand he runs with long, low hops, from six to seven in succession, then gives an upright leap to take an observation, leaving a trail thus. (Illustration 7.)
A silly young jack will lose time by taking one in three for observation, but a clever old fellow is content with one in ten. Here was the trail of this jack straight away, but taking about one observation in twelve hops. He had made a fence a quarter-mile off, and there had sat for some time observing, had then taken alarm and run toward a farmyard, a quarter-mile farther, taking occasional observations. A dog was lying on a doorstep by the road, and past this dog he had run, doing twenty-foot leaps. Two hundred yards down this road he had turned abruptly, as though a human still in sight had scared him. I now began to think the jack was near at hand, although so far I had not seen him. The trail led through several barbed- wire fences and some hedges, then made for another barnyard half a mile off. I was now satisfied that he was only a little ahead of me, therefore I ceased watching the track so closely, watching rather the open plain ahead; and far on, under a barbed-wire fence, sitting up watching me, I soon saw my jack. He ran at once, and the line of his hops, was so—(Illustration 8)—the high ones being for observation.
He never let me get within two hundred yards, and he wasted but little time in observation. He had now taken me on a two-mile circuit and brought me back to the starting point. So he had taught me this—a cunning old jack-rabbit lived in the region around which I had followed him, for they keep to their homeground. All his ways of running and observing, and of using barbed- wire fences, barnyards, and hedges, showed that he was very clever; but the best proof of that was in the fact that he could live and flourish on the edge of a town that was swarming with dogs and traveled over daily by men with guns.
The next day I had another opportunity of going to the
jack-rabbit's home region. I did not see himself; but
Of more general interest perhaps is the track of the fox. I have spent many days —yes, and nights—on the trail, following, following patiently, reading this life of the beast, using notebook at every important march and change. Many an odd new sign has turned up to be put on record and explained by later experience. Many a day has passed with nothing tangible in the way of reward; then, as in all hunting, there has come a streak of luck, a shower of facts and abundant reward for the barren weeks gone by, an insight into animal ways and mind that could not have been obtained in any other way. For here it is written down by the animal itself in the oldest of all writing—a chapter of the creature's normal life.
One day, soon after the snow had come, I set out on one of the long decipherments. The day before I had followed a fox-trail for three or four miles, to learn only that he tacked up wind and smelt at every log, bump, and tree that stuck through the snow; that he had followed a white hare at full speed, but was easily left behind when the hare got into his ancient safety—the scrubby, brushy woods.
This morning I took up another fox-trail. The frost was intense, the snow was dry and powdery and as each foot was raised it fell back; so that the track was merely shapeless dimples in the whiteness. No tell-tale details of toes and claws were there, but still I knew it for a fox-trail. It was too small for a coyote. There were but two others that might have been confounded with it; one a very large house-cat, the other a very small house dog.
The fox has the supple paw of the cat. It spreads even more, but it shows the long, intractile claws. As a stepper the fox ranks close to the cat. His trail is noted also for its narrowness— that is, the feet are set nearly in one straight line. This in a trail usually means a swift animal; while the badly spread marks, seen at a maximum in the badger, stand for great but sluggish strength. (Illustration 10.)
The region put the cat out of the reckoning. Besides, at one or two places, the paw had grazed the snow, showing two long furrows, the marks of claws that do not sheathe: dog-marks, perhaps, but never a cat's. The marks were aligned like a cat's, but were fourteen inches apart, while it is rare for a cat to step more than ten.
They were not dog-marks: first, the probabilities were against it; second, the marks were nearly in a line, showing a chest too narrow for a dog. Then the toes did not drag, though there was four inches of snow. The register could not be distinguished, but there was one feature that settled all doubt—the big, soft, shallow marks 01 the fox's brush, sometimes sweeping the snow at every yard, sometimes not at all for fifty steps, and telling me with certainty, founded in part on the other things— "This is the trail of a fox."
Which way is he going? is the next question, not easy
For a mile or two I followed my fox. Nothing happened. I got only the thought that his life was largely made up of nose investigation and unfavorable reports from the committee in charge. Then we came to a long, sloping hollow. The fox trotted down this, and near its lower end he got a nose report of importance for he had swung to the right and gone slowly—so said the short steps—zigzagging up the wind. Within fifteen feet, the tacks in the course shortened from four or five feet to nothing, and ended in a small hole in a bank. From this the fox had pulled out a common, harmless garter-snake, torpid, curled up there doubtless to sleep away the winter. The fox chopped the snake across the spine with his powerful meat-cutters, killed it thus, dropped it on the snow, and then, without eating a morsel of it as far as I could see, he went on with his hunt. (Illustration 11 A.)
Why he should kill a creature that he could not eat I could not understand. I thought that ferocious sort of vice was limited to man and weasels, but clearly the fox was guilty of the human crime.
The dotted guide led me now, with many halts and devious turns, across a great marsh that had doubtless furnished many a fattened mouse in other days, but now the snow and ice forbade the hunt. On the far end the country was open in places, with clumps of timber, and into this, from the open marsh, had blown a great bank of soft and drifted snow.
Manitoban winters are not noted for their smiling
geniality or profusion of outdoor flowers. Frost and
snow are sure to come early and continue till spring.
The thermometer may be for weeks about zero point. It
As the night comes, with the fearful frost and driving clouds of white, the chickens dive into a snowdrift; not on the open plain, for there the snow is hammered hard by the wind, but on the edge of the woods, where tall grass spears or scattering twigs stick up through and keep the snow from packing. Deep in this the chickens dive, each making a place for itself. The wind wipes out all traces, levels off each hole and hides them well. There they remain till morning, warm and safe, unless—and here is the chief danger—some wild animal comes by during the night, finds them in there, and seizes them before they can escape.
This chapter of grouse history was an old story to the fox and coming near the woodland edge, his shortened steps showed that he knew it for a Land of Promise. (Illustration 11, B.)
At C he came to a sudden stop. Some wireless message on the wind had warned him of game at hand. He paused here with foot upraised. I knew it, for there was his record of the act. The little mark there was not a track, but the paw-tip's mark, showing that the fox had not set the foot down, but held it poised in a pointer-dog pose, as his nose was harkening to the tell-tale wind.
Then from C to D he went slowly, because the steps were so short, and now he paused: the promising scent was lost. He stood in doubt, so said the tell-tale snow in the only universal tongue. Then the hunter turned and slowly worked toward E, while frequent broad touches in the snow continued the guarantee that the maker of these tracks was neither docked nor spindle- tailed.
From E to F the shortened steps, with frequent
At F he stood still for some time with both feet set down in the snow, so it was written. Now was the critical time, and straight up the redolent wind he went, following his nose, cautiously and silently as possible, realizing that now a single heedless step might spoil the hunt.
At G were the deeply imprinted marks of both hind feet, showing where the fox sprang just at the moment when, from the spotless snowdrift just ahead, there broke out two grouse that had been slumbering below. Away they went with a whirr, whirr, fast as wing could bear them; but one was just a foot too slow; the springing fox secured him in the air. At H he landed with him on the prairie, and had a meal that is a fox's ideal in time of plenty; and now, in deep hard winter, it must have been a banquet of delight.
Now for the first time I saw the meaning of the dead garter-snake far back on the trail. Snake at no time is nice eating, and cold snake on a cold day must be a mighty cold meal. Clearly the fox thought so. He would rather take a chance of getting something better. He killed the snake; so it could not get away. It was not likely any one would steal from him that unfragrant carcass, so he would come back and get it later if he must.
But as we see, he did not have to do so. His faith and patience were amply justified. Instead of a cold, unpleasant snake, he fed on a fine hot bird.
Thus I got a long, autobiographical chapter of fox-life
by simply following his tracks through the snow (see
heading),