walk, he learns, too, the religious dance-steps, Then he rises to the
dignity of being allowed to slip his hand in that of his father and
take his first important steps in the company of men.

Accompanying his religious training is the all-important etiquette of
accepting food without comment. No Indian talks of food, or discusses it
while taking it. He must neither commend nor condemn it, and a child who
remarks upon the meals set before him, however simple the remark may be,
instantly feels his disgrace in the sharpest reproof from his parents.
It is one of the unforgivable crimes.

TRICKS OF FOOD-GETTING

His third subject is to master the tricks of food-getting. His father,
or more often his grandfather, takes him in hand at an early age, and
minutely trains him in all the art and artifice of the great life-fight
for food both for himself and for those who may in later years be
dependent on him. He is drilled assiduously in hunting, fishing,
trapping, in game calls, in wood and water lore; he learns to paddle
with stealth, to step in silence, to conceal himself from the scent and
sight of bird and beast, to be swift as a deer, keen as an eagle, alert
as a fox.

He is admonished under no conditions, save in that of extreme hunger or
in self-defence, to kill mating game, or, in fact, to kill at all save
for food or to obtain furs for couch purposes. Wanton slaying of wild
things is unknown among the uncivilized Red Indians. When they want
occupation in sport or renown, they take the warpath against their
fellow-kind, where killing will flaunt another eagle-feather in their
crest, not simply another pair of antlers to decorate their tepee.

With this indispensable lesson in the essentials of living always comes
the scarcely less momentous one of the utter unimportance of youth. He
is untiringly disciplined in the veneration of age, whether it be in man
or woman. He must listen with rapt attention to the opinions and advice
of the older men. He mast keep an absolute silence while they speak,
must ever watch for opportunities to pay them deference.

AGE BEFORE LINEAGE

If he happen, fortunately, to be the son of a chief of ancient lineage,
the fact that he is of blood royal will not excuse him entering a door
before some aged "commoner." Age has more honor than all his patrician
line of descent can give him. Those lowly born but richly endowed with
years must walk before him; he is not permitted to remain seated