-worshippers or
sun-worshippers--never deigned to bow to one another: they bowed to
none but the Deity. They took not the Great Spirit's name in vain; nor
did they mention it save in a whisper, and with bowed head. He
regretted that since coming in contact with the irreverent and
blaspheming white men, his people had lost much of their old-time godly
spirit.

TRAPPING EQUIPMENT

For the next few days the work done by the men was confined to odd jobs
in preparation for the coming winter, and the laying out of their
future trapping trails. They built some stages upon which to store the
canoes, and others nearer the lodges, upon which to place their guns,
sleds, and snowshoes. They cut and shaved axe-handles and helved them.
They overhauled traps, and got ready all their trapping gear. It was
always interesting to watch Oo-koo-hoo and Amik, even when they were
engaged upon the most trivial forest work, for much of it was new to me
and it was all so different from the ways of civilization. Then, too,
they had taken the boys in hand and were instructing them in relation
to the hunter's art.

The first thing they did with the traps, after seeing that the old ones
were in working order, was to boil both the new ones and the old ones
for about half an hour in pots in which was placed either pine, or
spruce, or cedar brush. This they did--Oo-koo-hoo explained--to
cleanse the old traps and to soften the temper of the new ones, thus
lessening the chances of their breaking in zero weather; and also to
free both old and new from all man-smell and to perfume them with the
natural scent of the forest trees, of which no animal is afraid. The
traps they used were the No. 1, "Rat," for muskrats, ermines, and
minks; the No. 2, "Mink," for minks, martens, skunks, and foxes; the
No. 3, "Fox," for foxes, minks, martens, fishers, wolves, wolverines,
skunks, otters, and beavers; the No. 4, "Beaver," for beavers, otters,
wolves, wolverines, and fishers; the No. 5, "Otter," for otters,
beavers, wolves, wolverines, and small bears; and the "Bear" trap in
two sizes--_A_, large, and _B_, small, for all kinds of bears and deer.
Traps with teeth they did not use, as they said the teeth injured the
fur.

Next to the knife, the woodsman uses no more useful implement than the
axe. Even with the professional hunter, the gun takes third place to
the knife and the axe. As between the two makes of axes--the American
and the Canadian--the f