d at
the first good place we all went ashore to clear the ground for the
night's camp. There was a porcupine there, and though it moved but
slowly away, my friends did not kill it, for they had plenty to eat,
and did not want to be bothered with taking care of those dangerous
little quills that the women dye and use to such good advantage in
their fancy work. As to the Indian method of dressing meat and
skins--more anon, when we are finally settled upon the fur trail.

That evening, while flames were leaping after ascending sparks, and
shadows were dancing behind us among the trees, we lounged about the
fire on packs and blankets and discussed the events of the day. When I
asked Oo-koo-hoo why he had addressed the deer in such a manner, he
replied that it was the proper and regular way to speak to an animal,
because every creature in the forest, whether beast, bird, or fish,
contained the spirit of some former human being. He further explained
that whenever the men of the olden time killed an unusually large
animal with an extra fine coat, they did not save the skin to sell to
the trader, but burnt the carcass, pelt and all, and in that way they
returned the body to the spirit again. Thus they not only paid homage
to the spirit, but proved themselves unselfish men. He went on to say
that from the time of the Great, Great Long Ago, the Indian had always
believed--as he did to-day--that every bull moose contained the spirit
of a famous Indian chief, that every caribou bull contained the spirit
of a lesser chief, and so on down through the whole of the animal
creation. Bears, however, or rather the spirits animating them,
possessed the greatest power to render good or evil, and for that
reason the hunter usually took the greatest care to address Bruin
properly before he slew him.

It is no wonder that the Indians still retain such ideas when, as Lord
Avebury says: "We do not now, most of us, believe that animals have
souls, and yet probably the majority of mankind from Buddha to Wesley
and Kingsley have done so."

Another thing Oo-koo-hoo told me was that out of respect to the
dignified spirit possessed by the bull moose, women were never allowed
to eat of the head, nor was a moose head to be placed upon a sled upon
which a woman had ever sat; for if that were done, bad luck would
follow the hunter to the end of his days. He knew of a hunter who on
one occasion had been guilty of that irreverence; afterward, whe