All their faculties were thus kept, on these excursions, in a state of close and constant tension, and being engaged as they were, for a great portion of their time, in these pursuits, they acquired the habit of being silent, grave, watchful and cunning, in all their demeanor.
Night Hunting
Among some tribes a practice prevailed of hunting deer in a very singular way, and one in which there must sometimes have been produced a very striking and picturesque effect. The method was by fascinating the deer, as it were, by means of a bright fire made to float down at night on a solitary stream. The fire was built upon the bow of a canoe - a small platform covered with sand having first been made there to serve as a fire-place. Behind the fire a thick screen, made of the branches of evergreen trees, was placed, and behind this screen the hunter was concealed, armed with his bow and arrow, and ready for instantaneous action. The deer, seeing this bright light upon the water, would come down to the brink and gaze at it, under the influence of a sort of fascination, by which he was spell-bound, as it were, and held motionless on the shore until the boat came near enough for the hunter to transfix him with his arrow.
Snow Shoes
The snow shoe which the hunter used in winter was substantially a flat piece of basket work, of an oval form, which formed a broad extension of the sole of his moccasin, and prevented his foot from sinking beneath the surface of the snow, whether it was the light, powdery drift of a fresh fall that he was walking upon, or the damp, heavy mass into which the beams of the sun transform the old snow of the woods and fields in the spring.
A snow shoe, such as the Indians used, is made as follows: First, a strip of flexible wood is bent into an oval from for the outside frame. Two bars are then carried across from side to side and lashed to their places by thongs of green hide. These bars serve the double purpose of bracing the outer rim and keeping it to its form, and also as points of support for the heel and toes. The interstices of the frame thus made are then filled by stretching a
Walking on Snow Shoes
skin over them and sewing it to the outer rim, or by weaving in, over the intervening space, a sort of basket-work of thongs.
When the shoe is to be put on, the toe is slipped under a strap attached to the front bar and is fastened there. The heel is not fastened, but rises from the shoe when the foot is lifted, so that the shoe is raised and moved by the toe alone. Indeed, the heel of the snow shoe is not raised at all in the act of walking. The toe only is lifted, and the heel is dragged along upon the snow till the toe is put down again. Of course, it is only a very inconvenient and shuffling kind of walking that can be performed in this way, but it is much better than sinking at every step two or three feet into the snow.
Adventures in the Woods
Of course the Indians, in their excursions in the forests, were sometimes themselves attacked by wild beast that had been made fierce by hunger or had become excited in other ways. The forests which they traversed were inhabited by bears, wolves, wild cats, and other ferocious beasts of prey, that often, when hungry, would attack men. And even the more gentle and peaceable animals, such as the buffalo and the moose, during certain seasons and in certain states of excitement, sometimes became formidable. The Indian was generally prepared for these encounters, and, notwithstanding the inferiority of his weapons, he almost always came off victorious from them.
A story is related of a young Indian who had been setting traps in the woods and was returning home, when suddenly he saw among the trees a large moose coming toward him with a very threatening air. He had nothing with him but a knife - one probably made of stone. He retreated behind a tree; the moose advanced. He watched his opportunity and fell behind another tree - the moose advancing all the time and tearing up the ground with his hoofs, evidently in a state of great excitement. The Indian contrived, while dodging about from one tree to another, to get out his knife and cut a pole. He also pulled off one of his moccasins and drew out the string which tied it. By means of this string he lashed his knife to the end of his pole, thus forming a rude sort of spear.
All the time while he was making these preparations the moose was hotly pursuing him, and he could only keep out of his way by running from one tree to another, by which means, however, he could only gain a moment's shelter at a time. When at length the weapon was completed he attacked the moose in his turn, aiming his thrusts at the animals' throat, and still seeking shelter behind a tree after every blow. At length, after a long contest, during which many wounds were given, the moose became exhausted with his frantic exertions and his loss of blood, and he was finally killed
When afterwards the friends of the Indian came with him to the place, to secure the carcass, they found the grass and the underbrush trampled down and covered with blood for a great distance around.
Fishing
The Indians evinced a great deal of ingenuity in their contrivances for fishing. They could make a sort of twine by twisting together the fibers of a certain kind of bark, and with this they could make nets. In setting these nets they used pieces of wood for floats, and stones for sinkers. In the winter they would sometimes set these nets beneath the ice by making a row of holes in the ice along the line where they wised the net to be placed, and then they would contrive by some means to pass the net underneath from one hole to another, till it extended the whole length of the line, and when in this position the stones would carry it down to the bottom.
Bow and Arrow Fishing
Sometimes in the summer they used to take fish by shooting them with an arrow while they were swimming in the water, they themselves standing on the bank and watching till they saw the fish come sufficiently near. In such cases a string was attached to the arrow, by means of which the fish could be drawn to the land and the arrow also recovered. Note: Any young reader of this book, who may feel disposed to ascertain practically what degree of difficulty attends this mode of fishing, may easily make the experiment by heating a large fish-hook in the fire, in order to take out the temper, and then carefully straightening it and inserting it into the end of his arrow, and shooting at any fishes which he may see swimming near the shore. Before he succeed in hitting many of them, he will have to learn something about the refraction of light, as affecting the apparent position of objects seen under water, which boys are not all supposed to understand.
It is astonishing to what perfection of workmanship some of the Indians attained in the fabrication of their bows and arrows. The bows were formed of various materials, and sometimes, as, for example, when they were made of substances like horn, they were spliced and strengthened in a very ingenious manner. A western traveler saw one a few years since in the hands of a chief which was worth the price of two horse, and he actually bought two horses, at twenty-five dollars a piece, to give in exchange for the bow. The string was made of the sinews of a deer. The arrows, too, were very nicely made. There were two kinds, one for hunting and one for war. A good quiver would contain a hundred arrows, and an expert hunter could, if necessary, draw and shoot fifteen or twenty in a minute, running all the time at the top of his speed, either toward or from his enemy or his game.
Sometimes, instead of shooting the fish with arrows, the Indians speared them through the ice. In this latter case they would first make a hole in the ice, and then lie down upon their faces over it, so as to look into the water. They would then cover their heads with a mat or with evergreen boughs, in order to protect their eyes from the glare of the sun, and in this way they could see almost or quite to the bottom. They would then put down through the hole a little fish on the end of a pointed stick for bait. They would hold this stick in the left hand, and with the right they would hold the spear, and when the fish came to the bait, with a sudden and very dexterous thrust of the spear they would impale him.