of a sensitive conscience.

Hearing the report of the gun, the others hurried to the scene. While
the deer was being bled the old grandmother caught the blood in a
pail--into which she threw a pinch of salt to clot the blood--as she
wished to use it for the making of a blood pudding. Then the carcass
was loaded aboard Oo-koo-hoo's canoe, rather, indeed, overloading it.
Accordingly, I accepted Amik's invitation to board his craft, and 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