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, whenever
that hunter would see a moose, the moose--instead of trying to
escape--would indifferently bark at him, and even follow him back close
to camp; and when that hunter would go out again, other moose would do
the very same thing. Moreover, the hunter was afraid to kill any moose
that acted that way, for he well knew that the animal was simply
warning him of some great danger that was surely going to befall him.
So, in the end, the hunter fretted himself to death. Therefore every
hunter should take great care to burn all the bones of a moose's head
and never on any account allow a woman to eat thereof or to feed it to
the dogs. In burning the head, the hunter was merely paying the homage
due to so noble a creature.