第19章

My first experience of this kind is still well re-membered.It was a fine crisp March morning,and the sun had not yet shown himself among the distant tree-tops as we hurried along through the ghostly wood.Presently we arrived at a place where there were many signs of the animals.Then each of us selected a tree and took up his position behind it.The chipmunk caller sat upon a log as motionless as he could,and began to call.

Soon we heard the patter of little feet on the hard snow;then we saw the chipmunks approach-ing from all directions.Some stopped and ran experimentally up a tree or a log,as if uncertain of the exact direction of the call;others chased one another about.

In a few minutes,the chipmunk-caller was be-sieged with them.Some ran all over his person,others under him and still others ran up the tree against which he was sitting.Each boy remained immovable until their leader gave the signal;then a great shout arose,and the chipmunks in their flight all ran up the different trees.

Now the shooting-match began.The little creatures seemed to realize their hopeless posi-tion;they would try again and again to come down the trees and flee away from the deadly aim of the youthful hunters.But they were shot down very fast;and whenever several of them rushed toward the ground,the little red-skin hugged the tree and yelled frantically to scare them up again.

Each boy shoots always against the trunk of the tree,so that the arrow may bound back to him every time;otherwise,when he had shot away all of them,he would be helpless,and another,who had cleared his own tree,would come and take away his game,so there was warm competition.Some-times a desperate chipmunk would jump from the top of the tree in order to escape,which was con-sidered a joke on the boy who lost it and a triumph for the brave little animal.At last all were killed or gone,and then we went on to another place,keeping up the sport until the sun came out and the chipmunks refused to answer the call.

When we went out on the prairies we had a dif-ferent and less lively kind of sport.We used to snare with horse-hair and bow-strings all the small ground animals,including the prairie-dog.We both snared and shot them.Once a little boy set a snare for one,and lay flat on the ground a little way from the hole,holding the end of the string.

Presently he felt something move and pulled in a huge rattlesnake;and to this day,his name is "Caught-the-Rattlesnake."Very often a boy got a new name in some such manner.At another time,we were playing in the woods and found a fawn's track.We followed and caught it while asleep;but in the struggle to get away,it kicked one boy,who is still called "Kicked-by-the-Fawn."It became a necessary part of our education to learn to prepare a meal while out hunting.It is a fact that most Indians will eat the liver and some other portions of large animals raw,but they do not eat fish or birds uncooked.Neither will they eat a frog,or an eel.On our boyish hunts,we often went on until we found ourselves a long way from our camp,when we would kindle a fire and roast a part of our game.

Generally we broiled our meat over the coals on a stick.We roasted some of it over the open fire.