TRAPS OF THK AMKRTOAN INDIANS. 469 



(./) ^^''^ hooks. — These may be employed on land or in the water. 

 A toj^gle or gorge may be so baited or placed that a duck or a goose, 

 hv diving and swallowing it, may be held under the water and 

 drowned. A single hook may be set for vermin, or baited and left in 

 the water, especially for large fish; for the smaller fish, the trawl or 

 trot line holding several hooks may ))e stretched across a body of 

 water, and thus the game may ))e secured in th(» !il)sence of the 

 fisherman. 



In one sense, man}^ hooks used in taking ])irds and fishes are traps. 

 They are baited and cast into the water or placed in such position on 

 land that the hunter is out of sight. A line is attached to hooks of 

 this kind, one end of which may be ]ield in the hands of the hunter or 

 tied to a buoy or other signal device. 



It is interesting to note that fishhooks are not found in many 

 American areas — large regions are entirely devoid of them, and in 

 ancient mounds and works such relics are wanting. No picture of a 

 fishhook is seen in any Mexican or Maya codex, and Von den Steinen 

 notes the entire absence of fishhooks from large places on the affluents 

 of the Amazon. The simplest form of this class of de\ices was seen 

 by Lumholtz among the Tarahumari in northern Mexico; they catch 

 blackl)irds l)y tying corn on a snare of pita fiber hidden under the 

 ground; the Vnrd swallows the kernel, which becomes toggled in its 

 a?sophagus, and can not eject it. 



In the order of complexity — a I'cmoval from the mere action of 

 hand hooks for capture — hook traps may l)e divided into the following 

 classes: The seed on a string; the gorge; hook at the end of a string, 

 squid hook; baited hooks; compound hooks; barbed hooks; and auto- 

 matic hooks. 



{(/) Noose. — This is a most interesting class of traps. A string or 

 thong or rope, or a bit of whalebone and sinew, may have one end 

 looped around itself so as to slip with perfect ease; the other end will 

 1)6 fastened to some object. This noose may be so placed that the 

 animal will run its head or its foot into it and be caught; or it may be 

 attach(^d to a bent sapling or some form of springe wh ich is held down 

 by a device, to be liberated b}' the animal coming to seize the bait or 

 lure. In order to prevent the animal from gnawing the snare, per- 

 forated sticks may be suspended just over the knot, thus making a 

 very complicated device. The noose ma}' be used in the air for birds 

 on the wing, on the land in many ways, and sparinglj^ in the water. 



Boas says that among the central Eskimo waterfowl of all desci'ip- 

 tions are caught in abundance in whalebone nooses fastened to a long 

 whalebone line or to a thong. Hares, ermines, and lemmings are also 

 taken in whale])one snares. E. W. Nelson describes a noose for catch- 

 ing Parry's marmot, which involves a form of release mentioned also 

 as used among the Iroquois. The victim enters the leadway as usual, 



