462 TKAPS OF THE AMERICAN INDIANS. 



ments for piercing and retrieving. In these the hunters are present 

 and active, making- war on the animal. 



In the matter of automatism there is no great gulf between the 

 trapper and the hunter. At both ends and in the middle of the trap's 

 activity the man may be present, but not to the victim. Not waiting 

 for the victim to go to its doom of its own will, the hunter, having set 

 his trap, proceeds to entice and compel the game. He has learned to 

 imitate to perfection the noises of birds and beasts — it may be of 

 those he is hunting, of others hunted by them, or their enemies. He 

 knows the smells that are agreeable and the dainty foods most liked. 

 On the contrary, he also knows how to allay suspicions in one direc- 

 tion, to arouse them in another always with the trap in his mind. 



The action of the trap itself is also frequently assisted by the hunter 

 out of sight. He releases the pent-up force of gravity, of elasticity. 



Finally, the result of the trap's action is to hand the victim over to 

 the hunter to carry away or to kill. Often the trap does the killing 

 outright, and the result is raw material for the elaborative industries; 

 but in other eases the hunter must be near by to give the coup de 

 grace. The instances are many where the victim must be dispatched 

 at once, or the trap will be destroyed and the result lost. 



THE TRAP AS AN INVENTION. 



As intimated, the trap teaches the whole lesson of invention. At 

 first it is something that the animal unwittingly treads on (Middle 

 Low German, treppen. to tread; tramp is a kindred word). At last 

 it is a combination of movement and obstruction, of release and exe- 

 cution, which vies in delicacy with the most destructive weapons. 

 Gravity and elasticity are harnessed by ingenious mechanical com- 

 binations. 



THE TEEM PSYCHOLOGY. 



In this paper the term "psychology" stands for all those mental 

 processes that are caused and developed by trapping. There is the 

 mental activity of the animal and that of the man. The trap itself is 

 an invention in which are embodied most careful studies in animal 

 mentation and habits. The hunter must know for each species its 

 food, its likes and dislikes. A trap in this connection is strategy. 

 Inasmuch as each species of animals has its own idiosyncrasies, and as 

 the number of species was unlimited, the pedagogic influence of this 

 class of inventions must have been exalting to a high degree for the 

 primitive tribes. 



The varieties of execution to be done by the trap were very great. 

 It had to impound or encage, or to seize by the head, horns, limbs, 

 gills; to maim, crush, slash, brain, impale, poison, and so on. as though 



