TRAPS OF THE AMERICAN INDIANS. 473 



The wolf bait, made of a piece of whalebone .sharpened at both ends 

 and doubled up, has been mentioned by Boas, and examples of the 

 same device were brought to the National Museum by Nelson from 

 St. Michael, Alaska (tig. 4). 



Lumholtz says that the Tarahumari catch deer by putting sharpened 

 sticks in the track and stampeding the animals with dogs. 



(/) Edge traps. — There were in America two forms of knife or cut- 

 ting traps of the most ingenious character. One may be called the 

 wolf knife. A sharpened blade was inclosed in a frozen mass of fat 

 and stuck up in a block of ice. The wolf, licking the fat, cut its 

 tongue. The taste of the blood infuriated the animal, so that by lick- 

 ing the knife more it caused a larger flow of blood. All the other 

 members of the pack were attracted to the same spot, devouring one 

 another for the sake of the blood, till all were destroyed. 



Another form of edge trap is found in Alaska, where the blades are 

 attached to one end of a lever, the other end of which is inclosed in a 

 torsion spring of rawhide. The animal stops to pick the bait, pulls 

 the trigger, and releases the unstable hook catch; the knives fly over 

 and the victim is brained (tig. 5). 



