1892-93.] NOTKS ON THE WESTICRN DENES. 67 



Stick the upper end of which is provided with Httle bells — the counter- 

 part of the beaver nails and pebbles which did duty in prehistoric years. 

 To this upright stick the side ropes of the net are attached in such a 

 way as to be ready for use when the game is to be ensnared. " llien 

 the hunter (should I not say fisher ?) proceeds to demolish the beaver's 

 lodge, in order to drive him off. Should the game not be found there 

 the same operation is repeated at his adjoining provision store. When 

 the undulations of the water tell of his presence therein, he is fright- 

 ened away to where the net is set. Supposing that the beaver is swifter 

 than his hunter and reaches the net before the latter, the efforts he will 

 make to extricate himself therefrom will agitate the small bells before 

 mentioned, and the hunter will immediately make for the hole and draw 

 him out before he has time to cut himself clear of the net."* 



Fig. 46. 



Fig. 46 represents the mas, a bone device indispensable to the efficiency 

 •of the beaver net. It is attached to the end of the net which is laid out 

 at the opening in the ice wherein it floats on the water. The side strings 

 of the net are passed through the centre hole of the bone piece (mas) 

 and then(^e connected with the little bells at the top of the outstanding 

 stick, so that by pulling them up, the farthest end of the net, which is 

 under ice, will be drawn back to where the mas is secured, and thereby 

 the game will be bagged, as it were, and speedily killed on the ice. 

 These bone pieces affect divers forms, several of which are symbolical. 

 Thus the mas shown above, is intended to represent a beaver. It will 

 be remarked that the design is highly conventionalized. Yet, even a 

 •child (of Dene parentage, of course) will recognize at once its significance- 

 Barbed harpoons f such as those shown in the accompanying figures 

 are resorted to when the Dene is out beaver hunting — not trapping or 

 snaring, — that is in such cases as when the beaver is met with free of any 

 trap or net. Until a short time ago those beaver harpoons were made 

 of cariboo horn ; but to-day implements of identical shape wrought out 

 .of steel files or pieces of iron have almost entirely superseded the 



* Ibid, p. 132. 



'\ Tjla-fssn, "lip or barb-bone." 



