38 THE DRAMA OF THE FORESTS 



into the trail, would slant the butt in the direction he had 

 gone. 



If traversing water where there were no saplings at hand, and 

 he wished to let his followers know where he had left the water 

 to cross a muskeg, he would try to secure a pole, which he would 

 leave standing in the water, with grass protruding from the 

 split upper end, and the pole slanting to show in which direc- 

 tion he had gone. If, on the arrival at the fork of a river, he 

 wished to let his followers know up which fork he had paddled — 

 say, for instance, if it were the right one — he would shove a 

 long stick into either bank of the left fork in such a way that it 

 would point straight across the channel of the left fork, to 

 signify, as it were, that the channel was blocked. Then, a 

 little farther up the right fork, he would plant a sapling or pole 

 in the water, slanting in the direction he had gone — to prove to 

 the follower that he was now on the right trail. Oo-koo-hoo 

 further explained that if he were about to cross a lake and he 

 wished to let his follower know the exact point upon which he 

 intended to land, he would cut two poles, placing the larger 

 nearest the woods and the smaller nearest the water, both in 

 an upright position and in an exact line with the point to which 

 he was going to head, so that the follower by taking sight from 

 one pole to the other would learn the exact spot on the other 

 shore where he should land — even though it were several miles 

 away. But if he were not sure just where he intended to land, 

 he would cut a willow branch and twist it into the form of a 

 hoop and hang it upon the smaller pole — that would signify 

 that he might land at any point of the surrounding shore of 

 the lake. 



If he wanted to signal his family to camp at any particular 

 point along his trail, he would leave some article of his clothing 

 and place near it a number of sticks standing in the form of the 

 poles of a lodge, thus suggesting to them that they should erect 

 their tepee upon that spot. If he had wounded big game and 



