LIFE AND LOVE RETURN 261 



But to return to our muskrat hunt: Oo-koo-hoo, stringing 

 his bow and adjusting an arrow, let drive at one of the little 

 animals as it sat upon some drift-wood. The blunt-headed 

 shaft just skimmed its back and sank into the mud beyond; 

 the next arrow, however, bowled the muskrat over; and in an 

 hour's time The Owl had eleven in his canoe. When I ques- 

 tioned him as to why he used such an ancient weapon, he ex- 

 plained that a bow was much better than a gun, as it did not 

 frighten the other muskrats away, also it did not injure the pelt 

 in the way shot would do, and, moreover, it was much more 

 economical. 



Occasionally Oo-koo-hoo would imitate the call of the 

 muskrats; sometimes to arrest their attention, but more often 

 to entice them within easy range of his arrows. If he killed 

 them outright while they were swimming, they sank like stones; 

 but when only wounded, they usually swam round on the sur- 

 face for a while. Once, however, a wounded one dived, and, 

 seizing hold of a reed, held on with its teeth in order to escape 

 its pmsuer; Oo-koo-hoo, nevertheless, eventually landed it in 

 his canoe. 



In setting steel traps for them the hunter placed the traps 

 either in the water or on the bank at a spot where they were 

 in the habit of going ashore, and to decoy them to that landing 

 Oo-koo-hoo rubbed castoreum on the branches of the surround- 

 ing bushes — ^just in the same way as he did for mink or otter. 

 Another way he had of setting traps was to cut a hole in the 

 side of a muskrat's house, so that he could thrust in his arm and 

 feel for the entrance to the tunnel, then he would set a trap 

 there and close up the hole. 



One day when he was passing a muskrat house that he had 

 previously opened for that purpose and closed again, he dis- 

 covered that the hole was again open. Thinking that the newly 

 added mud had merely fallen out, he thrust his arm into the 

 hole to reach for the trap, when without the slightest warning 



