LIFE AND LOVE RETURN 273 



looking up he espied two Canada geese flying low and straight 

 toward us; seizing his gun, he up with it and let drive at one 

 of the geese as it was passing beyond him, and brought it down. 

 He concluded that they had just arrived from the south and 

 were seeking a place to feed. Later, we encountered at close 

 range several more and the hunter secured another. 



As they were the first geese he had killed that season, he 

 did not allow the women to touch them, but according to the 

 Indian custom, dressed and cooked them himself; also, at 

 supper time, he gave all the flesh to the rest of us, and saved for 

 himself nothing but the part from which the eggs came. Further, 

 he cautioned us not to laugh or talk while eating the geese, 

 otherwise their spirits would be ofl'ended and he would have 

 ill-luck for the rest of the season. And when the meal was 

 finished he coUected all the bones and tossed them into the 

 centre of the fire, so that they would be properly consumed 

 instead of aUowing the dogs to eat them; and thus he warded 

 off misfortune. 



As we sat by the fire that night Oo-koo-hoo busied himself 

 making decoys for geese, by chopping blocks of dry pine into 

 rough images of their bodies, and fashioning their necks and 

 heads from bent wiUow sticks; as weU as roughly staining the 

 completed models to represent the plumage. And while he 

 worked he talked of the coming of the birds in spring. 



"My son, the first birds to arrive are the eagles; next, the 

 snow-birds and the barking crows (ravens) ; then the big gray 

 (Canada) geese, and the larger ducks; then the smaller kinds 

 of geese and the smaUer kinds of ducks; and then the robins, 

 blackbirds, and guHs. Then, as likely as not, a few days 

 later, what is caUed a 'goose winter' — a heavy, wet snowstorm 

 followed by colder weather — ^may come along and try to drive 

 the birds all back again; but before the bad weather completes 

 its useless work a timely south wind may arrive, and with the 

 aid of a milder spell, will utterly destroy the 'goose winter' . 



