264 THE DRAMA OF THE FORESTS 



The Indians of the Strong Woods are very susperstitious 

 in relation to the otter. They not only refuse to eat the flesh, 

 but they don't like to take the carcass home, always preferring 

 to skin it where it is caught. Even then they dislike to place 

 the skin in their hunting bag, but will drag it behind them on 

 the snow. Also, Indian women refuse to skin an otter, as they 

 have a superstition that it would prevent them from becom- 

 ing mothers. 



One afternoon, when Oo-koo-hoo and I were sitting on a 

 high rock overlooking the rapids on Rear River, he espied an 

 otter ascending the turbulent waters by walking on the river 

 bottom. We watched the animal for some time. It was an 

 interesting sight, as it was evidently hunting for fish that might 

 be resting in the backwaters behind the boulders. Every 

 time it would ascend the rapids it would rise to the surface 

 and then quietly float down stream in the sluggish, eddying 

 shore currents where the bushes overhung the bank. Then 

 it would again dive and again make the ascent by crawling up 

 the river bottom. 



" My son, watch him closely, for if he catches a fish you will 

 see that he always seizes it either by the head or tail, rarely by 

 the middle, as the fish would then squirm and shake so vio- 

 lently that the otter would not like it. Sometimes, too, an 

 otter will lie in wait on a rock at the head of a rapid, and when 

 a fish tries to ascend to the upper reach of the river by leaping 

 out of the water and thus avoiding the swift current, the otter 

 will leap, too, and seize the fish in mid-air. It is a thrilling 

 sight to see him do it." 



The snow was going so rapidly and the water running so 

 freely that Oo-koo-hoo felt sure the bears had now all left their 

 dens, otherwise water might be trickling into their winter beds. 

 So, for the next few days, the hunter was busily engaged in 

 setting traps for bears, beavers, otters, minks, and muskrats; 

 and thus the spring hunt went steadily on while the Goose 



