AN INDIAN VILLAGE 227 



It no longer seems incongruous that, although 

 Pierre wears a scapular on his burnt-umber 

 breast and carries with him on his journey the 

 blessing of the good Father, he also murmurs 

 the hunting incantation of the Chipewyans 

 and hangs the finest furs of his traps flapping 

 in the tops of the pines — a superstitious sop to 

 the Cerberus of the woodland Wentigo. 



"If the trapper is married — and most of 

 them are much-married — his spouse and 

 dusky brood accompany him into the woods 

 and frozen winter sees nomad families, each 

 little group a vignette in the heart of the wider 

 panorama, flitting over lake surfaces to their 

 individual fur-preserves. In the woods, in 

 tepee, tent, or rough shack the family fires 

 are lighted, and from this center the trap- 

 per radiates. The hunter traps for miles and 

 days alone, and an accident in the woods 

 means a death as lonely and agonizing, as that 

 of the animal he snares. Sometimes he goes 

 insane and then the Royal Northwest 

 Mounted Policeman, another sentinel of si- 

 lence, handcuffs him, saves him from himself, 

 and takes him 'outside.' 



"Possibly the trapper places 150 snares, 

 and his line of traps may extend for 30 or 40 

 miles. Ere first snow flies he has all his traps 



