18 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



on the procuring of eagle plumes for the head-dresses and 

 robes of " braves." He says : " Another ingenious method 

 of hunting, practised by the Blackfeet Indians of North 

 America was the Pis-tsis-tse'-kay for catching eagles. 

 Perhaps of all the articles used for personal adornment eagle 

 feathers were the most highly prized. They were not only 

 used to decorate head-dresses, garments, and shields, but 

 they were held as a standard of value. A few lodges of 

 people in need of eagle feathers would leave the main camp 

 and move up close to the foothills, where eagles are generally 

 more numerous than out on the prairie. Having arrived at 

 a good locality, each man selected a little knoll or hill, and 

 with a stone knife and such other rude implements as he pos- 

 sessed dug a pit in the top of it large enough for him to lie 

 in. Within arm's length of the mouth of the pit he securely 

 pegged a wolf skin to the ground, which had previously 

 been stuffed with grass to make it look as life-like as possible. 

 Then, cutting a slit in its side, he inserted a large piece of 

 tough bull meat and daubed the hair about the slit with 

 blood and liver. In the evening, when all had returned to 

 camp, an eagle dance was held, in which every one partici- 

 pated. Eagle songs were sung, whistles made of eagle wing- 

 bones were blown, and the ' medicine men ' prayed earnestly 

 for success. The next morning the men arose before day- 

 light, and smoked two pipes to the sun. Then each one told 

 his wives and all the women of his family not to go out or 

 look out of the lodge until he returned, and not to use an 

 awl or needle at any kind of work, for if they did the eagles 

 would surely scratch him, but to sing the eagle songs and 

 pray for his good success. Then, without eating anything, 

 each 'man took a human skull and repaired to his pit. 

 Depositing the skull in one end of it, he carefully covered 

 the mouth over with slender willows and grass, and, lying- 

 down, pillowed his head on the skull and awaited for the 

 eagles to come. With the rising of the sun came all the 

 little birds, the good-for-nothing birds, the crows, ravens and 



