March 11, 1886.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



128 



women and children have full life. Harden the bodies of 

 the old people so that they may reach great age." 



When he ceased all the people uttered a long-drawn 

 Ah-h-h-h rYes]. 



The earnestness of the petitioner was indescribably touch- 

 ing. This was not a droning, perfunctory prayer, whose 

 object seems to be to convey as much information as possible 

 to the deity. Here was a priest who reallydesiied what 

 he asked for. He threw himself on the mercy of this 

 god aud would not let him go. He implored, he' urged, he 

 insisted, he would not be denied; and as I saw the great 

 beads of sweat stand out upon the old man's brow, I thought 

 of another struggle of long ago, when, at the ford Jabbok, 

 another patriarch wrestled through the long night with his 

 God and prevailed. 



The prayer ended the singing was resumed, Red Eagle 

 starting it, and the others, after a little, joining in a plaintive 

 refrain, Presently the Bear Woman again took from the 

 sack some of the sweet pine needles and sprinkled them on 

 the coal, and as the white smoke curled upward both Man 

 aud Woman again took it in their hands and as before, puri- 

 fied themselves by passing it over their arms, heads, shoul- 

 ders and breasts. After they had done this, they took hand- 

 fuls of it and held this up under a large package, attached 

 to a beautifully ornamented pack saddle, which was tied to 

 the lodge poles above their heads. This package contained 

 the Bear Pipe. The singing continued, and now the Bear 

 Woman chewed some of the sweet pine, and then spitting it 

 into her hands, spread it over herself as she had done the 

 smoke, and rising to her knees very slowly and reverently 

 untied the package from the saddle and placed it on the 

 blanket between the Bear Man and herself. 



The Bear Man now began a new song — one which was 

 more lively — and he and the Woman moved their hands 

 through the smoke, and then holding their hands over the 

 package moved them alternately up and down in time to the 

 music. At first the hands were closed except as to the fore- 

 finger, which pointed straight out, and the up and down 

 motions were quick and dainty, to represent the sharp rise 

 and fall of the feet of the antelope when walking. Then at 

 a little change in the air, the fingers were all bent, but the 

 hand not closed, and the up and down motions became 

 deliberate and heavy, to symbolize the slow tread of the 

 walking bear. At another slight change in the air the old 

 man raised his hands partly closed, the forefinger extended, 

 pointing upward and slightly bent inward, to the sides of 

 his head, and moving his face this way and that as if looking 

 about him, called out in a shrill voice, "Hoo," The hand 

 sign meant "buffalo" and the head motion "look out." This 

 sign is related to the word JYi ai', often used in the song, 

 meaning my shelter=covering=robe=buffalo. Then fol- 

 lowed up and down (walking) motions in time to the ah, all 

 the fingers being extended forward, symbolizing going to 

 war, and the danger, or lookout, signal, forefingers pointing 

 straight up to and raised to the sides of the head like a 

 pricked ear, with startled expression of countenance and the 

 watchful look. 



This song ended, Red Eagle slowly and carefully removed 

 the wrappings from the package at his side, the singing not 

 being interrupted at all, though the air was changed again to 

 the slower, more monotonous chant. The braid string being- 

 untied from the double-mouthed red cloth sack, which 

 formed the outer covering of the pipe, he drew forth a long 

 bundle, wrapped in silk handkerchiefs of various colors. 

 One by one he took these off until ten or twelve had been 

 removed, and the Bear Pipe was revealed. 



It was a handsome stem, about four feet long, wrapped 

 for a part of its length with large, handsome beads, and pro- 

 fusely ornamented with white weasel tails and feathers, 

 which depended from it in thick bunches. Near the lower 

 or pipe extremity was a spread plume of twelve tail feathers 

 of the war eagle, each one having its extremity wrapped 

 with red or yellow horse hair, which hung down in a long 

 tuft. Below this plume the stem was tied with red, green 

 and yellow ribbons, and again below this was a cluster of 

 brightly burnished hawks bells. The whole stem was very 

 handsome and heavy. 



When the coverings were removed, the old man for a 

 moment bent in silence over the pipe, and then raised it 

 slowly and tenderly to his face, making a cooing, caressing 

 sound, such as a mother might make to her infant. He 

 pressed it to his lips and whispered to it ecstatically, while 

 his sightless eyes looked toward the Sun, as if they could 

 pierce the covering of the lodge and behold some Presence 

 invisible to our grosser vision. After a wrapt silence of a 

 few moments, he again spoke in a low voice to the pipe, and 

 passed it over his arms, shoulders and both sides of the head. 

 Then he sang again, shaking the pipe in time to the music. 

 Then again he prayed loudly and impressively, and said: 

 "Oh, Bun, Old Man and Stars, pity us, pity us. Look 

 down. My dream told me that those Crows [who stole our 

 horses] will not survive if they [the Piegan pursuers] over- 

 take them." Then followed again the substance of the first 

 prayer, and he ended with this petition, "Little Plume, let 

 him survive; Tearing Lodge and Double Rider, let them 

 survive, and bring the heads [£; e. t scalps]." 



Then turning to the left, he passed the pipe to Appekunny, 

 who spoke a few words to it and handed it to me, I held it 

 to my face and made a short prayer to it, and then passed it 

 to an old blind warrior who sat next to me, and who prayed 

 to it fervently and long, and then handed it to his neighbor. 



And so it went round the circle, each one who received it 

 prayed to it most earnestly. I was anxious to hear what the 

 people said in their prayers, but they spoke in low tones, and 

 the only words I could catch were now and then Kim-o tit and 

 Napi. It was touching to see the young women who had 

 babies with them, after praying to the pipe, pass it up and 

 down over the bodies and heads of their little ones, and to 

 see upon their faces the expression of love and faith that one 

 sees nowhere save on a woman's countenanee. 



Meanwhile Red Eagle had taken a medicine rattle 

 made from the dried scrotum of a buffalo bull, in which 

 were a lot of small round stone, and again began to sing, 

 shaking the rattle in time to the music. 



At length the pipe had passed round the circle and was 

 handed by the Bear Woman to Red Eagle. He took it and 

 said rapidly twenty or thirty times, "Pity, pity." Then 

 rising to his feet he began a new song, and danced, 

 first toward the east, and then, turning about, toward the 

 west. The people accompanied him with their voices in a 

 new but equally plaintive and musical minor chant. After 

 he had danced he faced about, and sitting down prayed 

 again, repeating what he had said in his first and second 

 prayer, and concluding with these words: "Let the Sun 

 shine upon us and our lives be without shadows. " At the 

 end of the prayer all the people said, "Yes, have pity, have 

 pity." 



Then he made a sign that the ceremony was over, and we 

 filed out of the lodge. Yo. 



Address all communications to the Forest and Stream Publish- 

 ing Co. 



A DRY HUNT. 



I WAS much interested in the article of "Wells" in the 

 Forest and Streak of Jan. 14, entitled "A Wild Goose 

 Chase," from having had many such experiences myself 

 which 1 style dry huats, but I always managed to keep up 

 some cheerfulness, really getting much dry fun out of a dry 

 hunt, and never allowing the failure to get a good bag of 

 game to deprive mc of the other enjoyments rightfully 

 belonging to such a trip, and which, indeed, constitute a 

 very important part of it. And this is a point it will be well 

 for all sportsmen to consider. It is not the great quantity 

 of game, nor the mere killing it, from which is derived all 

 the enjoyable sport of an extended hunting trip; and, as 

 they are the best generals who turn apparent defeat into 

 victory, and the best cooks are they who can produce the 

 most palatable and delicious meal i'rom the least material ; 

 so, may we not add, that they are the best sportsmen who 

 can get the most enjoyment from bagging the least game. 



In view of the rapid decrease in all kinds of game in all 

 sections of our broad country, it would seem advisable to 

 cultivate this faculty of getting all the sport we can when 

 out on a trip, whether we get much or little game; in fact 

 the habit, disposition, faculty or education required to make 

 an outing pass pleasantly, is just as requisite as the ability to 

 handle well the gun and dog. He who starts out on a shoot- 

 ing scout with the solemn visage he would wear to a funeral 

 will be quite likely to reap about the same enlivening reward 

 from the one he gets from the other, and no more. If after 

 getting his traps together for a start and taking his dog from 

 the kennel he does not feel the blood move a little quicker in 

 his veins, and does not experience a premonition that he is 

 about to enter a higher plane of life, a sort of elysium of 

 which the great throng of humanity know not, then he had 

 belter put away his tools, chain up his dog, or give them all 

 to some one who can enjoy them, and go back to the hum- 

 drum drudarery of every day life, for he has mistaken his 

 calling. The very preparations for a hunting trip will 

 afford delight to a genuine sportsman, and he will keep 

 that up and add to it till the campaign is ended, game or 

 no game. I once had a friend (and many of your readers 

 would recall him should I give his name) who, with all the 

 patience and perseverance he could muster, could not bag 

 more than one bird in ten shots; still he took as much delight 

 as a veteran in keeping in perfect order and condition a fine 

 gun and outfit and a good dog, and never let a season pass 

 without taking many trips which he would enjoy from the 

 crown of his hat to the sole of his shoe; and it was a very 

 dull party that his genial whole-souled good nature would 

 not enliven. He was brim full of all the qualities of a good 

 sportsman, except he could not kill his birds, but even this 

 did not deprive him of the enjoyment of a pleasure he could 

 find nowhere else. I name this to impress again the fact 

 that real enjoyable pleasure can be obtained in hunting, 

 even though the quantity of game procured is quite limited. 

 I never killed or shot a deer in my life; yet 1 have spent 

 weeks at a time with parties in pursuit of them, the remem- 

 brance of which is still very pleasant to me. I give a few 

 incidents of one of those trips in the mountains of California 

 and this one, as far as deer were concerned, was a dry hunt. 



Early one morning we started, five of us, with Old Bob 

 (a little square-built mustang, whose caudal appendage had 

 been very much abbreviated, hence his name) to pack our 

 blankets, camp tools and what few articles of food we took 

 along, mostly condiments and delicacies, with flour, a few 

 potatoes and onions and a side of bacon, intending of course 

 to revel mostly in venison steaks and roasts during our stay. 

 At the close of the first day's tramp (and it was a good one, 

 following the tops of the ridges, when once gained, as long 

 as they led in the direction we wished to go, then striking- 

 down the side to the deep caiion below and up the steep 

 sides of the ridge opposite to its top) we found ourselves 

 about twenty miles from our starting point, having increased 

 our altitude about 3,000 feet in that distance. Here we 

 made our camp in a level spot near the head of a canon, 

 shut in by heavy timber, using spruce boughs for a roof, 

 plentifully covering the ground beneath with the small fine 

 twigs of tne same, on which we spread our blankets. These 

 spruce boughs make a nice shelter from everything except 

 rain— for protection from rain they are a decided failure; 

 for, as old Birney said: "It only has to rain for half an hour 

 outside to make it rain all uight under your 'bresh' tent." 

 We tried it one evening and know the old man was pretty 

 near right. But what cared we? There was fuel enough 

 all about us from which to make a fire that would soon dry 

 a saturated sponge. Only those who have built a temporary 



camp in the woods know the delight in its preparation. The 

 fire is the central sun around which, at a respectful distance, 

 the primitive couches hover. While some are putting the 

 finishing touches on the camp, others are preparing the de- 

 licious meal, Delicious? Yes. Delmonico never prepared 

 so inviting a repast, and a tramp on Broadway or Fifth 

 avenue never produced such an enchanting appetite. There 

 was delight in being tired and hungry — delight in the imme- 

 diate prospect of both being relieved and appeased, which 

 was borne to us by the fragrance of steaming tea and coffee, 

 and the sputtering of bacon and potatoes in the frying pan, 

 and the sight of the round biscuit growing more plump and 

 brown before the fire. Is there not pleasure in such a meal, 

 in such a place? After supper the pipes and the chat and 

 the laying out the morrow's hunt — deciding who shall look 

 after camp and prepare the evening meal— then seeking our 

 fragrant beds, such sleep would come to us as is never found 

 on "flowery beds of ease." 



Up the next morning bright and early, and breakfast over, 

 the camp keeper for the day is left to "do up the dishes," 

 while the rest of us take our respective courses and strike out 

 for the day's still-hunting. And when one after another we 

 had all gathered into camp at night to find our host and 

 supper awaiting us, with what zest was that meal enjoyed, 

 and what interest was excited in the recital of each one's ex- 

 perience! One may have seen a deer, but the breaking of a 

 dry stick or some misstep on his part had telegraphed to the 

 sensitive ear of the timid game the danger it was in, when it 

 would quickly place the summit of a ridge between them. 

 He would follow cautiously to the top, expecting to find the 

 deer quietly feeding on the other side, but on peering over 

 would quite likely see it high up on the opposite ridge, a mile 

 away, with a deep canon between them; then would com- 

 mence the tramp of two or three miles up around the head 

 of the canon and down on the opposite side of the ridge on 

 which the deer was feeding, in hopes to head it off and sur- 

 prise it with a shot; but the chances were his long tramp 

 had taken too much time, and the deer had passed on over 

 the ridge before he arrived at the proper point. I did not 

 even see a deer. But what of that? I did my share of camp 

 duty and tramping; and when noiselessly wandering beneath 

 the green arches of that magnificent forest, saw and felt a 

 thousand delights of which the dwellers amid brick walls 

 and paved streets know not, Added to this was the constant 

 expectancy of seeing one of the mild-eyed and gracefully- 

 formed denizens of the forest — in fact I killed several of 

 them — while lying in the bushes, or feeding on some warm 

 grassy spot, or dashing past them at full speed — yes, killed 

 them' in my vivid imagination. Had I in reality seen one, 

 I doubt very much if 1 had remembered that I had a gun 

 with me; and still I enjoyed it all as though I had been a 

 veritable "Deer Slayer." 



We were startled from our slumbers one morning just be- 

 fore dawn by old Bob dashing unceremoniously into camp. 

 We were all up in an instant, just in time to hear an old 

 grizzly crashing through the brush up the opposite side of 

 the mountuin. He had called to make a meal of old Bob, 

 who, declining to entertain so early and uncouth a visitor, 

 had broken his fastening where he was picketed a few rods 

 from camp, and called on us for protection. Although it 

 was a little early, our breakfast was soon prepared and over, 

 when I called for volunteers to pursue the ruthless invader 

 of our peace and quiet, or in other words, for a bear hunt. 

 Strange as it may seem, not one of the party had lost any 

 heai-s^and' consequently they respectfully declined to spend 

 any time in looking up other people's property. True, one 

 of our party had made the intimate acquaintance of a grizzly 

 some two years before, the mementoes of which were, a 

 broken jaw and cheek bone, but as his old acquaintance had 

 been killed a few days after his interview with him, he 

 seemed decidedly averse to making any new friends in that 

 line. Finally Jerry, an old mountaineer and a good hunter, 

 agreed to go with me if I would promise him one thing, and 

 that was not to shoot at the bear if we came in sight of it ; 

 "for," said Jerry, "if we let the bear alone he will let us 

 alone, unless we come on to him of a suddint." I promised 

 faithfully, and we started on the trail of Mr. Brain, which 

 was quite easy to follow, for his tracks in the soft ground 

 and patches of snow were nearly as large as the top of a coal 

 scuttle. As we came to spots where the soft dirt or snow 

 seemed still almost quivering on the edges of the deep tracks, 

 so recently had it been disturbed, Jerry would remind me of 

 my promise not to shoot, and I would assure him my sole 

 desire was to see the bear — "only this and nothing more." 

 While on our tramp, Jerry told me of the only personal in- 

 terview he had ever enjoyed with this monarch of the moun- 

 tains, and pulled his hunting shirt from his shoulders and 

 showed me the affectionate marks of the bear's teeth while 

 in his loving embrace. Jerry said: "It happened this way. 

 I was hunting deer on the side of a mountain, and had come 

 to a place where the branches of the chapparal were so 

 thick and intertwined that I had to get down almost 

 on my knees and creep along. Presently I came 

 to a little open space and rose to my feet, and 

 at the same instant a bear rose up in front of me, 

 and before I had time to bring my rifle to a position to shoot, 

 he hit me with one of his paws and I found myself lying on 

 my back with the bear on top; fortunately my head lay up 

 the hill, and as the bear made for my face, which they 

 always do in attacking a man, I caught him by the fur on 

 each side of his head, and by pressing his head oue way and 

 mine the other I could just save my face from being 

 crunched, but he would occasionally give me a nip on the 

 shoulders as you see. Of course I could endure this but a 

 few minutes as my strength would soon give out, and I dared 

 not let go with one hand to get my knife, for an instant's re- 

 lease of his jaws would have enabled him to crush my head 

 like an eggshell. In my desperation I gathered my knees 

 and feet in under him, and with all the power I could com- 

 mand I raised myself up and threw him over flat on his 

 back with head down the hill. When he got on his feet he 

 turned his head and looked at me as though he was aston- 

 ished at such usage, and giving a grunt started off down the 

 hill." "Did you hit him?" I asked. "No," says Jerry, "I 

 didn't shoot, out grabbed my rifle and run the other way, 

 glad to get out of it so; and should not have got off so easily 

 but this happened to he a young one not weighing more than 

 400 pounds, but the fellow that is making these tracks wOuld 

 more than double that. So you will not shoot if you see 

 him?" Again I said no, and we tramped on. Occasionally 

 we would come to a thicket into which he had entered, and 

 for fear we might meet him sooner than we desired, we 

 would scout round the outer edge to the opposite side, where 

 we would again find his tracks as he had emerged from the 

 cover. Thus we followed him till past noon, when his foot- 

 prints led down the side of a mountain into a deep rocky 

 canon thick with bushes, and Jerry would not risk the 



