262 THE AMERICAN MOOSE 



Aside from the myths, properly so called, which 

 cast an interesting side-light on the intellectual 

 development of the Red Men, the Indians enter- 

 tained many superstitions respecting the moose 

 which entered into their daily life. They believed, 

 for instance, that they could travel three times as 

 far, after a meal of moose meat, as after eating 

 any other sort of food/^ 



In their dreams the moose was a welcome 

 visitor. Charlevoix, the Jesuit emissary of Louis 

 XV., tells us: "The Indians look upon the moose 

 as an animal of good omen, and believe that those 

 who dream of them often may expect a long life." 

 To dream of the bear, on the other hand, was a 

 bad omen, unless the dream should come on the 

 eve of a bear hunt.'^ 



Fr. Le Jeune, writing in 1636, said that the 

 Indians attributed reasoning powers to the moose. 

 They would never give moose meat to the dogs 

 when hunting, for if they did so they believed that 

 the living moose would discover the fact, and 

 conceal themselves. 



Various portions of the moose were used as 

 charms and medicinal agents. "The Indian 

 Webbes^° make use of the broad Teeth of the Fawns 



^7 Dudley, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 1721. 

 ^8 See Jesuit Relations (1637), vol. xii., p. 9. 



^9 Jesuit Relations, vol. x., p. 167. Women ; literally , "weavers." 



