d he followed the sound and came upon an open glade wherein were
many women dancing before a huge boulder. Wondering, with great
admiration, the young chief gazed upon their graceful movements and
comely figures, and determined to rush in and capture the most
beautiful of them. Turning thought into act, he bounded in among the
dancers, and, to his amazement, discovered the old chief, who, at sight
of him, dropped his drum, grasped his war club, and leaping down from
his rocky eminence, rushed upon the young interloper in a frenzy of
jealous fury. The women made no outcry; for, like the female moose or
caribou, they love the victor. So to the accompaniment of the men's
hard breathing and the clashing of their war clubs, they went
unconcernedly on with their love dance. In the end the young chief
slew the older one, and departed in triumph with the women. But, my
son, when the Master of Life learned what had happened, he was
exceeding wroth; insomuch that he turned the young chief and the women
into partridges. That is why the partridges dance the love dance even
to this day."

HUNTING WILD FOWL

Next morning, while Oo-koo-hoo was examining a muskrat lodge from his
canoe, he heard a sudden "honk, honk," and looking up he espied two
Canada geese flying low and straight toward us; seizing his gun, he up
with it and let drive at one of the geese as it was passing beyond him,
and brought it down. He concluded that they had just arrived from the
south and were seeking a place to feed. Later, we encountered at close
range several more and the hunter secured another.

As they were the first geese he had killed that season, he did not
allow the women to touch them, but according to the Indian custom,
dressed and cooked them himself; also, at supper time, he gave all the
flesh to the rest of us, and saved for himself nothing but the part
from which the eggs came. Further, he cautioned us not to laugh or
talk while eating the geese, otherwise their spirits would be offended
and he would have ill-luck for the rest of the season. And when the
meal was finished he collected all the bones and tossed them into the
centre of the fire, so that they would be properly consumed instead of
allowing the dogs to eat them; and thus he warded off misfortune.

As we sat by the fire that night Oo-koo-hoo busied himself making
decoys for geese, by chopping blocks of dry pine into rough images of
their bodies, and fashioning their ne