Moderation you
learn of him first of all. Later, provided you are with him long enough
and your mind is open to mystic influence, you will feel the strong
impress of his idea--that the animals of the forest are not lower than
man, but only different. Man is an animal living the life of the
forest; the beasts are also a body politic speaking a different
language and with different view-points. Amik, the beaver, has certain
ideas as to the conduct of life, certain habits of body, and certain
bias of thought. His scheme of things is totally at variance with that
held by Me-en-gan, the wolf, but even to us whites the two are on a
parity. Man has still another system. One is no better than another.
They are merely different. And just as Me-en-gan preys on Amik, so does
Man kill for his own uses.
Thence are curious customs. A Rupert River Cree will not kill a bear
unless he, the hunter, is in gala attire, and then not until he has
made a short speech in which he assures his victim that the affair is
not one of personal enmity, but of expedience, and that anyway he, the
bear, will be better off in the Hereafter. And then the skull is
cleaned and set on a pole near running water, there to remain during
twelve moons. Also at the tail-root of a newly-deceased beaver is tied
a thong braided of red wool and deerskin. And many other curious
habitudes which would be of slight interest here. Likewise do they
conjure up by means of racket and fasting the familiar spirits of
distant friends or enemies, and on these spirits fasten a blessing or a
curse.
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