summon a doctor; but the old Indian women could not bear to wait so
long for the coming of relief, so filing a big knife into a
fine-toothed saw, they cut away the bruised flesh and sawed off the
broken bones. They made a clean amputation which they dressed with a
poultice made from well-boiled inner bark of juniper, and not only did
no mortification set in, but the arm healed nicely; and when the doctor
arrived ten days later, he examined the amputation carefully and said
that there was nothing for him to do: the old women had done their work
so well. Marasty quickly recovered, and next winter he was on the
hunting trail again.


HOW BEARS ARE HUNTED

After spending three days upon the trapping trail we returned to camp;
but because our toboggan was loaded with game, and also because we did
not return by our outgoing route, the grandmother and the two boys set
out to bring in the bear meat and the bear's head. During the feast
that followed Oo-koo-hoo addressed the bear's head with superstitious
awe and again begged it not to be offended or angry because it had been
killed since they needed both its coat and its fat and flesh to help
tide them over the winter. In this entreaty Amik did not join--perhaps
because he was too civilized. After the meal, the skull was hung upon
a branch of a pine that stood near the lodges. It reminded me that
once I had seen at an old camping place eleven bear skulls upon a
single branch; but the sight of bear skulls upon trees is not uncommon
when one is travelling through the Strong Woods Country.

That night, when I was sitting beside Oo-koo-hoo, we began talking
about bear hunting and he said: "My son, some day you, too, may want to