Why would the women be apt to make traps before the men did?
What animals did the men hunt most? How did they hunt them?
What animals did the women hunt most? How?
How many kinds of knots can you tie? Which of these knots slip?
Which of these knots would be the best to use in a trap?
_How Antler made Snares_
While Fleetfoot and Flaker were little boys, they learned a few
lessons in trapping. The men seldom trapped at that time, but the
women trapped in several ways.
Antler was only a little girl when she learned to catch birds with a
seed on a string. She was called Snowflake then and she lived in
another cave.
Snowflake's mother taught her to do all the things that little girls
needed to know. She learned to hunt for roots and berries, to catch
birds, and to make traps, besides learning to make tents, to prepare
skins, and to make them into garments. It would take too long to tell
all the things that little girls learned in those days.
Snowflake learned her lessons well and she found new ways of doing
things. It was when she found a reindeer caught in the vines that she
took the first step in making a snare. She had started to the hillside
to dig roots and had gone only a little way when she heard something
pulling and tugging among the vines.
She peeked through the branches to see what it was, and there stood a
beautiful reindeer. His antlers were caught in the tangled vines and
he was trying to get loose.
Snowflake's heart went pit-a-pat, pit-a-pat, when she saw the
reindeer. But she kept going nearer, and the reindeer pulled and
pulled until he was strangled by the vines.
When Snowflake came to the cave dragging the handsome reindeer, the
people shouted for joy. And when they had knocked off the beautiful
antlers, they gave them to Snowflake and changed her name.
Whenever she went to the spot where the reindeer was caught she always
looked for another reindeer. But the reindeer kept away from the
spot.
So, at length, Antler thought of cutting vines and fastening them to
branches. Then she learned to tie knots that would slip and tighten
when pulled. And, after a while, she used the slipknots in making many
kinds of snares.
[Illustration: "_Then she set snares on the ground and fastened them
to strong branches._"]
Antler watched the birds until she knew the spots where they liked to
alight. Then she set snares on the ground and fastened them to strong
branches.
The birds, alighting on the spot, caught their feet in the snare. When
they tried to fly away, they pulled the slipknot which held them fast.
[Illustration: "_Antler learned to protect the cord by running it
through a hollow bone._"]
Some of the birds were frightened away, and did not return to the
spot. So Antler tried to coax them back by scattering seeds near the
snare.
Once Antler set a snare in a rabbit path just high enough to catch the
rabbit's head. A rabbit was caught, but he nibbled the cord and ran
off with the snare. And so Antler learned to protect the cord by
running it through a hollow bone.
There was no better trapper than Antler among all the Cave-men. It was
she who taught the boys and girls how to make and set traps. When the
marmots awoke from their long winter's sleep, all the children learned
to catch them in traps. They learned to loosen the bark of a tree
without breaking it except along one edge. They used the bark as a
leadway to a trap which they set near a marmot's hole. After placing
the noose inside the bark, they fastened it to a bent sapling.
[Illustration: "_So it ran along and nibbled the bait until its sharp
teeth cut the cord._"]
When the children went to the trap, they clapped their hands and
shouted. Then they took the marmot out of the trap and carried it to
the cave. And they made a great noise when Bighorn said, "You will
soon be very good trappers."
Then the children wanted to catch another marmot, so Antler went with
them and showed them how the trap worked. The marmot coming out of his
hole smelled the bait on the string. So it ran along and nibbled the
bait until its sharp teeth cut the cord. Then the sapling sprang up
and jerked the snare upward. And the weight of the marmot, pulling
downward, drew the slipknot tight.
#THINGS TO DO#
_Tie a slipknot at one end of a string, and show how to set it for
snaring birds. Show how to set it for snaring rabbits. Find a
hollow stick or a bone to protect the snare from the rabbit's
teeth. Show how the marmot trap was set._
_Tell how you catch mice. Tell how you catch flies._
_What animals do you know that sleep during the winter? How can
they live so long without eating?_
_Draw one of these pictures:_--
_Snowflake finds a reindeer caught in the vines._
_Antler teaches the children to set traps._
_Model a marmot in clay._
_Name all the animals you know that burrow in the ground. Watch one
of them and find out what it does._