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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.

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.

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.

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

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