Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1885-03-19
THE EAGLE.
How the Bird Is Captured and Despoiled
by Indians.

How the Bird Is Captured and Despoiled
by Indians.
Mr.. Willard Schultz, writing to the
American Forest and Stream, gives
curious picture of the superstitions at
tendant on the procuring of eagle
plumes for the head-dresses and robes
of ..braves. /" He says: Another in
genious method of hunting practiced
by the Blackfeet Indians Of North
America was the Pis-tsis-tse-kay for
catching eagles. Perhaps of all the ar
ticles used for personal adornment
eagle feathers were the most highly
priced. They were not only used to
decorate head dresses, garments and
shields, but they were held as
standard of value. A few lodges of
people in need of eagle feathers would
leave the main camp and move up close
to the foot-hill, where eagles are gen.
orally more numerous than out on the
prairie. Having arrived at a good To-
cality, each man selected a little knoll
or hill, and with a stone knife and such
other rude implements as he possessed,
dug pit in the top of it large
enough fer him to lie in. Within
arms length of the mouth OF the
pit he securely pegged a wolf skin
to the ground, which had previously
been stuffed with grass to make
it look as life-like as possible. Then,
cutting slit in its side, he inserted
large piece of tough bull meat and
daubed the hair about the slit with
blood and liver. In the evening, when
all had returned to camp, an eagle
dance was held, in which every one
participated. Eagle songs were sung,
whistles made Of eagle wing-bones
were blown, and the medicine men,
prayed earnestly for success. The next
morning the men arose before daylight
and smoked two pipes to the sun. Then
each one told his wives and all the
| women of his family not to go out or
look out of the lodge until he returned,
and not to use an awl or needle at any
kind of work, for if they did, the eagles
would surely scratch him, but to sing
the eagle songs and pray for his good
success. Then, without eating any
tn ng, each man took human skull
and repaired to his pit Depositing
the skull in one end of it he carefully
covered the mouth over with slender
willows and grass. and, lying down.
p.llowed his head on the skull and
waited for the eagles to come. With
the rising of the sun came all the lit
tie birds, the good-for-nothing
birds, the crows, ravens and hawks,
but with a long, sharp-pointed stick the
watcher deity poked them off the wolf
skin. The ravens were the most per-
| sistent in trying to perch on the skin,
and every time they were poked off
would loudly croak. Whenever an
eagle was coming the watcher would
know it, for all the little birds would
fly away. and shortly an eagle would
come down with rush and light on
| the ground. Often it would sit on the
ground for long time pruning its
feathers and looking about. During
| this time the watcher was earnestly
| praying to the skull and to the sun to
| give him power to capture the eagle,
so loudly that he thought the bird
| would surely hear it. At last, when
| the eagle had perched on the wolf-skin
and was busily plucking at the tough
| bull meat, the watcher would eau
| tiously stretch out his hands, and
| grasping the bird firmly by the feet,
quickly bear it down into the cave,
| where he crushed in it's breast with his
| knee.
In Scotland the eagle, it is said, is
often captured alive by a method very
similar to those employed in taking its
kindred in South America. A circular
space, twelve feet in diameter, is in
closed on a spur of the hills haunted by
the birds, and peat wall six feet high
built round it, with one small opening
at the level of the ground. over VIII ch
strong wire moose is suspended. The
bait. dead sheep or lamb, is placed
within. and the eagle coming down to
it feeds largely-not wisely, perhaps,
but certainly too Well-and, like many
another of superior creation, feels,
after the repast, disinclined for any I'M
necessary exertIon, SO cast around for an
easy place in the barricade he spies the
low archway, and attempting to leave
by it is caught around the neck and
killed, at best a poor end for so gallant
a bird.-Lamd and Water.