Two Little Savages

by Ernest Thompson Seton

  XVIII

  The Owls and The Night School

  One night Sam was taking a last look at the stars before turning in. AHorned Owl had been hooting not far away.

  "_Hoo--hohoo-hoho--hoooooo_."

  And as he looked, what should silently sail to the top of the medicinepole stuck in the ground twenty yards away but the Owl.

  "Yan! Yan! Give me my bow and arrow, quick. Here's a Cat-Owl--achicken stealer, he's fair game."

  "He's only codding you, Yan," said Guy sleepily from his blanket. "Iwouldn't go."

  But Yan rushed out with his own and Sam's weapons.

  Sam fired at the great feathery creature, but evidently missed, forthe Owl spread its wings and sailed away.

  "There goes my best arrow. That was my 'Sure-death.'"

  "Pshaw!" growled Yan, as he noted the miss. "You can't shoot a littlebit."

  But as they stood, there was a fluttering of broad wings, and there,alighting as before on the medicine pole, was the Owl again.

  "My turn now!" exclaimed Yan in a gaspy whisper.

  He drew his bow, the arrow flew, and the Owl slipped off unharmed asit had the first time.

  "Yan, you're no good. An easy shot like that. Why, any idiot could hitthat. Why didn't you fetch her?"

  "'Cause I'm not an idiot, I suppose. I hit the same place as you did,anyway, and drew just as much blood."

  "Ef he comes back again you call me," piped Guy in his shrill voice."I'll show you fellers how to shoot. You're no good at all 'thout me.Why, I mind the time I was Deer-shooting----" but a fierce dash of thewhole Tribe for Sappy's bed put a stop to the reminiscent flow andreplaced it with whines of "Now you let me alone. I ain't doin'nothin' to you."

  During the night they were again awakened by the screech in thetree-tops, and Yan, sitting up, said, "Say, boys, that's nothing butthat big Cat Owl."

  "So it is," was Sam's answer; "wonder I didn't think of that before."

  "I did," said Guy; "I knew it all the time."

  In the morning they went out to find their arrows. The medicine polewas a tall pole bearing a feathered shield, with the tribal totem, awhite Buffalo, which Yan had set up to be in Indian fashion. Sightingin line from the teepee over this, they walked on, looking far beyond,for they had learned always to draw the arrow to the head. Theyhad not gone twenty-five feet before Yan burst out in unutterableastonishment: "Look! Look at that--and _that_------"

  There on the ground not ten feet apart were two enormous Horned Owls,both shot fairly through the heart, one with Sam's "Sure-death" arrow,the other with Yan's "Whistler"; both shots had been true, and theboys could only say, "Well, if you saw that in print you would say itwas a big lie!" It was indeed one of those amazing things which happenonly in real life, and the whole of the Tribe with one exception voteda _grand coup_ to each of the hunters.

  Guy was utterly contemptuous. "They got so close they hit by chancean' didn't know they done it. If he had been shooting," etc., etc.,etc.

  "How about that screech in the tree-tops, Guy?"

  "Errrrh."

  What a fascination the naturalist always finds in a fine Bird. Yanrevelled in these two. He measured their extent of wing and the lengthfrom beak to tail of each. He studied the pattern on their quills;he was thrilled by their great yellow eyes and their long, powerfulclaws, and he loved their every part. He hated to think that in a fewdays these wonderful things would be disgusting and fit only to beburied.

  "I wish I knew hew to stuff them," he said.

  "Why don't you get Si Lee to show you," was Sam's suggestion. "Seemsto me I often seen pictures of Injun medicine men with stuffed birds,"he added shrewdly and happily.

  "Well, that's just what I will do."

  Then arose a knotty question. Should he go to Si Lee and thereby turn"White" and break the charm of the Indian life, or should he attemptthe task of persuading Si to come down there to work without properconveniences. They voted to bring Si to camp. "Da might think we wasbacking out." After all, the things needed were easily carried, andSi, having been ambushed by a scout, consented to come and open anight-school in taxidermy.

  The tools and things that he brought were a bundle of tow made byunravelling a piece of rope, some cotton wool, strong linen thread,two long darning needles, arsenical soap worked up like cream,corn-meal, some soft iron wire about size sixteen and some ofstovepipe size, a file, a pair of pliers, wire cutters, a sharp knife,a pair of stout scissors, a gimlet, two ready-made wooden stands, andlast of all a good lamp. The boys hitherto had been content with thefirelight.

  Thus in the forest teepee Yan had his first lesson in the art that wasto give him so much joy and some sorrow in the future.

  Guy was interested, though scornful; Sam was much interested; Yan wassimply rapt, and Si Lee was in his glory. His rosy red cheeks and hisround figure swelled with pride; even his semi-nude head and fat,fumbling fingers seemed to partake of his general elation andimportance.

  First he stuffed the Owls' throats and wounds with cotton wool.

  Then he took one, cut a slit from the back of the breast-bone nearlyto the tail (_A_ to _B_, Fig. 1), while Yan took the other and triedfaithfully to follow his example.

  He worked the skin from the body chiefly by the use of his fingernails, till he could reach the knee of each leg and cut this throughat the joint with the knife (_Kn,_ Fig. 1). The flesh was removed fromeach leg-bone down to the heel-joint (_Hl, Hl_, Fig. 1), leaving theleg and skin as in _Lg_, Figure 2. Then working back on each side ofthe tail, he cut the "pope's nose" from the body and left it as partof the skin, with the tail feathers in it, and this, Si explained, wasa hard place to get around. Sam called it "rounding Cape Horn." As theflesh was exposed Si kept it powdered thickly with corn-meal, and thissaved the feathers from soiling.

  Once around Cape Horn it was easy sailing. The skin was rapidly pushedoff till the wings were reached. These were cut off at the joint deepin the breast (under _J J_, Fig. 1, or seen on the back, _W J_, Fig. 2),the first bone of each wing was cleared of meat, and the skin, nowinside out and well mealed, was pushed off the neck up to the head.

  Here Si explained that in most birds it would slip easily over the head,but in Owls, Woodpeckers, Ducks and some others one had sometimes tohelp it by a lengthwise slit on the nape (_Sn_, Fig. 2). "Owls is hard,anyway," he went on, "though not so bad as Water-fowl. If ye want a realeasy bird for a starter, take a Robin or a Blackbird, or any land Birdabout that size except Woodpeckers."

  When the ears were reached they were skinned and pulled out of the skullwithout cutting, then, after the eyes were passed, the skin and bodylooked as in Figure 2. Now the back of the head with the neck and bodywas cut off (_Ct_, Fig. 2), and the first operation of the skinning wasdone.

  Yan got along fairly well, tearing and cutting the skin once or twice,but learning very quickly to manage it.

  Now began the cleaning of the skin.

  The eyes were cut clean out and the brains and flesh carefully scrapedaway from the skull.

  The wing bones were already cleaned of meat down to the elbow joint,where the big quill feathers began, and the rest of the wing had tobe cleared of flesh by cutting open the under side of the next joint(_H_ to _El_, Fig. 1). The "pope's nose" and the skin generally wasfreed from meat and grease by scraping with a knife and rubbing withthe meal.

  Then came the poisoning. Every part of the bones and flesh had to bepainted with the creamy arsenical soap, then the head was worked backinto its place and the skin turned right side out.

  When this was done it was quite late. Guy was asleep, Sam was nearlyso, and Yan was thoroughly tired out.

  "Guess I'll go now," said Si. "Them skins is in good shape to keep,only don't let them dry," so they were wrapped up in a damp sack andput away in a tin till next night, when Si promised to return andfinish the course in one more lesson.

  Owl-stuffing plate]

  OWL-STUFFING PLATE

  Fig. 1. The dead Owl, showing the cuts made in skinning
it: A to B, for the body; El to H, on each wing, to remove the meat of the second joint.

  Fig. 2. After the skinning is done the skull remains attached to the skin, which is now inside out, the neck and body are cut off at Ct. Sn to Sn shows the slit in the nape needed for Owls and several other kinds.

  Fig. 3. Top view of the tow body, neck end up, and neck wire projecting.

  Fig. 4. Side view of the tow body, with the neck wire put through it; the tail end is downward.

  Fig. 5. The heavy iron wire for neck.

  Fig. 6. The Owl after the body is put in; it is now ready to close up, by stitching up the slit on the nape, the body slit B to C and the two wing slits El to H, on each wing.

  Fig. 7. A dummy as it _would look_ if all the feathers were off; this shows the proper position for legs and wings on the body. At W is a glimpse of the leg wire entering the body at the middle of the side.

  Fig. 8. Another view of the body without feathers; the dotted lines show the wires of the legs through the hard body, and the neck wire.

  Fig. 9. Two views of one of the wooden eyes; these are on a much larger scale than the rest of the figures in this plate.

  Fig. 10. The finished Owl, with the thread wrappings on and the wires still projecting; Nw is end of the neck wire; Bp is back-pin--that is, the wire in the center of the back; Ww and Ww are the wing wires; Tl are the cards pinned on the tail to hold it flat while it dries. The last operation is to remove the threads and cut all the wires off close so that the feathers hide what remains.

  While they were so working Sam had busied himself opening the Owls'stomachs--"looking up their records," as he called it. He now reportedthat one had lynched a young Partridge and the other had killed aRabbit for its latest meal.

  Next night Si Lee came as promised, but brought bad news. He hadfailed to find the glass Owl eyes he had hoped were in his trunk. Hisingenuity, however, was of the kind that is never balked in a smallmatter. He produced some black and yellow oil paints, explaining,"Guess we'll make wooden eyes do for the present, an' when you get totown you can put glass ones in their place." So Sam was set to workwhittling four wooden eyes the shape of well-raised buns and aboutthree-quarters of an inch across. When whittled, scraped and smooth,Si painted them brilliant yellow with a central black spot and putthem away to dry (shown on a large scale on Owl Stuffing Plate, Fig. 9,_a_ and _b_).

  Meanwhile, he and Yan got out the two skins. The bloody feathers onthe breasts were washed clean in a cup of warm water, then dried withcotton and dusted all over with meal to soak up any moisture left. Theleg and wing bones were now wrapped with as much tow as would take theplace of the removed meat. The eye sockets were partly filled withcotton, then a long soft roll of tow about the length and thickness ofthe original neck was worked up into the neck skin and into the skulland left hanging. The ends of the two wing bones were fastened twoinches apart with a shackle of strong string (_X_, Fig. 2 andFig. 7). Now the body was needed.

  For this Si rolled and lashed a wad of tow with strong thread untilhe made a dummy of the same size and shape as the body taken out,squeezing and sewing it into a hard solid mass. Next he cut about twoand a half feet of the large wire, filed both ends sharp, doubledabout four inches of one end back in a hook (Fig. 5), then drove thelong end through the tow body from the tail end out where the neckshould join on (Figs. 3 and 4). This was driven well in so that theshort end of the hook was buried out of sight. Now Si passed theprojecting ends of the long wire up the neck in the middle of the towroll or neck already there, worked it through the skull and out at thetop of the Owl's head, and got the tow body properly placed in theskin with the string that bound the wing bones across the back(_X_, Fig. 7).

  Two heavy wires each eighteen inches long and sharp at one end wereneeded for the legs. These were worked up one through the sole ofeach foot under the skin of the leg behind (_Lw_, Fig. 6), thenthrough the tow body at the middle of the side (_W_, Fig. 7),after which the sharp end was bent with pliers into a hook and drivenback into the hard body (after the manner of the neck wire, Fig. 4).

  Another wire was sharpened and driven through the bones of the tail,fastening that also to the tow body (_Tw_, Fig. 7).

  Now a little soft tow was packed into places where it seemed neededto fit the skin on, and it remained to sew up the opening below(_Bc_ in Fig. 6), the wing slits (_El, H_, Fig. 6 and Fig.1), and the slit in the nape (_Sn Sn_, Fig. 2) with half a dozenstitches, always putting the needle into the skin from the flesh side.

  The projecting wires of the feet were put through gimlet holes in theperch and made firm, and Si's Owls were ready for their positions.They were now the most ridiculous looking things imaginable, wingsfloppy, heads hanging.

  "Here is where the artist comes in," said Si proudly, conscious thatthis was himself. He straightened up the main line of the body bybending the leg wires and set the head right by hunching the neck intothe shoulders. "An Owl always looks over its shoulder," he explained,but took no notice of Sam's query as to "whose shoulder he expected itto look over." He set two toes of each foot forward on the perch andtwo back to please Yan, who insisted that that was Owly, though Sihad his doubts. He spread the tail a little by pinning it between twopieces of card (_Tl_, Fig. 10), gave it the proper slant, and nowhad the wings to arrange.

  They were drooping like those of a clucking hen. A sharp wire of thesmall size was driven into the bend of each wing (_0_, Fig. 7),nailing it in effect to the body (_Ww_ and _Ww_, Fig. 10). A long pinwas set in the middle of the back (_Bp_, Fig. 10), then using thesewith the wing wires and head wire as lashing points, Si wrapped thewhole bird with the thread (Fig. 10), putting a wad of cotton here ora bit of stick there under the wrapping till he had the position and"feathering" perfect, as he put it.

  "We can put in the eyes now," said he, "or later, if we softenthe skin around the eye-sockets by putting wet cotton in them fortwenty-four hours."

  Yan had carefully copied Si's method with the second Owl, anddeveloped unusual quickness at it.

  His teacher remarked, "Wall, I larned lots o' fellows to stuff birds,but you ketch on the quickest I ever seen."

  Si's ideas of perfection might differ from those of a trainedtaxidermist; indeed, these same Owls afforded Yan no little amusementin later years, but for the present they were an unmitigated joy.

  They were just the same in position. Si knew only one; all his birdshad that. But when they had dried fully, had their wrappings removed,the wires cut off flush and received the finishing glory of theirwooden eyes, they were a source of joy and wonder to the whole Tribeof Indians.