“Maybe Skookum could find one,” said the Indian, with a smile.
“Will you let me kill the next Kahk we find?”
“Yes, if you use the quills and burn its whiskers.”
“Why burn its whiskers?”
“My father said it must be so. The smoke goes straight to the All-above; then the Manito knows we have killed, but we have remembered to kill only for use and to thank Him.”
It was some days before they found a porcupine, and when they did, it was not necessary for them to kill it. But that belongs to another chapter.
They saved its skin with all its spears and hung it in the storehouse. The quills with the white bodies and ready-made needle at each end are admirable for embroidering, but they are white only.
“How can we dye them, Quonab?
“In the summer are many dyes; in winter they are hard to get. We can get some.”
So forth he went to a hemlock tree, and cut till he could gather the inner pink bark, which, boiled with the quills, turned them a dull pink; similarly, alder bark furnished rich orange, and butternut bark a brown. Oak chips, with a few bits of iron in the pot, dyed black.