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.
“Then she set snares on the ground and fastened them to strong branches.”