" The distinction is instructive. Animals which
are feared, or are good to eat, or both, are treated with
ceremonious respect; those which are neither formidable nor good to
eat are despised. We have had examples of reverence paid to animals
which are both feared and eaten. It remains to prove that similar
respect is shown to animals which, without being feared, are either
eaten or valued for their skins.
When Siberian sable-hunters have caught a sable, no one is allowed
to see it, and they think that if good or evil be spoken of the
captured sable no more sables will be caught. A hunter has been
known to express his belief that the sables could hear what was said
of them as far off as Moscow. He said that the chief reason why the
sable hunt was now so unproductive was that some live sables had
been sent to Moscow. There they had been viewed with astonishment as
strange animals, and the sables cannot abide that. Another, though
minor, cause of the diminished take of sables was, he alleged, that
the world is now much worse than it used to be, so that nowadays a
hunter will sometimes hide the sable which he has got instead of
putting it into the common stock.
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