Skuld Stories - the deer, the taking, the leaving, the sharing

Leaving Anaíl, an Caonach and Uisce where I had left them during the still hunt (a short ways away in a coulee to the south east), I came back to the deer.

My custom is to be with the deer in the early stage of it's passing, but then once that is done, I respectfully leave it be for its final stages. I walked away to join my companions for a time. Depending on the circumstances, I will either continue where the kill lies or after basic gutting will carry, or rather, an Caonach will carry (she is the only one of my companions that can tolerate a dead animal on its back) our kill to a camp that we have been based at.

This time, because we were in the midst of traveling, I decided to stay where we were and set up a camp for enough time to prepare the deer to travel with us.

This means that we would need to stay for 5 or 6 days. It was dry and warm. Enough to dry the meat in time before it could spoil. In another time when the conditions were not so, I would take what I thought would last and share the rest with those around us. Though I myself, didn't always take or use everything from a kill, I knew that what I left would be happily eaten up by my fellow animals around and about. The coyote, fox, wolf, wolverine, marten, fisher, raven, crow, puma, the many many other birds, the millions of tiny insects, the billions of even tinier bacteria. Truly, nothing is ever wasted.

Since there were no trees about to hang the carcass which was now a shell, spirit gone on. I did the butchering on the ground. I dragged the body so that its head lay higher than the the tail. This being so that when I pulled out the innards they would flow downhill and away from where I was working. I cut the legs off at the knee, setting those aside so that I could take the hoofs and dewclaws off later on. I had promised a hoof rattle to a friend that I knew that we would see within the month. I also kept 2 of the leg bones to make a small flute out of for my friends' children.

Taking my leaf bladed small knife, I then started to cut the hide starting near the genitals all the way up to just below the jaw. I would gather the skin in one hand in a little fold and start my cut there and on. I did not want to cut into the abdominal cavity and spill the guts at this point. Once this long incision was made, I extended the cut out towards each leg.

Taking my hand mostly, pushing and pulling and occasionally carefully using my knife, I started to peel the deer skin off the carcass. Starting in the middle and spreading out from there until the skin was pulled completely away from the body. I let the skin lay flat on the ground so that I could continue on without bits of things from the ground getting onto the rest of the carcass.

I carefully cut into the abdominal cavity and then with more pressure cut into the area between the ribs up as far as I could. I spread open the ribs. I carefully cut around the ass and throat. This would allow all the innards to be easily pulled out without contaminating any of the meat.

The first thing I reached for was the heart and this I took a few big bites out of right away. For some reason I do not like to eat heart cooked but do so raw on a fresh kill only. This heart I would eat as I worked and it would feed me for the day. It had been awhile since my last kill and I could feel a great energy pass through my body as I ate it. I took out then the liver and kidneys to save for the following day. The stomach I saved to make a new water bag out of. My last one became torn on the last new moon during a fight and then flight that we became entangled within. I will tell this story soon enough.

I then pulled out the intestines and other bits and lay then aside for the others to eat. I will carry them a good distance from our camp.

The inside of the now empty cavity I cleaned with some dried grass and then moved on to take care of the meat.

I cut the meat into long strips to dry. I will take thin strips of the rawhide with the hair scraped off and make a rack out of bits of wood to hang the strips of meat. The smaller bits of meat, I saved to eat while we were encamped over the days to come. The tender meat along each side of the backbone I made sure to put aside so as not to get mixed-up with the rest. It is the tenderest part and makes the best meat dried and as well I could quickly cook fresh slices over a fire, the thought of which makes my mouth water.

Before cutting the tender back meat out I pulled off the long strips of sinew above it with the back of my knife. This sinew makes the best thread for clothing, bowstrings and a multitude of other essential uses. I always take this sinew to save, but the shorter thicker sinew that connects the legs I don't unless I have a specific need for it.

I spent the afternoon and early evening at this. Work difficult, focused but unhurried. When I was done, I dragged the now mostly stripped skeleton up the hill a ways. The hide, I folded up and put in safe place a little in the air in a small bushy berry tree about the hight of my head. Six feet or so. I dragged the skeleton with the intestines laid within the ribs up the hill and a good 100 yards from the kill site. I know that that evening and most likely the days and evenings to fallow would be alive with the sound of coyotes yipping and howling with the delight of their newfound meal. So many times I had wished to be able to shift into a coyote so that I could experience this unparalleed party. Most likely when I went up there to have a look at the end of our stay, all I would find in some tufts of hair and a few bits of bone laying about. The rest would have been eaten or dragged away for later.