March, 1905. The Tr.\ditions of the Hopi — Voth. 89 



22. HOW POOKONG KILLED THE BEAR.' 



In Mish6ngnovi they, were living, and a bear used to kill the peo- 

 ple. At the Skeleton Katcina house lived the P6okong with his 

 grandmother, and'the bear was killing the people. If some one went 

 to his field he was killed. The chief was unhappy over it and was 

 thinking about it. He was thinking about sending P6okong after it, 

 and for this now the time had arrived. And now he made a bow for 

 the P6okong of hard wood, and he made arrows and put parrot 

 feathers on the arrows, and on one of the arrows he put blue-bird 

 feathers. He also made a ball that he cut from a buckskin. He 

 sewed it and put cotton into it and then tied it up tightly. He made 

 one of them and rubbed red ochre (ctita) on it, and for the grand- 

 mother he made one b^ho. 



When he was done he brought this to the house of the P6okong. 

 The grandmother asked: "What are you doing?" "Yes," he said, 

 "when these, my children, are killed by a bear I am not happy." 

 "Hao, " she said to him. and now the chief said: "Yes, hence I have 

 brought this for you," and then he handed it to the grandmother. 

 She was happy. "Thanks," she said, "thanks." Then he said to 

 the P6okong: "With this you kill the bear, because I have made 

 this for you;" whereupon he gave the ball, the bow and arrows, and 

 the ball stick to the P6okong. "Thanks, thanks," the Pfiokong 

 said, and was happy. Now he went to hunt the bear. The bear 

 was just going around to hunt for some one, and the P6okong was 

 also going about in that way, and sure enough, something came to 

 him, running. Now it stood up, holding up the paws. Now the 

 Pdokong being seated, aimed. " Haha (very well), " the bear had now 

 about arrived, but when he had not yet quite arrived, the P6okong 

 shot and hit him in the throat. When he had shot the bear fell, and 

 now he hit him with the ball stick, and the bear died. 



He then skinned him, the legs first, but he did not cut the abdo- 

 men. He left the skin in the form of a bag, pulling it over his head 

 like a shirt, but from the feet he cut off the claws. Now he filled it 

 up tightly with dry grass. When he was done he had made some- 

 thing like a bear. Oh! it was like an ugly bear. Now he tied a 

 woollen rope around his neck. Then he tied it to himself and drag- 

 ging it ran very fast, screaming: "Uhii, a bear is following me," as 

 he ran. Now the people saw it. Sure enough, a bear came follow- 

 ing somebody, and he had almost caught him. "Why, he is follow- 

 ing the Pdokong, " the people said, and then they ran. Now they 



' Told by Lomdvantiwa (Shupaiilavi) 



