176 RIDICULOUS STORY. 



willows ; and, having cut a branch and trimmed 

 it into a skewer, he fixed it into the bear's mouth, 

 in such a manner as to keep the jaws fully ex- 

 tended ; which, he assured me, with much gravity, 

 would prevent its biting, as many of its kind had 

 been known to do, and as his own father had 

 found to his cost. To that hour, he said, he 

 bore the marks of one, which he thought had 

 been dead, and was deliberately preparing to cut 

 up ; when, to his great horror, it seized him by 

 the leg. Aware of their obstinacy of belief on 

 all matters connected with hunting, or relating 

 to the animals with which they were familiar, I 

 made no vain attempts to convince them of their 

 errors, however ridiculous, but listened patiently, 

 and without comment, to their stories ; but my 

 steersman was so much diverted at the gaping 

 countenance of Bruin, that he gave loose to his 

 mirth ; which so annoyed the Indian, that, with 

 a glance of ineffable contempt, not unmixed 

 with anger, he muttered in his guttural language, 

 " The white man did not laugh in the rapid." 

 He then sat down and smoked his pipe, while 

 his companion expertly stripped off the skin, and 

 placed the meat in cache, to be sent for at a 

 future opportunity. I could not avoid remark- 

 ing the minute curiosity with which the operator 

 inspected the entrails, the haste with which he 

 threw over his shoulders a portion that he had 



