BATISTE, THE BEAR HUNTER 233 



and sent to his relatives at the Canadian fur post. Here his sisters 

 made him the curtain to hang round his helmet and set him to 

 weaving grass mats that the days might not drag so wearily. 



Ask Ba'tiste whether he agrees with the amateur hunter that 

 bears never attack unless they are attacked, that they would never 

 become ravening creatures of prey unless the assaults of other 

 creatures taught them ferocity, ask Ba'tiste this and something 

 resembling the snarl of a baited beast breaks from the lipless face 

 under the veil : 



"S — s — sz ! — " with a quiver of inexpressible rage. "The 

 bear — it is an animal ! — the bear ! — it is a beast ! — toujours ! 

 — the bear! — it is a beast! — always — always!" And his 

 hands clinch. 



Then he falls to carving of the little wooden animals and weaving 

 of sad, sad, bitter thoughts into the warp of the Indian mat. 



Are such onslaughts common among bears, or are they the mad 

 freaks of the bear's nature ? President Roosevelt tells of two 

 soldiers bitten to death in the South-west ; and M. l'Abbe Dugast, 

 of St. Boniface, Manitoba, incidentally relates an experience almost 

 similar to that of Ba'tiste which occurred in the North-west. 

 Lest Ba'tiste's case seem overdrawn, I quote the Abbe's words : 



"At a little distance Madame Lajimoniere and the other women 

 were preparing the tents for the night, when all at once Bouvier 

 gave a cry of distress and called to his companions to help him. 

 At the first shout, each hunter seized his gun and prepared to de- 

 fend himself against the attack of an enemy; they hurried to the 

 other side of the ditch to see what was the matter with Bouvier, 

 and what he was struggling with. They had no idea that a wild 

 animal would come near the fire to attack a man even under cover 

 of night; for fire usually has the effect of frightening wild beasts. 

 However, almost before the four hunters knew what had happened, 

 they saw their unfortunate companion dragged into the woods by 

 a bear followed by her two cubs. She held Bouvier in her claws 

 and struck him savagely in the face to stun him. As soon as she 



