240 Innuit Traditions. i April, is««. 



their being' fed when young but once a week, being thus kept very 

 l)Oor ; when lull grown, they endure all manner of hardship and hold 

 their own. The Iwillik people, in hard times, fed their dogs once 

 a week. 



While he was busily wTiting in the hut, happening to have in his 

 hand a long knife, Oii-e-la told him that the Neitchille men and See- 

 nee men had many such knives, made out of ver}^ long, thick, and 



than a dog, and would catch deer for her. UnfortiTuately, when it was half grown, the dogs dis- 

 covering that their ])laymate was a diflerent animal and an enemy, pounced npon him and tore 

 him to pieces. 



THE BEAR STORY. 



[A tradition credited by all the Innnits from above Cumberland Gulf to Hudson's Straits, 

 and from Ig-loo-lik to Chesterfield Inlet.] 



Many moons ago, an Innuit woman obtained a polar bear cub but two or three days old. 

 Having long desired just such a pet, she gave it her closest attention, as though it were a son, 

 nursing it, making for it a soft warm bed alongside her own, and talking to it as a mother does 

 to her child. She had no living relative, and she and the bear occupied the igloo alone. Koon- 

 ik-jooa, as he grew up, proved that the woman had not taught him in vain, for he early began 

 to hunt seals and salmon, bringing them to his mother before eating any himself, and receiving 

 his share from her hands. She always watched from the hill-top for his return, and if she saw 

 that he had been unsuccessful, she begged from her neighbors blubber for his food. She learned 

 how this was from her lookout, for if successful, he came back in the tracks made on going ou(, 

 but if unsuccessful, always by a different route. Learning to excel the Innuits in hunting, he 

 excited their envy, and, after long years of faithful service, his death was resolved upon. On 

 hearing this, the old woman, overwhelmed with grief, offered to give up her own life if they 

 would but spare him who had so long supported her. Her ofier was sternly refused. Upon this, 

 when all his enemies had retired to their ifiloos, the woman had a long talk with her son — now 

 well grown in years — telling him that wicked men were about to kill him, and that the only way 

 to 8a\ e his life and hers was for him to go off and not return. At the same time she begged him 

 not to go so far that she could not wander off and meet him, and get from him a seal or some- 

 thing else which she might need. The bear, after listening to what she said with tears stream- 

 ing rlown her fuiTowed cheeks, gently placed one huge paw on her head, aiul then throwing both 

 ariMind h<r neck, said, "Good mother, Koon-ik-jooa will always be on the lookout for you and 

 serve you as best he can." Saying this, he took her advice and departed, almost as much to tlu' 

 grief of the children of the village as to the mother. 



Not long after this, being in need of food, she walked out on the sea-ice to see if she could 

 not meet her son, and soon recognized him as one of two bears who were lying down together. 

 Hf ran to ln-r, and she j»atted him on the head in her old familiar way, told him her wants, and 

 begged him to hurry away and get something for her. Away ran the bear, and in a few moments 

 the woman looked njion a terrilde light going on between him and his late companion, wliirh, 

 how<'ver, to her gnat relief, was soon ended by her son's dragging a lifeless body to her feet. 

 Wilh hi-T ]iiiii-na (long knife) she qnickly skinned the dead bear, giving her son large slices of the 

 l>lnblMT, and telling him that she would soon return for the meat which she c<nild not at first 

 carry to her iijloo. and when her supply shr>nl<l again fail she would eome back for his help. This 

 hhe e«mtinned to do for "a long, long time," tli.- faitlit'iil ])ear always serving her and receiving 

 the hame unbroken love of his vouth. 



