THE MONTAGNAIS INDIANS AND THEIR FOLK-LORE 317 



The Montagnais also invite all their neighbors to a 

 feast upon the flesh of a bear whenever they kill one 

 in the woods, whether a large or small one. They 

 consider the fat of the animal the most delicious of 

 meats. 



While no animal is held by them in equal venera- 

 tion, its chase is their favorite occupation. Often, 

 when improperly armed, they are bold to the extent 

 of foolhardiness in attacking it, and several of them 

 have fallen victims to this indiscretion. Many who 

 have escaped in these hand - to - hand contests carry 

 marks of the fray about with them to the day of their 

 death. The missionary Arnaud, in one of his letters 

 to His Grace the Archbishop of Quebec, describes the 

 perils to which these poor people subject themselves 

 in the woods, and tells of their tales of adventure to 

 him, when sitting around the camp-fire at night. " Of- 

 ten," he says, " will one terminate his story of an en- 

 counter with a bear by showing the mark of a bite 

 upon his arm. Another uncovers his leg, where there 

 is still a deep wound. A third recalls how he broke 

 the stock of his gun in defending himself in a hand-to- 

 hand duel with Bruin. One relates the circumstances 

 under which his old father succumbed and became the 

 prey of an infuriated bear. A last one assures us that 

 he would inevitably have been killed but for the as- 

 sistance of his dog, for he was felled to the earth and 

 momentarily expecting to be devoured, when the re- 

 peated howlings and deep bites of his dog compelled 

 the bear to turn upon the latter, and gave the de- 

 sired opportunity to the hunter." 



The moose is another animal for which the Indians 



