422 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 196 



6.— THE MAN WHO BECAME A BEAR 



A man went out to hunt. He followed a bear's track, and found 

 the bear feeding. He shot the bear, but it got away. The man 

 followed in pursuit. The bear ran to a dense laurel thicket under a 

 cUff. 



When the hunter got there, he saw a white bear sitting there next 

 to the wounded bear. The white bear was a doctor. He spoke to the 

 hunter: "Why, you have hurt him very much," he said. The white 

 bear took the arrows out of the wounded bear and began to cure him. 

 He asked the hunter, "Would you like to live with us?" 



"I wUl try," the hunter said. 



He lived with the Bear people, and they lived just as we do. He 

 ate their food. 



The white bear was the Chief, and he told the wounded bear and 

 the hunter to go and live together for the winter. They ate chestnuts, 

 which the bear produced by rubbing his forepaws together, and when 

 the winter was passed, they came out for spring. By this time the 

 hunter had become like a real bear, with sharp claws, long shaggy 

 hair, and a short tail. 



The bear assigned a branch [creekl for him to live on, and chose one 

 for himself. They agreed upon a meeting place. There they met again 

 the next fall, and they went to live together again for the winter. 



After they had stayed together some time, the bear felt as if some- 

 thing was going back and forth over his head. He knew this to be a 

 sign that some human being was going to find him soon. He told his 

 companion about it, and said, "When the hunters come, you must keep 

 quiet. They wUl find me and kill me, but in 7 days I will become aUve 

 again and come back to you." 



Indeed, hunters came and tracked and killed the bear. But they 

 also saw the other bear; but this one talked and said, "I am not a bear, 

 but one of your people — the one who was lost so many years ago." 



They asked him why he stayed there, and why he lived hke a bear. 

 Then he told them how the Chief of the Bear people had commanded 

 him to do so. 



Then he went home with the hunters.®® 



STORIES OF ANIMAL, BIRD, AND INSECT MATES 



1.— THE MAN WHO MARRIED AN ELK 



A very long time ago there lived a man who was a very successful 

 hunter. He lived with his old mother. He used to go out into the 

 wilderness to hunt. At times he would stay away for a whole year, or 



" The above is essentially the same as a story which In a fuller version was collected by Mooney (1900, 

 pp. 327-329). A Koasati tale hi 8 wanton (1929, pp. 191-192) exhibits a kinship to Mooney 's narrative. 



