NELSON] THE STRANGE BOY 493 
like a flash of light at the eagle and lodged under its wings, and in a 
moment had eaten its way twice back and forth through the bird’s 
side, and it fell dead, whereupon the ermine vanished. This ermine 
came from the gift of the second man with whom the traveler had 
stopped. 
When the eagle fell the young man started toward the shaman’s 
house, and the boy cried to him, “Don’t go there, for you will be 
killed.” To this the traveler replied, ‘I don’t care; I wish to see the 
women there. I will go now, for I am angry, and if I wait till morning 
my anger will be gone and I will not be so strong as I am at present.” 
“You had better wait till morning,” said the boy, ‘for there are two 
bears guarding the door and they will surely kill you. But if you will 
go, go then, and be destroyed. I have tried to save you and will have 
nothing more to do with you.” And the boy went angrily back to the 
kashim. The young man then went on to the house, and looking into 
the entrance passage, saw a very large white bear lying there asleep. 
He called out, “Ah, White-bear,” at which the bear sprang up and ran 
at him. The young man leaped upon the top of the passageway and, 
as the bear ran out at him, drove the point of his spear into its brain, 
so that it fell dead. Then he drew the body to one side, looked in 
again, and saw a red bear lying there. Again he called out, “Ah, Red- 
bear.” The red bear ran out at him and he sprang up to his former 
place. The red bear struck at him with one of its forepaws as it 
passed, and the young man caught the paw in his hand and, swinging the 
bear about his head, beat it upon the ground until there was nothing 
but the paw left, and this he threw away and went into the house with- 
out further trouble. Sitting at the side of the room were an old man 
and woman, and on the other side was a beautiful young woman whose 
image he had seen in his dreams, which had caused him to make his 
long journey. She was crying when he went in, and he went and sat 
beside eher, saying, ‘‘ What are you crying for; what do you love 
enough to cry for?” To which she replied, ‘You have killed my hus- 
band, but I am not sorry for that, for he wasa bad man; but you killed 
the two bears. They were my brothers, and I feel badly and cry for 
them.” ‘Do not ery,” said he, “for I will be your husband.” Here he 
remained for a time, taking this woman for his wife and living in the 
house with her parents. He slept in the kashim every fourth night 
and at home the rest of the time. 
After he had lived there for a while, he saw that his wife and her 
parents became more and more gloomy, and they cried very often. 
Then he saw things done that made him think they intended to do him 
evil. Becoming sure of this, he went home one day and, putting his 
hand on his wife’s forehead, turned her face to him, and said: “You 
are planning to kill me, you unfaithful woman, and as a punishment 
you shall die.” Then taking his knife, he cut his wife’s throat, and 
went gloomily back to his village, where he lived with his parents as 
