344 THK HUDSON BAY ESKIMO. 



they had no food. They tiually prepared to sleep, when one of them 

 remarked to the other, "To-night I shall dream of porcupines." They 

 slept, and in the morning the fine related that he had seen a lot of 

 porcupines around the tent while he was dreaming. They determined 

 to proceed, but the one finally thought if they would stop there for the 

 day and succeeding night they would have all the porcupine meat they 

 would want. They remained there that day, and in the middle of the 

 inght they were aroused by a noise which proved to be porcupines 

 gnawing the bark from the tent poles. The one man said, "Slip out 

 and kill some with a stick ;" but added, "Go out in your bare feet." 

 He went out barefooted and killed two or three, and dashed back into 

 the tent with his feet nearly fi'ozen. He stuck his feet into the hot 

 ashes and told the other man to bring in the animals. The other man 

 did so, and began to prepare the flesh for cooking. They ate one of 

 the porcupines, and by daylight were ready to begin their journey. 

 They went idly along, shooting their arrows in sport at anything they 

 could see. They continued this amusement until near sunset, when 

 one exclaimed, "My arrow has struck something; see, it is moving." 

 The other replied, "What can it be, when it is sticking only in the 

 snow!" The other said he would try and find out what it was. He 

 cautiously examined, and found when lie began to dig it out that the 

 arrow had entered the den of a bear. So they scratched away the 

 snow and soon saw a long, black hair sticking out of the hole. He 

 jumped back and exclaimed, " It is some soi-t of animal with black 

 hair." The other replied, " Let us try and get it out. It may be good 

 to eat." They finally drove the bear out and soon killed it. They be- 

 gan to skin it, which was soon done. One of the men then said, "It 

 is too big and ugly to eat ; let us leave it." The other, however, cut 

 off a large piece of fat and put it on the sled. They then prepared 

 their camp, and when morning came they started off and traveled all 

 day. When night came they made their camp and soon had a huge 

 fire burning^ One of the men hung the piece of fat over the fire and 

 the oil soon dripped into the fire. It created such a nice smell that 

 one of them said, "Let us taste the fat; it may be good to eat." They 

 tasted it and found it so good that they rated each other soundly for 

 being so foolish as to leave such :iice flesh so far behind them. They 

 resolved to return for it. So they returned for the carcass of the bear, 

 which was far behind them, and as it had tasted so good they de- 

 termined to lose no time in starting. They went immediately, although 

 it was now dark and very cold. They came to the place where it had 

 been left and discovered that the wolves and foxes had eaten all the 

 meat, leaving nothing but the bones. They were very angry, and be- 

 gan to lay the blame each on the other for having left it. They re- 

 gretted they had left sucli meat for wolves and foxes. They de- 

 termined to proceed to where they had camped the third time. On 

 the way they l)ecame very thirsty, and, sto]>ping at a creek to drink. 



