^"/JS] MYTHS 477 



home. In a short time he was there, and, changing himself into a 

 man again, he took the woman from under his wing and shook her 

 l)ack into her natural form and size. Then he said : " This is our 

 home; you must stay here and take care of the meat and the lodge." 

 She obeyed, while every day he went off to hunt. 



One night some time afterward, as they sat in the hut the man 

 heard a noise outside, as though some one were coming on a run. 

 Suddenly the door opened and a man came in. They greeted one 

 another. " I have come again," said the man. " I find that you 

 have made yourself into two persons now. I am here to warn you. 

 A great monster has become very envi&us of you and has said, 

 ' There is a man over yonder who has become magically very pow- 

 erful, and I have determined to try to overpower him and to eat 

 him.' Tomorrow at noon this monster will come. You must go 

 eastward until you reach -a large hill of stones, half as high as 

 the highest mountain, not far from here. The place will be your 

 only refuge when this monster attacks you. Get up on these 

 rocks, and when it approaches you, you must jump from one rock 

 to another. It will jump after you, but when it fails to reach you 

 and falls, you may feel safe. We will then take care of it. This is 

 what I had to tell you, so now I shall go." The man and his wife went 

 to sleep. The next morning the woman, noticing that her husband 

 was gloomy, said, "What is the matter?" "Nothing, except I am 

 thinking of what will become of me today at noon." (She had 

 neither seen nor heard the strange man who had spoken to her hus- 

 band, although she was present. They two were so powerful in 

 orenda that only they heard what was said.) The husband, walk- 

 ing up and down, seemed to be very uneasy. 



As it neared noon, leaving his wife, the man started for the rocks. 

 Seating himself on the top of the highest rock, he waited. Just at 

 midday he heard a great noise, a distant howl; then he heard an- 

 other nearer; then a third howl, just at the rocks. Now by way of 

 defiance he gave a whoop, calling out, " I am the strongest of the 

 strong. Nothing can overpower me." The source of the sound was 

 a bear, the oldest and strongest of the great bears. As it came up, 

 it leaped on the rocks where the man stood, whereupon he jumped 

 on the next rock, with the monster close behind him. In this way 

 they kept leaping from one rock to another, being ever about the 

 same distance apart, until the man began to feel tired and faint, and 

 as he looked ahead the next rock seemed farther off than any of the 

 others had been. Making a greater exertion, he just reached it. The 

 bear was close behind him, but as it sprang, it fell short, just strik- 

 ing its jaws on the edge of the rock. The man looked over the edge 

 of the rock and then jumjjed to the ground. As he struck the ground, 

 looking liehind him, he saw the rock from which he had leajied turn 



