176 THE MENOMINI INDIANS [eth.auk.14 



Food being scarce with this family, the three sons decided to go 

 hunting the next day, and early in the morning they started away to 

 the woods. They followed a trail for a great distance until they came 

 to a point where it branched. Here the brothers separated — one taking 

 the left-hand trail, the other two the trail to the right. Each of the 

 brothers had a dog, and as the snow was on the ground they wore their 

 snowshoes. The eldest brother was one of the two on the right-hand 

 trail, who had not gone far before the dogs scented a bear, which 

 started out of the brush and ran. The dogs pursued the animal, and 

 the brothers followed the dogs. They had not gone far before the elder 

 succeeded in shooting an arrow through the body of the bear, killing 

 him. 



The two young men then took up the bear and returned to the fork 

 of the trail, where they were met by their brother, when they all 

 returned to their father's wigwam. They threw down the bear, saying, 

 " Father, here is a bear which we killed; now we shall have something 

 to eat." 



To this the father replied, " When I was a young man I used to get 

 two bears in one day; hunters nowadays don't do so well." 



The sous said nothing, but early the next morning they set out on the 

 trail they had gone the day before. When they got a short distance 

 beyond the fork of the trail the dogs scented a bear which was hid- 

 den in the brush, and began to bark. The bear started off in the direc- 

 tion of the right-hand trail, the dogs chasing him, and two of the boys 

 following the dogs. After running a great distance the second son in age 

 drew his arrow and shot the bear through the body, killing him. Then 

 the two took up the bear and started back to the fork of the trail, where 

 they met the youngest sou, who also had shot a bear which he found in 

 the left-hand trail. The boys then returned to the wigwam, and throw- 

 ing down the two bears, said to their father — 



"Father, here are two bears which we have brought you; now you 

 shall have something to eat." 



Their father replied by saying, "When I was a young man I used to 

 get three bears iu one day; but hunters nowadays don't do so well." 



The boys felt rather disappointed at this response, but said nothing. 



On the next morning they again started away early, taking the same 

 trail on which they had before found bears. When they came to the 

 fork of the trail, they saw the same brush which they had previously 

 observed, and in which the dogs had scented the bears. Presently the 

 dogs began to bark and a bear started out to run away, but the young- 

 est of the three ran after him and shot him with an arrow. Another 

 bear was found by the dogs, which began to bark, and the brothers, 

 starting out anew, soon overtook and killed him. They had not recov- 

 ered their breath before a third bear was aroused from its hiding place 

 and started away, but the brothers pursued this one also, soon over- 

 taking it and killing it with arrows. 



