BEAR-DANCES. 193 
of ¢welve.* It is also said, by the Kamtschat- 
kans, that the Bear is the great master of 
medicine, surgery, and the polite arts. They 
observe the herbs he has recourse to when ill 
or wounded, and acknowledge him as their 
dancing-master, mimicking his attitudes and 
graces with great aptness. Bear-dances, in 
which the gestures of the animals are copied, 
* It is known that among the North American 
Indians, as, at different periods, among all other na- 
tions, the names of animals, and parts of animals, 
supply many of the names of men. But, with these 
nations, it is esteemed one of the grossest breaches 
of decorum to call an animal, or part of an animal, 
by its direct name, in the presence of any man or 
woman by whom that name is borne. Politeness, in 
such a case, requires periphrasis, or circumlocution ; 
and some one or other of the numerous, and some- 
times long descriptive appellations of the animal, or 
of its head or limbs, must be employed. As parallel 
cases, an American savage would be horrified at the 
European rudeness of speaking, by such names, of a 
baker, a smith, or wolf, in the presence of a Mr. 
Baker, a Mrs. Smith, or a Miss or Master Wolfe. 
A periphrasis is requisite ; and the baker should be 
2) 
described as a ‘*man who makes bread,” or in some 
other manner still less obviously allied to the name 
of Mr. Baker, &c. &c. 
R 
