18. NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 
ought to be assailed. During the attack, the hunters join in a prescribed chorus, 
and beg earnestly of the Bear that he will do them no mischief. When they have 
killed him, they put the body into a sledge to carry it home ; the rein-deer which 
has been employed to draw it, is exempted from labour during the rest of the 
year; and means are also taken to prevent it from approaching any female. A 
new hut is constructed expressly for the purpose of cooking the flesh; and the 
huntsmen, joined by their wives, begin again their songs of joy, and of thanks to 
the animal for permitting them to return in safety *. Leems also acquaints us, 
that the Laplanders never presume to call the Bear by its proper*name of 
Guourlja, but term it “ the old man in the fur cloak,” because they esteem it to 
have the strength of ten men and the sense of twelve t. It is also said that the 
Bear is the great master of the Kamskatkans in 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. animal are 
copied, are also common with the North American Indians. 
The following extract § from the narrative of Mr. Alexander Henry, one of the 
first Englishmen who penetrated into the fur countries after the reduction of 
Canada under the British arms, will serve to contrast the manners of the Indians 
with those of the Laplanders, and it contains besides some remarks on the habits 
of the Bear peculiarly valuable as coming from an eye-witness worthy of all credit. 
“ Tn the course of the month of January, (whilst on the banks of Lake Michigan,) 
I happened to observe that the trunk of a very large pine-tree was much torn by 
the claws of a bear, made both in going up and down. On further examination, 
I saw that there was a large opening in the upper part, near which the smaller 
branches were broken. From these marks, and from the additional circum- 
stance that there were no tracks on the snow, there was reason to believe that a 
Bear lay concealed in the tree. On returning to the lodge, | communicated my 
discovery ; and it was agreed that all the family should go together, in the morn- 
ing, to assist in cutting down the tree, the girth of which was not less than three 
fathoms. The women, at first, opposed the undertaking, because our axes being 
only of a pound and a half weight, were not well adapted to so heavy a labour; 
but the hope of finding a large Bear, and obtaining from its fat a great quantity 
* REGNARD’s Journ. to Lapland. (PINKERTON’s Voy. vol. i. p. 194.) 
+ Lerms’s Danish Lapland. (Idem. vol. i. p. 485.) 
+. Arctic Zoology, vol. i. p. 65. Introd.,’p. cxx. 
§ Henry's Travels, p. 142. 
