193 
Accordingly, he made ready. Already, where there was a stretch of 
level land, thither the other had gone. 
“Ho, quickly, come forth!” he was told. 
Accordingly, he went out and proceeded to the place. They were 
already standing about in a circle. 
When he arrived, “Now then, Sun-Child, you are going about engaging 
in contests, it is said concerning you. You shall have the first shot.” 
“No! You first! Seeing it is not of my own will I am contending.” 
“Very well,” said that bear. 
Already he thought as follows: “Now, 0 my father, watch me from 
close by!” he said, thinking this: “Perhaps, if the weather is hot, he will 
tire,” thinking this of the bear. 
Really, it grew hotter and hotter, as the bright glow of the sun in- 
creased. 
“Now then, from yon place I shall come. Four times I shall start for 
you; and on the fourth time I shall spring,” meaning that he would seize 
him, that he would try to kill him. 
But it was very hot. The bear went off a long ways, starting from a 
good distance to come running at Sun-Child. Just as if the ground were 
soft swamp, when he came, he sank deep into it. When he was near, he 
turned back. Again he started from the same place. This time he sank 
even farther into the ground. Again, when he had come near, he turned 
back. Again he started hither, always sinking deeper into the earth. 
Now he turned back once more, and now was when he would try to kill 
him. But by this time he was very tired. When he was near, he looked as 
though all of iron. 
Those on his side were yelling wildly. “Now surely he will come 
leaping!” he thought. His comrade at whose house he was staying kept 
telling him to take heart. And then, as the other came leaping, he flung 
himself down on the ground. The other did not see him. In vain the other 
tried to hurl himself to the spot whence he had stood ; already he stood there 
whence the other had come, throwing himself from place to place. Then 
he saw the other stand still. At once he attacked him. When the other, 
as soon as he was upon him, flung himself down, he could not see him; 
wildly all this time his companions were whooping for Sun-Child, happy 
that he was giving that other a fight. At last the other was helpless from 
want of breath. Those men, too, were oppressed by the heat, for the 
Sun was too near. At last he stood still in one place, that bear, almost 
dead from want of breath. So then he took his arrows, which that little 
old woman who had raised him had made for him. Where that bear stood 
with open mouth, helplessly panting, he shot him in the mouth; for only 
there was the other not of iron. In flew a hawk, flying clear through the 
creature’s body, seizing his heart, while Sun-Child’s companions cheered 
him. 
“Very well, Sun-Child, throw me into the direction of noon. There, 
when mortal man, who in time is to grow forth, says, ‘The Iron Bear has 
taken pity on me,’ he will speak true,” said he. 
“Ho, throw yourself to the ground facing so!” he told him. 
So the other threw himself to the ground, facing that way. 
Thus he spoke: “My comrades, do not kill those who have been given 
as stakes by your opponents,” he told them; “If you always do thus, 
