THE ELK RESCUES A WOMAN FROM A BEAR. 89 
ders, bear’s claws about his neck, and he smelled so fine that the woman 
could not help but like him. When the man started to go the woman 
wanted to follow him. She finally left everything that she had and 
followed the man. ‘This man was a Bear, and he led her into a den 
where there were a dozen or more women that he had taken from their 
husbands. In the evening, the young man got out from his cave, went 
to his camp, and found his wife gone, but everything else was in its 
place. The eagles that he had killed were there. He knew by this that 
if the enemy had taken her they would have taken the eagles too. So 
he hunted and hunted and yelled. At last he gave out. He went along 
the timber and finally an Elk found him. 
The young man told the Elk that he had lost his wife; that he 
thought a great deal of her; and that now he was about dead from 
hunting her. The Elk told him that he was going to help him to get 
his wife back, but that he would have to fight. The Elk taught the 
man how to transform himself into an Elk. He also gave him a whistle, 
and told him that he whistled when he wanted female Elk to come to 
him, and that when he whistled they all rushed to him. The Elk told 
the young man to remain in the timber; that he would go and watch 
for the Bear; and that when the Bear should be gone, he would come 
and let him know, so that the young man might go and blow the whis- 
tle, while the Bear was gone. The Bear left his den and went out for 
a long distance. The Elk knew this. It came and told the young man. 
The young man went up close to the place where the den was and blew 
the whistle. As soon as his wife heard the whistle she said, ““Women, 
let us go; that is my husband.” Some of the women were afraid to go, 
for they were afraid of the Bear; but the young man kept on whistling, 
and when the women heard it again they all rose and walked out of the 
den. They followed the young man’s wife, who was now running to 
where the young man was standing. The young man saw his wife and 
was happy. He embraced her, and said, “Go, I will remain behind, 
for the Bear will surely come after you.” 
The Elk now came, and said: “The Bear is coming. Watch. 
Fix your bow and arrows so that you can shoot the Bear, while I put my 
head down and thus make a kind of barrier so that he can not get 
through, on account of my horns.” ‘The Bear came, and as he at- 
tacked the Elk the Elk put his head down so that the Bear could not 
get through, and as the Elk began to lift its head up it brought its 
head and the whole weight of its horns upon the Bear, thus sticking 
its horns into the Bear’s body, while the young man shot at the Bear 
with his arrows. They killed the Bear. The Elk now turned to the 
