TALE OF A MEMBER OF THE BEAR SOCIETY. 175 
82. THE TALE OF A MEMBER OF THE BEAR SOCIETY.* 
You heard what my father said about my belonging to the Bear 
Society. It is true. I used to stay in the medicine-men’s lodge and 
inside of the Bear’s lodge. I learned many things about the mysteries 
of the Bear Society. My father gave me a bear skin that was stuffed, 
so that it was like a bear. When we had a Bear dance my little bear 
used to be placed on the south side of the lodge and I would be placed 
opposite. When the singing for dancing was begun I danced, and as 
I danced I would notice my little bear doing the same thing that I was 
doing. If I moved my head sidewise, it would do the same thing. If 
I raised up my arms towards the sky, the little bear would do the same — 
thing. People saw it. I kept the bear a long time. Only a few years 
ago it became spoiled. The little bear, which was part of my life, was 
now old, so that the hide was easily torn. My father thought it was 
best to dispose of it, so one day we took the little bear yonder among 
those hills, and we placed it in a ravine, where there was a bush of 
choke-cherries, and there we left it. 
Some years ago one of my friends, a young man who was a great 
hunter, asked me to go hunting with him, and I agreed to go. I caught 
my pony and saddled it. This pony was a good runner. At this time 
there were many Sioux in our country, so I had to be careful which 
pony I rode while hunting. I took upon my pony some things to eat, 
and a rifle that my father had given me. I had also many cartridges. 
The other young man came to my lodge, and I was surprised to see 
him upon a white pony, which I knew could not run. I tried to per- 
suade him to get a better pony, but he would not change, for the white 
pony, he said, would not run away. We started and crossed the Mis- 
souri River. We went over yonder hills. We started early in the morn- 
ing and we went far over those hills. We did not see any deer all day. 
Towards evening we got to a draw, where there were some trees. 
There we unsaddled our ponies and made camp. We lariated our 
ponies some distance from where we were. Far into the night I heard 
the horses snorting. I reached for my gun, went to the other man, 
and tried to wake him. He was sleeping soundly, so I left him and 
crawled up to where the ponies were, dragging my gun as I went on. 
I noticed that there was a man standing in the shadow of a hill. My 
pony kept on snorting. I saw the man, so I crawled back to our place 
and woke my friend. We crawled up to the ponies, and as we ap- 
proached them we saw the man coming. The pony was now snorting 
*Told by White-Bear, 
