THE SEVEN BROTHERS AND THE SISTER. 73 
behind for the Bear, the Bear would forget for a while all about the 
seven brothers. The brothers and sister were now a good way ahead 
of her again, when the Bear remembered and began to pursue them. 
The people were traveling rapidly, but the Bear gained on them again 
and kept gaining until they were compelled to do something or die. 
Finally they saw the Bear coming. ‘The oldest one said to the rest: 
“We will now have to die. There is only one thing left to be done. 
When the Bear succeeds in passing the next place we surely will have 
to die.” He now took his bow-string off from his bow, passing it 
through his left hand four times, then threw it on the ground, and there 
was a deep canyon, but it had a place where the Bear could get down 
and get out on the other side. They commenced to travel again. When 
the Bear came to the canyon she went all round, looking for a place, 
going further and further, and finally came to a place where there was 
a high cedar tree standing over the canyon. She made a jump onto 
the tree, climbed down, got on the ground and commenced to look for a 
place to get out. She climbed onto another tree, then jumped on the 
other side of the canyon and commenced to chase the seven brothers. 
The party was now a good way off, but they could hear her talking. 
This being their last chance, the brothers and their sister had to give 
up traveling. They all stopped, sat in a row, and faced toward the 
south. The oldest brother was on the west end, their sister on the 
other end, next to Fast-Runner. Finally they saw the Bear coming, 
saying: “I thought I would finally get you. You thought I never 
would give up chasing you.” 
When the Bear arrived she sat down and rolled around, rolled up 
to each of them, kept rolling around, and would sometimes slap one of 
them, and say, “You knew that nobody could get away from me.” 
When she rolled away from them, the oldest brother jumped up, called 
to his brothers to rise, took the feather off his head and blew it. As 
it went up the seven brothers and their sisters went with it. They went 
up in the sky before the Bear knew it, and they now live as the Seven 
(Kiowhits), or the Dipper. When the Bear rolled up where they had 
been, she finally noticed that she did not touch anyone. She opened her 
eyes and looked around to see where the people had gone, but there was 
no sign of them and no trail. She looked around, but could not see 
any trace of them. When she looked up in the sky she saw them above 
her, where she could never get them. She commenced to scold herself, 
saying: “Why did I not kill them when I arrived! Well, I can not 
help it now; they have got away from me.” ‘The Bear had to give 
up and went off to the canyon and never did go back where she had 
