44. The Indian Boy and the Magic Bears[162]
THE youngest of the three brothers now
decided to go away, because both he and his sister feared
that the surviving bears would visit them and do them injury
in revenge for what the boy hunter had done to their people.
The sister urged her brother to go, and gave him a stone
ornament which she wore in her hair, and a large handful of
blueberries. The boy hunter still had four arrows. These
things he was to use as she instructed him, at a time which
would come, when every other means of saving his life
failed. Then he started away in a direction new to him, to
find a place where he might live in safety.
While he was going along slowly one day, he heard
behind him a peculiar sound, as of many footsteps. Looking
back, he beheld some bears following him, and he at once
realized that they had discovered his trail, and that they were
now in pursuit of him. He began to run, crying out, "What
shall I do? The bears have found my tracks, and are after
me!" The country in which he was now passing was an
apparently endless prairie, with nothing growing upon it but
short grass; but as he flew onward he heard a voice, which
said, "So soon as the bears catch you they will kill you; now
you must use your arrows."
Immediately the boy hunter remembered that he had his
weapons and the articles which his sister had given him.
Taking an arrow from his quiver, he fixed it to his
bowstring, and as he was about to shoot it into the air before
him he said to the arrow, "When you come down, there shall
be about you a copse covering an area as wide as the range
of an arrow. There I shall hide myself."
Away flew the arrow, and the moment it struck and
entered the earth there was a small hole in the ground,
around which sprung up a dense growth of brush The little
boy ran to the hole, crawled into it, and then went to the edge
of the brush, where he came up and hid by the side of a tree
which also had sprung out of the ground. As the bears came
to the spot where they had seen the boy disappear, they
began to tear up the brush until not a piece remained
standing. Not finding the hunter, the bears began to search for his
last footprints, and finding that they terminated at the hole
made by the arrow they at once followed him. As the bears
were now in close pursuit of the boy, he again disappeared
in the ground and started away until he had got quite a
distance from the tree, when he again emerged and started to
run away along the prairie.
By the time the bears reached the tree where the boy had
rested for a moment, they were again delayed in trailing him,
but they finally succeeded in tracking him out to the prairie,
where they espied him running in the distance. They
immediately set out in pursuit, but it was a long time before
they neared him. When the bears approached, the hunter
took his second arrow, and shooting it into the air before
him, said to it, "When you come down there shall be about
you a
copse as wide as the range of an arrow. There I shall hide
myself."
When the arrow descended and entered the earth
there appeared a dense undergrowth which completely hid
the boy, who then went to the hole, crawled into it, and
travelled along in the ground until he had passed beyond the
end of the copse, where he emerged and hid by a tree which
also had sprung up.
As before, the bears were infuriated at the escape of the boy,
and tore up the brush in every direction in their search for
him. Finally they discovered the arrow hole, which they
entered. Following the footsteps of the boy they soon found
the place where he had taken refuge, but before they reached
him he found himself pursued, and, again diving under the
surface, he started away for some distance, when he emerged
from beneath the ground and started away over the prairie as
before. A second time were the bears baffled, and by the
time they found the footprints of the boy he was far off.
They at once started in pursuit, and as the boy began to tire
a little the bears gained rapidly on him, until he found that
the
only way to escape was to use his third arrow. Taking the
shaft from his quiver and fitting it to his bow string, he
aimed upward into the air before him and said, "When you
come down there shall be about you a copse as wide as the
range of an arrow. There I shall hide myself."
The arrow descended, making a hole in the ground
as before, and a copse appeared all around it, hiding it from
view. The boy at once went down into the hole and away to
the edge of the copse, where he ascended to the surface and
hid near one of the trees which had sprung up at his
command.
The chase was a long one, and in time the boy began to tire
and the bears to gain on him, so that he was compelled to
take his last arrow, which he fixed to the string of his bow
and shot into the air, saying, "When you come down there
shall be about you a marsh filled with cat-tails, from the
middle of which there shall be a trail; by that shall I escape."
When the arrow descended the boy found himself in the
midst of a large marsh, and from his feet forward a trail of
firm ground, which enabled him to continue running whilst
the bears struggled in the mud and amongst the cat-tails.
After a while the bears also found the trail, and renewed their
pursuit Of the boy, giving him no opportunity for a moment's
rest. As they neared him, the bears shouted, "We are now
close upon you, and in a short time we will catch you and
kill you!" Then the boy remembered the stone which his
sister had given him, and taking it out of his pouch he put it
in a strip of buckskin and slung it round several times above
his head, then threw it forward on the prairie, saying, "As I
sling this it will cause a long high rock to appear, upon
which I shall take refuge." The little stone bounded and
rolled along over the ground and suddenly became
transformed into a steep, high cliff with a flat top and with
many loose stones lying about the edge. As the boy reached
the cliff he clambered to the summit and looked over the edge
to watch the bears. The bears ran around the base, looking
for the boy everywhere, and when they appeared beneath the
boy, he began to roll over the large loose stones upon them,
killing a great many and breaking the bones and otherwise
disabling others. While the unharmed bears, who were even
more astonished at what had transpired, went to look at their
killed and wounded companions, the boy hastily descended
on the opposite side of the cliff and started out in a new
direction to escape.
After gazing awhile at their dead and wounded
companions the unmaimed bears began to look for the boy,
but neither hearing nor seeing him they suspected that he had
escaped, and at once began to search for footprints leading
away from the rock. When these were found, the bears
followed in pursuit until they were almost certain of
capturing their enemy.
Now the bears had not eaten anything for a long time, and
they began to feel very hungry; but there was nothing in sight
that they could devour save the boy, so they tried their
utmost to catch him, and were slowly gaining on him when
he remembered the blueberries which his sister had given
him. These he took from his pouch, and threw them into the
air, scattering them far and wide, and said, "When you fall
to the ground there shall be blueberries growing everywhere;
these will deliver me." When the berries
fell, surely enough there instantly appeared blueberry
bushes laden with fruit, which caused the bears to stop.
They were so eager to eat that they entirely forgot the boy
until they could eat no more; the: then remembered what
they had contemplated doing when they first set out. One old
bear, observing dissatisfaction among his friends, said, "My
brothers, we had better give up the chase; the boy is merely
a mystery. Let us stop and live here, for here we shall have
sufficient food without digging for it." To this the rest of the
bears assented; so here they made their home.
[[162]]
This is a story told by Indians of our own times;
but it is exactly such stories as were told around the campfires of the
Indians whom our forefathers visited.
