FOOTNOTES:
[44] Told by Two-Hawks.
44. THE FIGHT BETWEEN THE ARIKARA AND THE BEARS.[45]
There was a young man who had a beautiful wife, whom he loved. She had a garden in the woods where she went every day in the spring to hoe. Each morning, before starting to the garden, she prepared pemmican and dried meat to take with her. She took enough for two or three persons. Her husband noticed this. One day while she was preparing the meat he asked her why she was preparing so much, for he thought that she must have some of her relatives to help her in her garden. The woman made no reply. One day, as she went out to the garden, her husband secretly followed her. When her husband came to her garden he hid near by. He saw that the garden was well cared for, and he knew by this that some one had been helping her to clean it. The man waited a little while, and there came forth from the woods a man, who walked right over to the woman. The woman seemed glad to see this man who met her, and the man was glad to meet the woman. This strange man was painted, and upon his head were feathers, and a set of bear’s claws were about his neck. The man went to work in the garden, helping the woman. The woman’s husband lay upon the top of the hill, watching them. When the sun was high, the strange man and the woman stopped working. They went over in the shade of some trees, and they ate the meat that the woman had prepared. After eating, the strange man lay with the woman. The woman’s husband saw all that went on. He slowly made his way toward the camp and went home. When he got home he took down his bow and arrows and began to fix the arrow-points and bow-string. In the meantime, the woman returned. She asked her husband where he was going, and he made reply that he was fixing up his bow and arrows to go hunting the next day. The man then asked his wife how she was getting along with the work in her garden, and she said she was nearly through.
The next morning the woman got her meat and things ready to go to her garden again, and the man got ready to go hunting. The woman went first to her garden. The man went afterwards, in a different direction. After a while he circled around to his wife’s garden. He got to the garden and lay down. He waited for the strange man to come. The woman sat around near her garden, doing nothing, for there was nothing to do; she had already got through with her field. The man looked up and again he saw the strange man come from the timber and begin to talk to his wife. They sat around until the sun was high. They again ate meat together, and after they had eaten, the strange man again lay with the woman. While they were lying together, the woman’s husband came up from behind them, took an arrow, put it in the bow-string and pulled it. He shot the man. The man made a big groan, got on his feet, and ran through the timber.
When the woman got up, her husband got a stick and clubbed her. The woman said: “My husband, you should first have found out who that man was who was with me, before you shot him.” Her husband said that he did not care who he was. The woman said that he was a Bear, and that was the reason she let him lie with her, for she was afraid of him. She said that the Bear told her that if anybody did anything to him while he was with her he would get all his people together and kill everybody in the Arikara camp. The man said he did not care.
About three days afterwards the people saw what seemed to be buffalo in large droves, coming from the hills. When they came near the village the people found out that they were Bears instead of buffalo. The young man who had shot the Bear in the garden said to the people, “The Bears are coming to kill us, for I shot the Bear.” The Bears soon reached the camp and tore the people to pieces, as many as they got hold of; but some of the people, who hid in their cellars, were saved. The Bears did not stop until they had killed the man who had shot the Bear.