The story told of it was that it was immense in size and the most ferocious of animals. Its skin was bare, except a tuft of white hair on its back. It attacked and ate the natives, and the only means of escape from it was to take to the water. Its sense of smell was remarkably keen, but its sight was defective. As its heart was very small, it could not be easily killed. The surest plan was to break its back-bone; but so dangerous was an encounter with it, that those hunters who went in pursuit of it bade their families and friends farewell, as if they never expected to return.
Fortunately, there were few of these beasts. The last one known was to the east, somewhere beyond the left bank of the Mahicanni Sipu (the Hudson river). When its presence was learned a number of bold hunters went there, and mounted a rock with precipitous sides. They then made a noise, and attracted the bear's attention, who rushed to the attack with great fury. As he could not climb the rock, he tore at it with his teeth, while the hunters above shot him with arrows and threw upon him great stones, and thus killed him.
Though this was the last of the species, the Indian mothers still used his name to frighten their children into obedience, threatening them with the words, "The Naked Bear will eat you."
CHAPTER VII.
The Walam Olum: Its Origin, Authenticity And Contents.
Biographical Sketch of Rafinesque—Value of his Writings—His Account of the Walam Olum.—Was it a Forgery?— Rafinesque's Character—The Text pronounced Genuine by Native Delawares—Conclusion Reached
Phonetic System of the Walam Olum—Metrical Form—Pictographic System—Derivation and Precise Meaning of Walam Olum.—The MS of the Walam Olum —General Synopsis of the Walam Olum— Synopsis of its Parts.
Rafinesque and his Writings.
Constantine Samuel Rafinesque-Schmaltz, to whom we owe the preservation and first translation of the Walam Olum, was born in Galata, a suburb of Constantinople, Oct. 22d, 1783, and died in Philadelphia, of cancer of the stomach, Sept. 18th, 1840.