81. HOW WHITE-BEAR CAME TO BELONG TO THE BEAR SOCIETY.
When White-Bear’s mother is pregnant his father puts on bear robe and tries to catch people to cut them open and get piece of liver. So his son has spirit of Bear. In nursing boy’s mouth shows froth and he makes noise like young bear. In Bear dances boy wears robe of bear hide. When three years old, White-Bear falls on knife, cutting belly so that intestines come out. Father restores them to place and bandages child. In few days child is much better and bear robe is put on its back. Child cannot straighten out and makes noise like cat. As he grows up he acts like Bear. In Bear ceremonies sleight-of-hand ceremonies are performed by him. In medicine-lodge he has visions of bear. When no more Bear dances he does not show ways of bear.
82. THE TALE OF A MEMBER OF THE BEAR SOCIETY.
Boy stays in medicine-men’s lodge and learns mysteries of Bear Society. Father gives him stuffed bear skin. In Bear dance little bear dances and imitates boy. When worn out little bear is placed in ravine. Some years ago great hunter asks young man to go hunting. At night pony snorts furiously and Scalped-Man is seen. After killing deer they start for home. They see bear, which stands up like man. Bear embraces young one. After being shot bear goes into brush, where it is found sitting, dead. Young one also killed and both are skinned. Man gives large hide to friend and keeps little bear’s hide. He wears it in Bear dances. Afterwards it is sold, in his absence, to white man.
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE
Obvious typographical errors and punctuation errors have been corrected after careful comparison with other occurrences within the text and consultation of external sources.
Some hyphens in words have been silently removed, some added, when a predominant preference was found in the original book.
Except for those changes noted below, all misspellings in the text, and inconsistent or archaic usage, have been retained.
Pg [31]: ‘people crosssed over’ replaced by ‘people crossed over’.
Pg [35]: ‘TO THE ARIKARA.’ replaced by ‘TO THE ARIKARA.[10]’.