Large Black Bear.—[Page 250].
VI.
QUAINT INDIAN LORE
IN REGARD TO THE MYSTICAL POWER OF THE BEAR AS A GREAT MEDICINE.
This is a legend of the Ojibwa Indians as told by Sikassige, the officiating priest of the Ojibwas at White Earth, Minnesota:
In the beginning were created two men and two women. They had no power of thought or reason. Then the Almighty took them into his hands that they might multiply, and he made them reasonable beings. He paired them, and from this sprung the Indians.
Then when there were people the Great Spirit placed them upon the earth; but he soon observed that they were subject to sickness, misery and death. Then the Manitou called upon the Sun Spirit (the Bear) and asked him to instruct the people in the Sacred Medicine. The Sun Spirit, in the form of a little boy, went to the earth and was adopted by a woman who had a little boy of her own.
This family went away in the autumn to hunt, and during the winter the woman’s son died. The parents were much distressed and decided to return to the village and bury the body there. So they made preparation to return, and as they traveled along they would each evening erect poles upon which the body was placed, to prevent the wild beasts from devouring it. When the dead boy was thus hanging upon the poles, the adopted child, the Bear Spirit, or Sun child, would play about the camp and amuse himself, and finally told his adopted father he pitied him and his mother for their sorrow.
The adopted son said he could bring his dead brother to life, whereupon the parents expressed great surprise and desired to know how that could be accomplished.
The adopted boy then had the party hasten to the village, when he said: “Get the woman to the wigwam of bark, put the dead body in a covering of birch bark, and place the body on the ground in the middle of the wigwam.” On the next morning, when this had been done, the family and friends went into the lodge and seated themselves around the corpse.