Every now and then, through the summer, the Bear people would come in and say, “In such a place are plenty of berries.” These would be strawberries, raspberries, or others, according to the season. Later they told of chestnuts and other kinds of nuts, of which they were fond. Then they would say, “Let us go and gather them.” So the Mother Bear and the little Bears went, taking the little boy along with them; for they always expected a good time. The other bears knew nothing about the little boy. When they came near the spot, and he was seen, these would be frightened, and say: “There is a human being! Let us run! let us run!” So they would scamper off as fast as bears can, leaving their heaps of nuts or berries behind them. Then the old Oo-kwa-e would gather these up, she and her children, and take them home, which was a very easy way of getting plenty of food. Thus the boy became very useful to Mother Bear.
The boy lived with them thus for about three years, and the same things happened every year. In the third year Mother Bear said, “Some one is coming to kill us.” Then all looked out, and saw a man coming through the woods, with his bow and arrows in his hand, and his dog running all around looking for game. Then Mother Bear said, “I must see what I can do.” So she took a forked stick, and pointed the open fork towards the man. It seemed to come near him, and appeared to him like a line of thick brush that he did not wish to break through. So he turned aside, and went another way, and they were safe that time.
Another day she again said, “Some one is coming towards us again, and we shall be killed.” She put forth the forked stick again; but the man did not mind it, and came straight towards her stone house. The stick itself split, and there was nothing in the way. Then she took a bag of feathers and threw these outside. They flew up and down, and around and around, and seemed like a flock of partridges. The dog ran after them, through the bushes and trees, supposing them to be birds, and so the second man went away.
The days went by, and the third time Mother Bear saw a man coming. This time she said, “Now we certainly are all going to die.” Then she said to the boy: “Your father is coming now, and he is too good a hunter to be fooled. There is his dog, with his four eyes, and he, too, is one of the best of hunters.” Now when a dog has light spots over each eye, the Indians say that he has four eyes. So the man came nearer, and she tried the forked stick, but it split; and still the man and dog came on. Then she scattered the feathers, and they flew around as before; but the hunter and dog paid no attention to them, and still they both came on. At last the dog reached the door and barked, and the man drew his bow to shoot at anything that came out.
When the Mother Oo-kwa-e saw the man standing there, she said, “Now, children, we must all take our bundles and go.” So each of the Bears took a small bundle and laid it on its back, but there was no bundle at all for the boy. When all were ready, Mother Oo-kwa-e said, “I will go first, whatever may happen.” So she opened the door, and as she went out the man shot, and she was killed. Then the oldest of the Oo-tutch-ha said, “I will go next;” and as he went he also was killed.
The last little Bear was afraid, and said to the boy, “You go first.” But the little boy was afraid, too, and said: “No; you go first. I have no bundle.” For all the Bears tried to get their bundles between them and the man. So the little Bear and the boy at last went out together; but though the Bear tried to keep behind, the man shot at him first, and he was killed. As the hunter was about to shoot again, the boy called out: “Don’t shoot me! don’t shoot me! I am not a bear!” His father dropped his arrow, for he knew his voice at once, and said: “Why did you not call out before? Then I would not have killed the Oo-kwa-e and Oo-tutch-ha. I am very sorry for what I have done, for the Bears have been good to you.” But the boy said: “You did not kill the Bears, though you thought so. You only shot the bundles. I saw them thrown down, and the spirits of the Bears run off from behind them.” Still, the man was sorry he had shot at the Bears, for he wished to be kind to them, as they had been to his boy.
Then the father began to look at his boy more closely, to see how he had grown and how he had changed. Then he saw that long hairs were growing between his fingers, for, living so long with them, he had already begun to turn into a Bear. He was very glad when he took the boy back to his home, and his friends and relatives, and the whole town, rejoiced with him. All day they had a great feast, and all night they danced, and they were still dancing when I came away.
Bear stories of this kind seem to have been favorites among the Iroquois, and Mrs. Erminnie A. Smith relates three of them in her collection. Of such tales in general, she remarks that, “In nearly all of these, wherever the bear is introduced he serves as a pattern of benevolence, while many other animals, such as the porcupine, are always presented as noxious.” Yet in the one most resembling the one just given, “The Hare and his Step-son,” the man shuts the child in a porcupine’s hole, and the porcupine rescues him, calling on the animals to feed him. The fox and the wolf, however, do not bear a good character, and snakes are invariably agents of evil.
The old story of “Valentine and Orson” has so delighted white children that it is no matter of surprise that Indians have enjoyed their own stories of lost boys nursed by bears. Perhaps the tendency of these animals to assume an erect position may have suggested to them a near kinship to the human race. To complete the present paper, a sketch may be given of the three tales related by Mrs. Smith. It may be premised that several incidents of the present story are found in all three of these, but not in each other.
The first she had from the Senecas of the Cattaraugus reservation. In this a young boy is missed from the hunting-camp, and all search proves vain. His friends think him dead, and go home. A bear takes pity on him, but changes herself into the appearance of a woman, and takes him home to live with her cubs, in her hollow tree. When the time for the return of the hunters arrives, she tells him of her device, and he is restored to his friends. He never kills a bear.