Monmouth weekly herald. [volume] (Freehold, N.J.) 1854-1860, 1855-12-26

armed with spears, knives, or war clubs
and away rushes the excited crowd to d,
battle with the bear.
And now ensues most exciting scene
hope lends fresh yigor to sh-pau-be-kal
and his efforts are almost superhuman
Now he reaches the foremost of his friends
who separate on either side to allow hin
to pass between them, and the next mo
ment their bullets penetrate the shaggy
hide Of the bear. The race for life con
tinues; the savages are now strung along
in two lines, leading direct to the lodges
down, through the centre, Ish-pau-be-kau
holds his way, and the bear, now as much
excited as the man, almost reaching him
at every bound looks neither to the right
nor left, and seems totally unconscious Of
| the presence of human being, with the
single exception of the one he so obsti
nately pursues. Yet now, every bound
the bear makes, bullet Or an arrow en-
ters his body; if spear is thrust deep in
to his side, it checks not his course in the
least; the blade is snapped off from the
handle and left quivering in the wound.
Now, a young brave, anxious for distinc-
ton, throws himself fall in the path OF
the bear, and burics his knife to the hilt
in the chest; had he succeeded in diverting
the attention of the bear from Ish-pau-be-
kau to himself, that exploit would have
been his last, but the eyes of the bear
now glaring with rage and pain, never
swerved from the flying figure before
him.
They have now ruin the full length Of
the gauntlet and -pau.bekau reaches
the first lodge Of the village: in, through
the front entrance, he dashes-straight
over the blazing FIRE which is built in tile
centre-and out again, behind, into the
open air; and he knows by the crash O.
the falling poles and mats, as the slight
fabric is hurled to the earth, that the bear
is still on his track. Another lodge is
reached, but Ish-pau-b -kau dare not stop
Straight through he rushes, in at one en-
trance, and out at the other; and the next
moment, it is also Frustrated to the earth
by the huge beast that so faithfullyfollows
his track. The third lodge is reached by
Ish- pau-be kau, it is one of the largest in
the village, and it is his own. Ish.pau
be-kau stumbles as he enters, he staggers
across the lodge, again reaches the open
air, and falls; stream of blood gushes
| from his mouth and nostrils and insensi-
bility prevents any further attempt to es-
cape from his determined foe.
But loss ofblood, and the mortal wounds
he had received, were beginning to do
their work on the bear; he entered Ish-
pau.be-kau's lodge just as its owner sank
insensible on the other side. A heavy
blow from war club dealt by the hand
of Ish pau-be-kau's intrepid squaw, de.
prived him of the little vitality remain
ing, and there lay the huge carcass in the
centre Of Ish- pau-be-kau's lodge. an oh.
ject of establishment and wonder to the
congrega;ed village.
Ishpau- be-kau who had burst blood
vessel, was sick for many days; when he
recovered he was an altered man. When
the old men told of their experience in
life, he listened with reverence and atten
ton; and although he met white bear
alone on the prairie with no wea pom but
his knife, and had brought home both his
hide and his meat to his lodge, yet he
was never known to boast of the exploit
Reader, the legend is ended. | car
vouch for its authenticity as an Ojibway
tale-I have, neither added to nor sub
tracted from it, but tell the tale a;
twas told to me-" | have no doubt that il
is founded on facts, though many fictitious
incidents have doubtless been added by
the different narrators. The intelligent
reader can easily imagine how much Of
| it may have been true, and how much is
due to the invention of the Indian story
teller. / will only say that every word
of it was implicitly believed by the man
who related it to me.