The Alaska daily empire., 1915-01-01
attended to curing the fish.


atteuueu 10 curing tne I1Sn.
 Toward evening. when she expect ed her husband back the wife went up the stream to catch a salmon to roast for supper. Wading out in the stream. spear in hand. she was sur prised to see a big brown man ap- pear on the bank between here and their camp. Now there had never been any bear in the country up to this time. so she was very much frightened and when the bear ad- vanced toward her she threw her spear at him. This he deftly threw aside and smiling and nodding his caught the woman and partly pushing and carrying her he hurried far up the stream and along the bank far up into the mountains where the rocks came together. Here was the brown bears den. He had apparently made preparation for his bride for there was q bed of deer skins and moss, and fresh deer for dinner. Endeavor- ! the brown bear offered her raw meat. This she could not eat. but being worn out. and tired from the hard trip. she made a fire and proceeded to cook the venison. All this was new to MT. Bear. He sniffed sus- piciously at the fire first, but on smelling the cooking meat, he was more pleased and became curious, and when the woman broke the meat in two and divided it with him he was delighted and gave her more more meat to cook.
 The cunning and ever watchful eye of Hootz. the brown bear, prevented } the woman from making her escape, l so she was forced to live with him.
 \S years went by the bear family in
 reased. and years afterward when
 some natives came to Fish Bay they found tracks of bare-footed men.
 with long tCeS) on the beach Cau.
 ,iCusly following these they came to
 where the brown bear lived. and were
 
 ting on n rock. trying to straighten
 Iut her long gray hair with cedar
 comb. Thinking that they had dis covered a witch. they tried to run away but the woman ran after them
 and by the broken use of her mother
 tongue she made them understand
 that she wanted to get back to her
 people They hurried to the beach
 with her. and were just in time tc
 get away in their canoes when the
 great brown bear came after them.
 On getting back to her people the
 old woman told them how she had
 been caught and forced to live with
 the big brown bear. and in their joy
 al getting her back again they hat
 the first great potlatch. and eating
 drinking, and dancing. they establish n ed the Clan of the Bear, and they l. and their descendants have beer y known as the bear clan ever since. n Jim then explained that the old ra e tives thought that the brown bear.
 were half men. and being supersti S tious, concerning the wonderful cun l. ming of the bear, more especially hii j. sense of smell and his terrible claws l. 1t was many years before a native r. would skin a bears nose, or feet e thinking that if they did, the Eyi > Spirit of the bear would come bacl d to them and they would never b, h successful in their hunts.
 s We found our natives in every wa, z- good fellows in camp, willing workers s cleanly in their cooking and othe r. work of the camp. They were bil s help throughout the trip, relieving IT us of the burden of the heavier worl c and the onerous duties of camp life d such as cooking, washing dishes ant O hustling wood. They are very re O sourceful, and much at home in thu
 water. so that when our motor re l. fused to further perform its duties 3, Jake's improvised sail was very help r, full and resulted in the conservation D. Of large amount of "Muscle-ene." l. The amount of work involved il y skinning, stretching and fleshing g bear skin is hardly conceivable to h person who has not seen it done, an, IT this work took the greatest part o d the time of the two natives for tw, e days. leaving us to hunt by ourselve d during most of the remainder of tn c trip. We found further signs in pler