Evening star., 1938-03-01
STARS, MEN AND ATOMS
Notebook of Science Progress in Field,
Laboratory and Study.
BY THOMAS r. HENRY

In the mythology Of various North
eastern Indian tribes appears the fan
tastic figure Of q hairy monster which
some ethnologists have tried to identify
-etymologically and otherwise-with
the mammoth.
If such an identification could be
sustained 1t would prove that the ances-
tors of these Indians actually had some
contact with these long-haired elephants
which are supposed to have become
extinct in North America about the
middle of the last ice age. It becomes a
question of fact. Theoretically there is
nothing impossible about such an asso-
citation. Nobody knows exactly how long
it has been since the last mammoth
disappeared. In the West, as Is shown
by associations of bones of these mon
sters with human artifacts. they over
Tapped the time Of the earliest men on
this continent. In South America one
site has been uncovered where men
actually dined on elephant steak.
A few years ago DR.. w. D. Strong, at
that time q member of the staff of the
Bureau Of American Ethnology, ran
upon q clear version of the monster
legend among the Naskapi Indians of
Labrador The neurological creature,
Katcheetohuskw, was described to DR..
Strong as elephantine in size, with very
large ears, stif legs and man-eating
tendencies. Another possibility, however,
was that the legend referred to mon
ster bear.
Now comes F. T. Siebert, jr., of Merton,
Pa, in the journal of the American An
thropological Association with an en-
tirely new version of the legend which
he uncovered last summer in an unlikely
place-the Penobscot Indians of Maine
This is the story of Washehkeehs, the
great bear, who bears such strong re-
semblance to the Katcheetohuskw of DR..
Strong that ethnologists believe the
identity practically established. MIR. Sic
berts version also links up the creature
to the most terrible of all supernatural
concepts of the northern Indians-that
of the man-eating Witigos of the Algon-
quins or the Stone Goats of the IroQuois.
The Penobscot belief, according to Mr..
Siebert's Indian informant, was that
when a common black bear had once
eaten human flesh his hair or fur would
fall out entirely and henceforth he would
attack other human beings At the same
time he gained supernatural power so
that he could charm and subdue those
who happened to meet him in the woods"
Says Mr.. Siebert: '"The basic element
of the myth is the supernatural trans
formation of q common black bear by
the eating of human flesh into large,
man-eating, supernatural being. It is
possible to hypothesize a relationship
Of this belief with the fabulous cannibal
giant concept. A human being, often
q shaman, who once has eaten human
flesh becomes such supernatural can
nibal since the eating Of such q powerful
creature as man gives his soul-spirit
great strength. Henceforth he con-
tinues to live on human flesh and can
be killed only by sourcery.
Bears were held in great respect by
the Algonkian peoples. Since they were
to them the largest and the most formid-
able. and intelligent of all North Amer
lean animals, they were held by the
aboriginals to be a close second in the
animate world to man himself"
Moreover, he finds the mythology Of
the giant bear fairly widely spread
among northern tribes. There was, for
example, Ganiagwaihegowa the monster
bear of the Iroquois, who returned to
kill any Indian who looked at its tracks.
Only the soles Of his feet were vulner-