Chapter VI: The Little Boy Kidnapped by the Bear

[_Penobscot_]

_Nâwad agua eleʿkza niʿkwop kʾdado kéowun._[51]

I am going to tell you now what happened long ago.
Some Indians were camping with their children near a lake
And one fair morning started off to hunt the wary moose,
The children left alone in camp, as is the Indian way.
On that same day a little lad who scarce could walk unhelped,
Tottered and crawled away from camp until he lost the path
And passed the cold and bitter night afar out in the bush.
When morning dawned he thought he saw his mother drawing near
And, rushing to her side, he held her fast in firm embrace.
This was a she-bear, shaggy, great and strong as oxen twain.
She seized the lad and bore him off and fed him in her den.
When the old folk returned to camp they sought the boy in vain.

For ten full days, all day and night, they sought the boy in vain.
At last they broke up camp and, sorrowing, went back unto their
town.
All winter long the baby lay warmed by the sleeping bear
And drawing nourishment at need forth from her milky teats--
A wonder this, and quite unlike the usual way of bears.
But this one was a wizard bear who wished to keep the lad.
When spring-time came, the wizard of the little Indian town
Took twenty men and started off to seek the long-lost lad.
He had found out by secret arts the way to his abode.
When they arrived, the furious bear rushed forth in anger dire
But met her death by magic shot, and thus the boy was saved;
He ran away, but soon was caught and to his kind restored,
But during many years that lad was wild as any bear. P.

FOOTNOTES:

[51] I am going to tell you of what happened long ago.