Inuit Stories of the Bear
from the Fifth Thule Expedition, Rasmussen
I sighted a bear
On the drifting ice,
it seemed like a harmless dog
That came running towards me gladly,
So eager was it to eat me up on the spot,
That it swung round angrily
when I swiftly sprang aside out of its way.
And now we played catch-as-catch can
From morning to late in the day.
But by then it was so wearied
It could do no more,
And I thrust my lance into its side.
The Bear and the Owl Talked Together
A bear was out walking, and there sat an owl on its hill.
The bear came up to the owl.
Then the owl spoke up and said.
"Old wanderer, are you out walking as usual, out wandering again?"
The bear answered:
"You that always stand straight up like a pillar, are you standing there staring as usual?"
Again the owl said:
"Old wanderer, out walking again, walking, walking?"
The bear did not bother to say more, but started up suddenly to catch the owl. But the owl spread its wings and flew away.Told by Inugpasugjuk
Rasmussen Thule, vol #7
The Black Bear and the Raven
A black bear, people say, wanted no dawn to come, wished it would always be dark, they say, owing to its ability to scent it would be able to manage.
But the white raven, said: Let the dawn come! Let it be day! When it had to smell its way to food, this would help it.
Dawn came, it is said, daylight came, it is said.
Told by Netsit.
Rasmussen Thule vol #9
The Pleiades
One evening a bear suddenly appeared in a village and the people came out to hunt it. The men harnessed their teams to the sledges, and went off in chase.
A boy who was with them said:
“I have dropped my mitten of caribou skin.”
The man with whom he was driving said to him:
“Well you can go and look for it by yourself. There is nothing to be afraid of, it is bright moonlight.”
The boy dropped from the sledge, but as he did so, the sledge suddenly began to rise up in the air, with dogs and those in it as well.
“Where are we driving to now? asked the man in surprise.
“Where are we driving to?” asked the other.
“We are driving right up into heaven,” said others again.
And the sledge with the dogs kept on rising and rising: and at last it came up to heaven, and there it turned into the udlakutut (those hunting a bear).
Pleiades and Moon
The Old Woman Who Adopted a Bear
There was once an old woman who took in a bear’s cub to live with her. She brought it up and taught it, and soon it was big enough to go out and play with the children in the village, and the bear and the children fought and wrestled and played together.
The bear grew up and was soon so big that some of the people in the village wanted to kill and eat it. But the old woman wept, and prayed for her bear and did so wish that it might live. When at last she dared not keep it any longer, she urged it to run away. But before the bear left its foster-mother, it spoke to her thus:
“You shall never suffer want. If you should be in want, go down to the edge of the ice, and there you will see some bears. Call them, and they will come.”
The old woman did as the bear had said. When she began to be in want, she went out on to the sea ice and began looking about for bears. She saw a bear on a drifting icefloe, and called to it, but when the bear saw and heard her, it fled away.
The old woman went on until she saw another bear, and called to this one also. The bear heard her, and as soon as it had seen her, it ran over to the other bear, that was close by, and began fighting with it. It soon killed the bear it was fighting, and hauled it in to land, and left it there even before the foster-mother had reached the spot. After that the old woman lived in abundance on the meat of the bear that had been given her, and even gave her neighbors some for themselves. Thus it came about that greedy people in the village themselves caused a bear, that might have procured meat for them all, to go away and leave them.
Told by Inugpasugjuk
Rasmussen Thule, vol #7
The Black Bear That Turned Into A Cloud.
A man out hunting was once attacked by a black bear. It did not kill him, for he pretended to be dead to make the bear believe him dead; and as he feigned death it really took him for dead; it seized him and started off homewards. And as he was being carried in the animal’s jaws he took hold of the tops of the bushes and hung on to them.
It is said that when the bear got home with the man it called to its wife and children that it had got a man for them, one that smelt of urine. Then it took him in and laid him on the side platform to thaw. Beside him it laid an axe, thinking the man dead. When he was thawed out they intended to eat him.
One of the young bears, however, who had seen the man who had been laid out to thaw open his eyes slightly, cried that the food was opening its eyes. Father Bear, who was taking off his kamiks, said it did not matter and that the man had made him quite short of breath by getting hold of the bushes on the way home.
Then the man who had been laid out to thaw quickly seized the axe, struck the bear husband, who had now lain down, on the head with it and hurried outside. As he went out the discarded bear-dress lying beside the door snapped at him, but nevertheless he got out, though the bear woman set out after him. When the man became short-winded with running he commanded a river to rush forth, making a river spring out between them.
Having done this he waited there for his pursuer. When she came to the river she asked him how he had crossed it, and he replied that he had drunk it empty. Then she gulped up the river and got over, but burst, and as she burst it is said that mist arose. It is said that the clouds in the sky came from this mist; before that there had been no clouds.
Told by Netsit.
Rasmussen Thule, vol #9
Magic words that made a snow figure into a real, live black bear
Among the Utkuhigjalingmiut there were two brothers, Uktjuk (female genitals), and Kumak (the louse), and both were famous for their skill as hunters. In winter they shot caribou with bow and arrow, and hunted them at the crossing places in autumn time. When winter came and people moved into snow huts, there were always caribou lying to thaw in Uktjuk’s and Kumak’s hut. But they were both unmarried and had no one to help them with all their meat and all their skins.One day a move was to be made to a new hunting place and all were getting ready for the removal. Among the people in that village was an old woman, a widow, who had no husband to live with. But the two brothers had an old father, and he said that no one in that house was to marry an old widow. And so Uktjuk and Kumak got no one to help them that time either.
The people broke camp and went to new places to hunt. The old woman who had been rejected did the same, but she followed unseen behind them, and walked far out to the side, away from the others’ tracks in the snow. When a halt was made for the night and snow huts were built, the widow did the same, but still kept away from the tracks of the others. There she began to carve a figure out of the blocks of snow. She carved and shaped in the snow blocks the body of a black bear, an akla, choosing an animal because she herself was called Akla. As soon as the snow figure was finished she said magic words over it, repeating over and over again:
“He didn’t want me to have a husband. Kill him by biting him in the fork.”
Secretly and unseen she did all this, and no one discovered her while she was making her magic. Not until she had finished did she join the others, pretending that she had done nothing.
The next day the two brothers and their father left the village. They went away to fetch caribou meat from a cache; and when they came to the cache they built a snow hut and took the meat from the store into the hut. But just while they were doing this a black bear came to their hut. They fled into the hut and closed it with a block of snow, and piled frozen meat up behind it. They could hear how the bear walked round about their hut, sniffing and growling; it went to the ice window, too, but stayed there only a moment, then went back to the entrance passage and began to creep in to them. It was a tremendous and powerful black bear. They heard it sniff and growl, and it was easy to understand that it had got the scent of something particular to which it wanted to get in. For they had also left caribou meat outside, but it did not touch it. As soon as it reached right up to the snow block covering the doorway the two brothers laid themselves behind the frozen caribou meat and put all their weight against it. Their old father shrank back on the platform.
Now the strange thing happened that as soon as the bear came into the entrance passage the lamp in the house began to flicker, flicker as if owing to a strong draught, and the nearer the bear came the more did the flame flicker. At last the lamp went out entirely, and it became quite dark in the hut. This was a sign of magic.
The strength of the bear was enormous, and the two brothers could not keep it out. They were flung back to the floor of the hut, and, fearful and terrified, they leaped up on to the platform and hid under their rugs. Now the bear was right inside and, sniffing about after some definite thing, it took no notice of the two brothers but threw itself upon their old father. It was in vain that Uktjuk and Kumak thrust their knives into the bear’s body; it was as if it had no feeling, and it did not let go of their father. At last Kumak and Uktjuk fled out of the house, and the bear was so big that they had to step on its back body, which extended from the platform out into the passage.
The two brothers got hold of their bows and arrows, kicked out the ice window in order to throw some light into the house, but dared not shoot for fear of hitting their father. They heard the father say:
“Go on, shoot; it makes no matter if you should hit me, for I’ll never be myself again.”
It was then that the brothers shot at the bear, and they let one arrow go after the other; but apparently the bear did not notice the arrows at all that went into its body, and they made wounds that would have killed an ordinary beast. But at last it released its hold on the old man and ran out into the darkness.
The two brothers returned to the house and made fire with a fire-drill in order to get light to see how their father had been bitten, and behold: all his wounds were in between his legs, and they heard their father groan with pain as he said:
“I am going to hang myself to put an end to my sufferings; but first give me a weapon in my hand so that I may have my revenge when I am dead.”
The two brothers did as he wished, their father hanged himself, and they went away.
Later, when they came to their village, they saw a tremendous bear that had been carved out of snow blocks. Then they understood that it was a troll bear that had attacked them, and they packed up and travelled after the other people of the village. They reached them and told of what had happened. But scarcely had this been rumored about the village when something else occupied everybody’s mind. For the old woman who had made the troll bear suddenly fell down and was dead.
So quickly did the dead man take revenge.
Told by Nakasuk.
Rasmussen Thule, vol #8
Report of the fifth Thule Expedition 1921-24 : the Danish expedition to Arctic North America in charge of Knud Rasmussen