Stránka:book 1912.djvu/193

Songs, Dances, and Ceremonies i6i old squaw picking berries, but you do not like the looks of this band. If you do not come before I count a hundred, I shall brand you a coward wherever I go." (As alternative reading, a verse) : " Mishi-Mokwa, we have found you, Come you forth and try our mettle. For I mean to club and brain you; Mean to take that magic necklace; Wear it for my own adorning. What! you dare not, valiant creature! You are absolutely fearless When you find a lot of children With their baskets, picking berries. But you do not like our war clubs; Noble creature, dauntless Grizzly!" The bear springs forth, growling. He uses his club freely, trying to knock the hunters' hats off. Once a hat is off, the owner is dead and must drop beside it. The bear makes for his second mountain or den, and he is safe as long as he is in, or touching, a den. But again the hunters force him to come out, by taunts and by count- ing. He must continue to go the rounds of his three dens till either the bear or all the hunters are killed. One good blow on the bear's heart breaks it with a loud "bang." Then the bear must fall; he is dead. The war- rior who dealt the fatal blow, no matter who, now becomes the leader, the others join in with war whoops. He takes the necklace from the bear's neck. Then, standing with one foot on the bear, he brandishes his club, shouting, "Ha, ha, how, now, Mishi-Mokwa! Yesterday you did not know me. Now you know me; know my war club. I am none but Hiawatha." The surviving hunters drag the bear before the grand-