Sometimes I helped Wabeda and gave a war-whoop of my own. This drove
the deer away as well, but it relieved my mind.
When he appealed to me on this occasion, therefore, I said: "Come, my
dog, let us bury your bone so that no Shunktokecha will take it."
He appeared satisfied with my suggestion, so we went out together.
We dug in the snow and buried our bone wrapped up in a piece of old
blanket, partly burned; then we covered it up again with snow. We knew
that the coyote would not touch anything burnt. I did not put it up a
tree because Wabeda always objected to that, and I made it a point to
consult his wishes whenever I could.
I came in and Wabeda followed me with two short rib bones in his mouth.
Apparently he did not care to risk those delicacies.
"There," exclaimed Uncheedah, "you still insist upon bringing in some
sort of bone!" but I begged her to let him gnaw them inside because it
was so cold. Having been granted this privilege, he settled himself at
my back and I became absorbed in some specially nice arrows that uncle
was making.
"Oh, uncle, you must put on three feathers to all of them so that they
can fly straight," I suggested.
"Yes, but if there are only two feathers, they will fly faster," he
answered.
"Woow!" Wabeda uttered his suspicions.
"Woow!" he said again, and rushed for the entrance of the teepee. He
kicked me over as he went and scattered the burning embers.
"En na he na!" Uncheedah exclaimed, but he was already outside.
"Wow, wow, wow! Wow, wow, wow!"
A deep guttural voice answered him. Out I rushed with my bow and arrows
in my hand.
"Come, uncle, come! A big cinnamon bear!" I shouted as I emerged from
the teepee.
Uncle sprang out, and in a moment he had sent a swift arrow through the
bear's heart. The animal fell dead. He had just begun to dig up
Wabeda's bone, when the dog's quick ear had heard the sound.
"Ah, uncle, Wabeda and I ought to have at least a little eaglet's
feather for this! I too sent my small arrow into the bear before he
fell," I exclaimed. "But I thought all bears ought to be in their
lodges in the winter time. What was this one doing at this time of the
year and night?"
"Well," said my uncle, "I will tell you. Among the tribes, some are
naturally lazy. The cinnamon bear is the lazy one of his tribe. He
alone sleeps out of doors in the winter, and because he has not a warm
bed, he is soon hungry. Sometimes he lives in the hollow trunk of a
tree, where he has made a bed of dry grass; but when the night is very
cold, like to-night, he has to move about to keep himself from
freezing, and as he prowls around, he gets hungry."
We dragged the huge carcass within our lodge. "Oh, what nice claws he
has, uncle!" I exclaimed eagerly. "Can I have them for my necklace?"
[Illustration: "Oh, what nice claws he has, uncle!" I exclaimed
eagerly. _Page 69._]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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