Indians of North America -- Medicine; Pomo Indians; Shamans
The captain called all the men to go on a deer hunt, and all set
off westward about midday to build a deer fence and set snares
around Tule Lake, for they knew that many deer were feeding in the
tule marsh there. Nothing unusual happened that day, but after all
had left the village early the next morning some children who were
playing about the village saw the two brothers _būrakal-ba-kīdjon_,
who had remained away from the hunt, giving illness as their
excuse, start off toward the east. Some of the children stealthily
followed them, while two others ran over to Tule Lake to warn the
hunters. About midday the hunters saw two bears coming toward
them. Several of the best hunters hid at an advantageous point in
the very thick brush and tule, while the others continued their
shouting and beating the bush to drive the deer into the snares in
order that the bear doctors would not suspect the trap that had
been set for them. The hunters had agreed to act as though they did
not know that the bear doctors were near, but to shout if they were
seen, “Two brother deer are coming!” thus giving the hidden hunters
notice of the approach of the bears. If deer only were seen, they
were to shout, “The deer are coming!”
Finally, one of the hunters on the east side of the lake saw the
bears and shouted, “Look out there; two brother deer are coming
down the hill!” There were two trees standing some distance apart
with a thick, brushy place on each side. One hunter hid behind each
tree. A third hunter stood very close to a near-by opening in the
deer fence and in plain sight of the bear doctors, who immediately
made after him. At each jump of the bear doctors the water in
their baskets rattled and made a great noise. The hunter was but a
few feet from these trees when the bears came close to him, so he
dodged between the trees and the bears followed.
Immediately the two hunters behind the trees attacked the bears
from the rear with their clubs and jerked the masks from their
heads. The other hunters came up armed with clubs, bows and arrows,
and stones, and found the bear doctors standing very shame-facedly
before their captors.[12]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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