The Shawnees, who at various times were in close relation with the Delawares, also possessed a vague migration myth, according to which, at some indefinitely remote past, they had arrived at the main land after crossing a wide water. Their ancestors succeeded in this by their great control of magic arts, their occult power enabling them to walk over the water as if it had been land. Until within the present century this legend was repeated annually, and a yearly sacrifice offered up in memory of their safe arrival.[243] It is evidently a version of that which appears in the third part of the WALAM OLUM. One of the curious legends of the Lenape was that of the Great Naked or Hairless Bear. It is told by the Rev. John Heckewelder, in a letter to Dr. B. S. Barton.[244] The missionary had heard it both among the Delawares and the Mohicans. By the former, it was spoken of as _amangachktiátmachque_, and in the dialect of the latter, _ahamagachktiât mechqua_.[245] The story told of it was that it was immense in size and the most ferocious of animals. Its skin was bare, except a tuft of white hair on its back. It attacked and ate the natives, and the only means of escape from it was to take to the water. Its sense of smell was remarkably keen, but its sight was defective. As its heart was very small, it could not be easily killed. The surest plan was to break its back-bone; but so dangerous was an encounter with it, that those hunters who went in pursuit of it bade their families and friends farewell, as if they never expected to return. Fortunately, there were few of these beasts. The last one known was to the east, somewhere beyond the left bank of the Mahicanni Sipu (the Hudson river). When its presence was learned a number of bold hunters went there, and mounted a rock with precipitous sides. They then made a noise, and attracted the bear's attention, who rushed to the attack with great fury. As he could not climb the rock, he tore at it with his teeth, while the hunters above shot him with arrows and threw upon him great stones, and thus killed him. Though this was the last of the species, the Indian mothers still used his name to frighten their children into obedience, threatening them with the words, "The Naked Bear will eat you." FOOTNOTES: [222] D. G. Brinton, _Myths of the New World_, Chap. VI. (N.Y., 1876), and _American Hero Myths_, Chap. II (Phila., 1882). The seeming incongruity of applying such terms as Trickster, Cheat and Liar to the highest divinity I have explained in a paper in the _American Antiquarian_ for the current year (1885) and will recur to later. [223] Thomas Campanius, _Account of New Sweden_, Book III, cap. xi. [224] _Traditions and Language of the Indians_, in _Bulletin Hist. Soc. Pa._, Vol. I, pp. 30-31. [225] _Journal of a Voyage to New York in 1679-80_. By Jasper Donkers and Peter Sluyter, p. 268. Translation in Vol. I of the _Transactions of the Long Island Historical Society_ (Brooklyn, 1867).