
White bear
Once upon a time there was a White Bear whose nephew, Black
Bear,
lived
with him along with several other animals, including Fox.
Because Fox
was always up to mischief, the White Bear took away Fox's
right
shoulder. Consequently Fox became ill. White Bear tied Fox's
right
shoulder to a bunch of claws that he always carried with him. Now
Fox
became very sick and unable to get along very well without his
right
shoulder. He sent for Crow, who seemed always full of cunning,
to
devise
some scheme to get back Fox's right shoulder. After a long talk,
Crow
left to visit White Bear, who was old and infirm and troubled
with
rheumatism. He found White Bear sitting by his fire warming
himself,
and
saw the bunch of claws and Fox's shoulder hanging from the
cave top.
Crow began to talk with White Bear who nodded now and then.
Crow
touched
the bag of claws, explaining he was only curious to see what
they were
made of.
At last, White Bear took no notice of what Crow was
doing, as he was
half-asleep. Crow saw his chance, and pulled down Fox's
shoulder and
ran
out of the camp. White Bear waked and asked his nephew
Black
Bear, "What
has happened?" Black Bear stuttered and took so long to
tell White
Bear
that Crow had run away with Fox's right shoulder that
White Bear
became
ferociously angry with Black Bear.
He told Black Bear
to go away and find himself a new home and never
come
back again. White
Bear in his rage took down the Sun and put it
alongside of the claws.
Outside, everything was in darkness. Animals
could not hunt and were
starving. So they appealed to Crow to get them
out of their present trouble,
caused by White Bear. In the meantime,
White Bear's daughter went for water.
She took a drink and saw
something
black; but it was too late. She had
swallowed the black speck.
Sometime
later a child was born to her, and the
infant grew so fast he could
walk
about. When he noticed the bright Sun
hanging beside the bunch of
claws,
the child began to cry for it. After
much frustration and begging,
White
Bear gave the Sun to the child to play
with inside their cave. Soon he
wished to play outside with the Sun, but at
first White Bear would not
allow it. Because the child continually begged,
White Bear relented
and
said yes, but only close to their home. If the
child saw anyone
coming,
he was to run inside at once and bring the Sun
with him. All of these
commandments the child promised to do as White Bear
directed. But as
soon as the boy ran outside, he threw the Sun up into the
sky, for the
child was the scheming Crow in yet another disguise. When White
Bear
discovered how he was cheated again by Crow, he was doubly
furious,
driving away everyone.
Ever since then, White Bears always have
been more ferocious and
bad-tempered toward other species, as well as
man