Reading Notes - Eskimo Folk Tales: The Woman Who Had a Bear as a Foster-Son, Reading Part A

·      An old woman lived close to the shore, and she was part of a village

·      The individuals that could hunt would give her meat and blubber

o   Every now and then they would catch a bear and share and eat the bear’s meat

·      The wife of the hunter that had killed the bear offered the old woman a bear cub

o   The old woman agreed, and she thawed the bear cub, fed it, and it slept with her at night

·      The bear soon began to grow quickly, and it gained a human like intelligence

o   It would sniff to ask its foster mother for food

·      The other villagers would bring the cub food

·      The children would seek the cub out to play, and the old woman reminded the cub to sheathe its claws

·      The cub grew stronger and eventually the adults began to play with it, which helped the old woman by making the cub stronger

·      Eventually the cub grew too strong and the villagers decided to take it hunting with them

o   They told the bear to stay down wind so as to not scare the prey

·      One day, the hunters and the bear return and tell the old woman that the hunters from the north almost killed the bear

o   They told her to give the bear a mark in the form of a collar to identify the bear

·      After that, the bear was always successful in the hunt and would always go out to hunt

·      Other hunters came to know of the bear and would always release it after they saw its collar

·      Hunters from beyond Angmagssalik heard of this bear that could not be caught, and one stated that he/she would kill it if they ever saw it

o   Others responded that heshe shouldn’t because the bear’s foster mother would not be able to manage without its help

·      The foster mother told the bear one day to treat other men as if they were kin and not harm them unless they attacked first

o   The bear obeyed

·      One day the bear returned home and dragged the body of a man with him

o   The man was from the north and his comrades had encourage the bear to fight back because the man would not leave it alone

·      After the event, the mother told the bear that he should leave because he would be killed if he stayed with her

·      One day when there were no clouds, the foster mother told the bear to go

o   She smeared oil and soot on her hands and stroked the bear’s side

·      Some hunters in the north would say that you would often see a large bear with a black spot on its side 

Polar Bear. Source: Wikipedia.

Bibliography: This story can be found here. Story source: Eskimo Folk-Tales by Knud Rasmussen with illustrations by native Eskimo artists (1921).