Page:Journal of American Folklore vol. 12.djvu/443

Rh sky, but her life-spirit has entered another bear who also lies upon her back in the den, invisible, and sleeping the winter sleep. When the spring comes around again, this bear will again issue forth from the den to be again pursued by the hunters, to be again slain, but again to send to the den her life-spirit, to issue forth yet again, when the sun once more awakens the sleeping earth.

And so the drama keeps on eternally. And so it is, the Micmacs say, that when a bear lies on her back within her den she is invisible even to those who might enter that den. Only a hunter gifted with great magic power could perceive her then.

When we attempt to interpret this legend, we cannot fail to be impressed by the singular fidelity with which its details present, often simultaneously, the habits of birds and animals and the movements of the stars. Such accuracy, it is plain, can only result from long and careful observations of the objects described, and, indeed, who- ever is acquainted with even our northern Indians knows well that very little in nature that can be seen with the naked eye escapes their observation. Brasseur de Bourbourg, who, in spite of his reckless theories, knew the Indians well, has said that they do nothing without a reason for it, and his statement has been echoed almost word for word by several other authorities. Nor, he might have added, do they think anything without a reason for it. The Micmacs of to-day do not pretend to know why the four stars of their Bear were so called. They only say that they know the Celestial Bear never dies, because she is always in sight, and that is why her earthly descendants never die of natural causes, but only fall asleep each autumn and come to life again in spring. For all earthly animals are the descendants of the ancestor animal in the sky, and their appearance and habits are but the reflection of hers. In all things as it was and is in the sky, so it is on earth. It is the bear's apparent power of dying and coming to life again which has impressed the imagination of the Indians, just as, for an identical reason, they have been impressed by the serpent's habit of shedding its skin. Hence, and because of its general resemblance to man, especially when walking erect on its hind paws, the bear was regarded by the natives of this continent as a highly mystical and sacred animal, endowed with extraordinary powers. These facts are of interest because they may assist us towards a possible explanation of the question why these stars were called the Bear. But the zoölogical elements of the legend become of secondary interest when we begin to note how well it agrees with the movements of the stars. We are well aware that the four bear stars never set in our latitude, and that this is what the Indians mean by saying that the bear is always in sight. If now we turn to our chart and observe the position of these stars