Bear: Any of the various large, omnivorous mammals having a shaggy coat and a short tail.
The Bear as featured in mythology, fable, folklore and ritual.
Aesop's Fables: From the Signet version, edited by Jack Zipes;
The Lion, the Bear, and the Fox
A lion and a bear pounced upon a fawn at the same time and had a long, grueling fight over it. The struggle was so hard and even that both of them eventually lay half-blinded and half-dead on the ground without enough strength to touch the prize that was stretched out between them. A fox, who had gone round them at a distance several times, saw how helpless they were, and he stepped in between the combatants and scampered off with the booty.
"What miserable creatures we are!" the lion and the bear cried. "We've knocked ourselves out and destroyed one another merely to give a rogue a dinner!"
The Bear and the Fox
A bear used to boast of his excessive love for humankind, saying that he never touched or mauled a human corpse. The fox observed with a smile, "I would be more impressed by your kindness if you never ate a human being alive."
We should not wait until a person dies before showing our respect.
Symbols & Transformation:
In the work by Alexander Porteous, The Forest in Folklore and Mythology, he writes of the transformation of a smith into a bear;
"According to a tradition of the Pyrenees a man, while one day beating hot iron on his anvil, raised such sparks that they reached the eye of God Himself, Who cursed him and condemned him to become a bear. He was allowed to climb all trees except the Beech, whereupon he at once endeavored to uproot the tree."
In the work Mythology by Edith Hamilton; she writes of the transformation of a daughter of Arcadia into a bear;
"Callisto; She was the daughter of the Lycaon, a king of Arcadia who had been changed into a wolf because of his wickedness. He had set human flesh on the table for Zeus when the god was his guest. His punishment was deserved, but his daughter suffered as terribly as he and she was innocent of all wrong. Zeus saw her hunting in the train of Artemis and fell in love with her. Hera, furiously angry, turned the maiden into a bear after her son was born. When the boy was grown and out hunting, the Goddess brought Callisto before him, intending to have him shoot his mother, in ignorance, of course. But Zeus snatched the bear away and placed her among the stars, where she is called the Great Bear. Later her son Arcas was placed beside her and called the Lesser Bear. Hera, enraged at this honor to her rival, persuaded the God of the Sea to forbid the Bears to descend into the ocean like the other stars. They alone of the constellations never set below the horizon."
Hamilton also writes of the Huntress known as Atlanta, who took part in the Calydonian Boar Hunt. She was originally disowned by her father for not having been born a boy. The infant was left on a mountainside and left to die in the wilderness. A she-bear found the baby and reared the child as her own.
In the mythology of the Egyptians, the dark god Set was said to have a kingdom in the northern sky, this unearthly dwelling place was known as the Great Bear, the north was believed to be a place of darkness, cold and death by the Egyptians. Lewis Spence writes about this in his work Ancient Egyptian Myths and Legends.
Myths of the Blackfoot & the Pawnee: From the work by Lewis Spence, The Myths of North American Indians, a story of a grizzly bear who possessed magical powers;
The Sacred Bear-Spear
An interesting Blackfoot myth relates how that tribe obtained its sacred Bear-spear. Many generations ago, even before the Blackfeet used horses as beasts of burden, the tribe was undertaking its autumn migration, when one evening before striking camp for the night it was reported that a dog-sledge or cart belonging to the chief was missing. To make matters worse, the chief's ermine robe and his wife's buckskin dress, with her sacred elk-skin robe had been packed in the little cart. Strangely enough, no one could recollect having noticed the dog during the march. Messengers were dispatched to the camping-site of the night before, but to no avail.
At last, the chief's son, Sokumapi, a boy of about twelve years of age, begged to be allowed to search for the missing dog, a proposal to which his father, after some demur, consented. Sokumpai set out alone for the last camping-ground, which was under the shadows of the Rocky Mountains, and carefully examined the site. Soon he found a single dog-sledge track leading into a deep gulch, near the entrance to which he discovered a large cave.
A heap of freshly turned earth stood in front of the cave, beside which was the missing cart. As he stood looking at it, wondering what had become of the dog which had drawn it, an immense grizzly-bear suddenly dashed out. So rapid was its attack that Sokumapi had no chance either to defend himself or to take refuge in flight. The bear, giving vent to the most terrific roars, dragged him into the cave, hugging him with such force that he fainted. When he regained consciousness it was to find the bear's great head within a foot of his own, and he thought that he saw a kindly and almost human expression in its big brown eyes. For a long time, he lay still, until at last, to his intense surprise, the Bear broke the silence by addressing him in human speech.
"Have no fear," said the grizzly. "I am the Great Bear, and my power is extensive. I know the circumstances of your search, and I have drawn you to this cavern because I desired to assist you. Winter is upon us, and you had better remain with me during the cold season, in the course of which I will reveal to you the secret of my supernatural power."
Bear Magic
It will be observed that the circumstances of this tale are almost identical with those which relate to the manner in which the Beaver Medicine was revealed to mankind. The hero of both stories remains during the winter with the animal, the chief of its species, who in the period of hibernation instructs him in certain potent mysteries.
The Bear, having reassured Sokumapi, showed him how to transform various substances into food. His strange host slept during most of the winter; but when the warm winds of spring returned, and the snows melted from the hills the grizzly became restless, and told Sokumapi that it was time to leave the cave. Before they quitted it, however, he taught the lad the secret of his supernatural power. Among other things, he showed him how to make a Bear-spear.
He instructed him to take a long stick, to one end of which he must secure a sharp point, to symbolize the bear's tusks. To the staff must be attached a bear's nose and teeth, while the rest of the spear was to be covered with bear's skin, painted the sacred colour, red. The Bear also told him to decorate the handle with eagle's feathers and grizzly claws, and in war-time to wear a grizzly claw in his hair, so that the strength of the Great Bear might go with him in battle, and to imitate the noise a grizzly makes when it charges.
The Bear furthermore instructed him what songs should be used in order to heal the sick, and how to paint his face and body so that he would be invulnerable in battle, and, lastly, told him of the sacred nature of the spear, which was only to be employed in warfare and for curing disease.
Thus if a person was sick unto death, and a relative purchased the Bear-spear, its supernatural power would restore the ailing man to health. Equipped with his knowledge, Sokumpai returned to his people, who had long mourned him as dead. After a feast had been given to celebrate his homecoming he began to manufacture the Bear-spear as directed by his friend.
How the Magic Worked
Shortly after his return, the Crows made war upon the Blackfeet, and on the meeting of the two tribes in battle Sokumapi appeared in front of his people carrying the Bear-spear in his back. His face and body were painted as the Great Bear had instructed him, and he sang the battle songs that the grizzly had taught him. After these ceremonies, he impetuously charged the enemy, followed by all his braves in a solid phalanx, and such was the efficacy of the Bear Magic that the Crows immediately took flight.
The victorious Blackfeet brought back Sokumapi to their camp in triumph, to the accompaniment of the Bear songs. He was made a war chief, and ever afterwards the spear which he had used was regarded as the palladium of the Blackfoot Indians. In the spring the Bear-spear is unrolled from its covering and produced when the first thunder is heard, and when the Bear begins to quit his winter quarters; but when the Bear returns to his den to hibernate the spear is once more rolled up and put away. The greatest care is taken to protect it against injury. It has a special guardian, and no woman is permitted to touch it.
A second tale of the Pawnee tribe mentioned by Spence in his book;
The Bear Man
There once was a boy of the Pawnee tribe who imitated the ways of the bear; and indeed, he much resembled the animal. When he played with the other boys of his village he would pretend to be a bear, and even when he grew up he would often tell his companions laughingly that he could turn himself into a bear whenever he liked.
His resemblance to the animal came about in this manner. Before the boy was born his father had gone on the war-path, and at some distance from his home had come upon a tiny bear-cub. The little creature looked at him so wistfully and was so small and helpless that he could not pass by without taking notice of it.
So he stooped and picked it up in his arms, tied some Indian tobacco round its neck, and said: "I know that the Great Spirit, Tirawa, will care for you, but I cannot go on my way without putting these things round your neck to show that I feel kindly toward you. I hope that the animals will take care of my son when he is born, and helping him to grow up a great and wise man."
With that, he went on his way. On his return, he told his wife of his encounter with the Little Bear, told her how he had taken it in his arms and looked at it and talked to it. Now there is an Indian superstition that a woman, before a child is born, must not look fixedly at, or think much about any animal, or the infant will resemble it.
So when the warrior's boy was born he was found to have the ways of a bear, and to become more and more like that animal the older he grew. The boy, quite aware of the resemblance, often went away by himself into the forest, where he used to pray to the Bear.
The Bear Man Slain
On one occasion, when he was quite grown up, he accompanied a way party of the Pawnees as their chief. They traveled a considerable distance, but ere they arrived at any village they fell into a trap prepared for them by their enemies, the Sioux. Taken completely off their guard, the Pawnees, to the number of about forty, were slain to a man.
The part of the country in which this incident took place was rocky and cedar-clad and harboured many bears, and the bodies of the dead Pawnees lay in a ravine in the path of these animals. When they came to the body of the Bear-man a she-bear instantly recognized it as that of their benefactor, who had sacrificed smokes to them, made songs about them, and done them many a good turn during his lifetime.
She called to her companion and begged him to do something to bring the Bear-man to life again. The other protested that he could do nothing. "Nevertheless," he added, "I will try. If the sun were shining I might succeed, but when it is dark and cloudy I am powerless."
The Resuscitation of the Bear-Man
The sun was shining but fitfully that day, however. Long intervals of gloom succeeded each gleam of sunlight. But the two bears set about collecting the remains of the Bear-man, who was indeed sadly mutilated, and, lying down on his body, they worked over him with their magic medicine till he showed signs of returning to life.
At length, he fully regained consciousness, and, finding himself in the presence of two bears, was at a loss to know what had happened to him. But the animals related how they had brought him to life, and the sight of his dead comrades lying around him recalled what had gone before. Gratefully acknowledging the services the bears had done him, he accompanied them to their den.
He was still very weak, and frequently fainted, but ere long he recovered his strength and was as well as ever, only he had no hair on his head, for the Sioux had scalped him. During his sojourn with the bears, he was taught all the things that he knew-which was a great deal, for all Indians know that the bear is one of the wisest animals.
However, his host begged him not to regard the wonderful things he did as the outcome of his own strength, but to give thanks to Tirawa, who had made the bears and had given them their wisdom and greatness. Finally, he told the Bear-man to return to his people, where he would become a very great man, great in war and in wealth. But at the same time, he must not forget the bears, nor cease to imitate them, for on that would depend much of his success.
"I shall look after you," he concluded. "If I die, you shall die; if I grow old, you shall grow old along with me. This tree"-pointing to a cedar-"shall be a protector to you. It never becomes old; it is always fresh and beautiful, the gift of Tirawa. And if a thunderstorm should come while you are at home throw some cedar wood on the fire and you will be safe."
Giving him a bear-skin cap to hide his hairless scalp, the Bear then bade him depart. Arrived at his home, the young man was greeted with amazement, for it was thought that he had perished with the rest of the war party. But when he convinced his parents that it was indeed their son who visited them, they received him joyfully.
When he had embraced his friends and had been congratulated by them on his return, he told them of the bears, who were waiting outside the village. Taking presents of Indian tobacco, sweet-smelling clay, buffalo-meat, and beads, he returned to them, and again talked with the he-bear. The latter hugged him, saying: "As my fur has touched you, you will be great; as my hands have touched your hands, you will be fearless; and as my mouth touches your mouth, you will be wise."
With that, the bear departed. True to his words, the animal made the Bear-man the greatest warrior of his tribe. He was the originator of the Bear Dance, which the Pawnees still practice. He lived to an advanced age, greatly honoured by his people.
Spence writes of the origins of a constellation known as the Great Bear;
The Seven Brothers
The Blackfeet have a curious legend in explanation of the constellation known as the Plough or Great Bear. Once there dwelt together nine children, seven boys and two girls. While the six older brothers were away on the war-path the elder daughter, whose name was Bearskin-woman, married a grizzly bear. Her father was so enraged that he collected his friends and ordered them to surround the grizzly's cave and slay him. When the girl heard that her spouse had been killed she took a piece of his skin and wore it as an amulet.
Through the agency of her husband's supernatural power, one dark night she was changed into a grizzly bear, and rushed through the camp, killing and rending the people, even her own father and mother, sparing only her youngest brother and her sister, Okinai and Sinopa. She then took her former shape, and returned to the lodge occupied by the two orphans, who were greatly terrified when they heard her muttering to herself, planning her death.
Sinpoa had gone to the river one day, when she met her six brothers returning from the war-path. She told them what had happened in their absence. They reassured her, and bade her gather a large number of prickly pears. These she was to strew in front of the lodge, leaving only a small path uncovered by them.
In the dead of night, Okinai and Sinopa crept out of the lodge, picking their way down the little path that was free from the prickly pears. Roaring with pain and anger, she immediately assumed her bear shape and rushed furiously at her brothers. But Okinai rose to the occasion. He shot an arrow into the air, and so far as it flew the brothers and sister found themselves just in that distance in front of the savage animal behind them.
The Chase
The beast gained on them, however; but Okinai waved a magic feather, and thick underbrush rose in its path. Again, Bearskin-woman made headway. Okinai caused a lake to spring up before her.
Yet again she neared the brothers and sister, and this time Okinai raised a great tree, into which the refugees climbed. The Grizzly-woman, however, succeeded in dragging four of the brothers from the tree, when Okinai shot an arrow into the air.
Immediately his little sister sailed into the sky. Six times more he shot an arrow, and each time a bother went up, Okinai herself following them as the last arrow soared into the blue.
Thus the orphans became stars; and one can see that they took the same position in the sky as they had occupied in the tree, for the small star at one side of the bunch is Sinopa, while the four who huddle together at the bottom are those who had been dragged from the branches by Bearskin-woman.
Animal Sacrifice: In the written work, The Golden Bough by James Frazer, he writes at length in the chapter of Killing the Divine Animal, of agricultural peoples, hunting, and pastoral tribes who kill and consume the same beings they worship. He writes of bears, and many other venerated animals, who were captured, reared and ultimately sacrificed;
"Doubt also hangs at first sight over the meaning of the bear sacrifice offered by the Ainoor Ainu, a people who are found in the Japanese island of Yezo or Yesso, as well as in Saghalien and the southern of the Kurile Islands. It is not quite easy to define the attitude of the Aino towards the bear. On one hand, they give it the name of kamui or 'god'; but as they apply the same word to strangers, it may mean no more than a being supposed to be endowed with superhuman, or at all events extraordinary, powers. Again, it is said that 'the bear is their chief divinity'; 'in the religion of the Aino the bear plays a chief part'; 'amongst the animals, it is especially the bear which receives an idolatrous veneration'; 'they worship it after fashion'; 'there is no doubt that this wild beast inspires more of the feeling which prompts worship than the inanimate forces of nature, and the Aino may be distinguished as bear-worshipers'. Yet, on the other hand, they kill the bear whenever they can; 'in bygone years the Ainu considered bear-hunting the most manly and useful way in which a person could possibly spend his time'; 'the men spend the autumn, winter, and spring in hunting dear and bears. Part of their tribute of taxes is paid in skins, and they subsist on the dried meat'; bear's flesh is indeed one of their staple foods; they eat it both fresh and salted; and the skins of bears furnish them with clothing. In fact, the worship of which writers on this subject speak appears to be paid chiefly to the dead animal. Thus, they kill a bear whenever they can, 'in the process of dissecting the carcass they endeavour to conciliate the deity, whose representative they have slain, by making elaborate obeisances and deprecatory salutations'; 'when a bear has been killed the Ainu sit down and admire it, making their salaams to it, worship it, and offer presents of inao'; 'when a bear is trapped or wounded by an arrow, the hunters go through an apologetic or propitiatory ceremony'. The skulls of the slain bears receive a place of honour in their huts, or are set up on sacred posts outside the huts, and are treated with much respect: libations of millet beer, and of sake, an intoxicating liquor, are offered to them; and they are addressed as 'divine preservers' (akoshiratki kamui),or 'precious divinities'."
"The bear can hardly, therefore, be described as a sacred animal of the Aino, nor yet as a totem; for they do not call themselves bears, and they kill and eat the animal freely. However, they have a legend of a woman who had a son by a bear; and many of them who dwell in the mountains pride themselves on being descended from the bear. Such people are called 'Descendents of the Bear' (Kimun Kamui sanikiri), and in the pride of their hearts they will say, 'As for me, I am a child of the god of the mountains,' meaning by 'the god of the mountains no other than the bear. It is therefore possible that, as our principal authority, the Rev J. Batchelor, believes, they bear may have been the totem of an Aino clan; but even if that were so it would not explain the respect shewn for the animal by the whole Aino people."
"But it is the bear-festival of the Aino which concerns us here. Towards the end of winter, a bear cub is caught and brought into the village. If it is very small, it is suckled by an Aino woman, but should there be no woman able to suckle it, the little woman is fed from the hand or the mouth. If it cries loudly and long for its mother, as it is apt to do, its owner will take it to his bosom and let it sleep with him for a few nights, thus dispelling its fears and sense of loneliness. During the day it plays about in the hut with the children and is treated with great affection. But when the cub grows big enough to pain people by hugging or scratching them, he is shut up in a strong wooden cage, where he stays generally for two or three years, fed on fish and millet porridge, till it is time for him to be killed and eaten. But it is a peculiarly striking fact that the young bear is not kept merely to furnish a good meal; rather he is regarded and honoured as a fetish, or even as a sort of higher being'."
"In Yezo, the festival is generally celebrated in September or October. Before it takes place the Aino apologize to their gods, alleging that they have treated the bear kindly as long as they could, and now they can feed him no longer, and are obliged to kill him. A man who gives a bear feast invites his relations and friends; in a small village near the whole community takes part in the feast; indeed, guests from distant villages are invited and generally come, allured by the prospect of getting drunk for nothing. The form of invitation runs somewhat as follows; I, resides among the mountains. My friends and masters, come yet to the feast; we will then unite in the great pleasure of sending the god away. Come.' When all the people are assembled in front of the cage, an orator chosen for the purpose of addresses the bear and tells it that they are about to send it forth to its ancestors. He craves pardon for what they are about to do to it, hopes it will not be angry, and comforts it by assuring the animal that many of the sacred whittled sticks (inao) and plenty of cakes and wine will be sent with it on the long journey. One speech of this sort which Mr Batchelor heard ran as follows: 'O thou divine one, thou wast sent into the world for us to hunt. O thou precious little divinity, we worship thee; pray hear our prayer. We have nourished thee and brought thee up with a deal of pains and trouble, all because we love thee so. Now, as thou hast grown big, we are able to send thee to thy father and mother. When thou comest to them please speak well of us, and tell them how kind we have been; please come to us again and we will sacrifice thee.'"
"This principle perhaps explains the attitude, at first sight, puzzling and contradictory, of the Aino towards the bear. The flesh and skin of the bear is an intelligent and powerful animal, it is necessary to offer some satisfaction or atonement to the bear species for the loss which it sustains in the death of so many of its members. This satisfaction or atonement is made by rearing the young bears, treating them, so long as they live, with respect, and killing them with extraordinary marks of sorrow and devotion. So the other bears are appeased, and do not resent the slaughter of their kind by attacking the slayers or deserting the country, which would deprive the Aino of one or their means of subsistence."
"The Gilyaks, a Tunguzian people of Eastern Siberia, hold a bear-festival of the same sort once a year in January. 'The bear is the object of the most refined solicitude of an entire village and plays the chief part of their religious ceremonies.' An old she-bear is shot and her cub is reared, but not suckled, in the village. When the bear is big enough he is taken from his cage and dragged through the village. But first they lead him to the bank of the river, for this is believed to ensure an abundance of fish to each family. He is then taken into every house in the village, where fish, brandy, and so forth are offered to him. Some people prostrate themselves before the beast. His entrance into a house is supposed to be a blessing; and if he snuffs at the food offered to him, this is also a blessing. Nevertheless, they tease and worry, poke and tickle the animal continually, so that he is surly and snappish. After being thus taken to every house, he is tied to a peg and shot dead with arrows. His head is then cut off, decked with shavings, and placed on the table where the feast is set out. Here they beg pardon of the beast and worship him. Then his flesh is roasted and eaten in special vessels of wood finely carved. They do not eat the flesh raw, nor drink the blood, as the Aino do. The brain and entrails are eaten last; and the skull, still decked with shavings, is placed on a tree near the house. Then the people sing and both sexes dance in ranks as bears."
"Thus among the benefits which the Aino anticipates from the slaughter of the worshipful animals, not the least substantial is that of gorging himself in their flesh and blood, both of the present and on many a similar occasion hereafter, and that pleasing prospect again is derived from his firm faith in the spiritual immortality and bodily resurrection of the dead animals.. Meantime it is not unimportant to observe that the solemn festivals at which the Aino, the Gilyaks, and other tribes slaughter the tame caged bears with demonstrations of respect and sorrow, are probably nothing but an extension or glorification of similar rites which the hunter performs over any wild bear which he chances to kill in the forest. Indeed, the regard to the Gilyaks we are expressly informed that this is the case. If we would understand the meaning of the Gilyak ritual, says Mr Sternberg, 'we must above all remember that the bear festivals are not, as is usually but falsely assumed, celebrated only at the killing of a house-bear but are held on every occasion when a Gilyak succeeds in slaughtering a bear in the chase. It is true that in such cases the festival assumes less imposing dimensions, but in its essence, it remains the same. When the head and the head and skin of a bear killed in the forest are brought into the village, they are accorded a triumphal reception with music and solemn ceremonial...Hence the great winter festival is only an extension of the rite which is observed at the slaughter of every bear.'"
From the notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci;
"It is said of the bear that when he goes to the behives to take their honey the bees begin to sting him so that he leaves the honey and rushes to avenge himself; and wishing to take vengeance on all those who sting him he fails to take vengeance on any; in such a wise that his rage is turned to madness, and he flings himself on the ground in exasperation vainly trying to defend himself by his hands and feet."