hen did the bear grow angry, and rise up on his hind legs, and
growl. But Keesh walked right up to the bear."

"Ay," Bim continued the story. "Right up to the bear Keesh walked. And
the bear took after him, and Keesh ran away. But as he ran he dropped a
little round ball on the ice. And the bear stopped and smelled of it,
and then swallowed it up. And Keesh continued to run away and drop
little round balls, and the bear continued to swallow them up."

Exclamations and cries of doubt were being made, and Ugh-Gluk expressed
open unbelief.

"With our own eyes we saw it," Bim affirmed.

And Bawn--"Ay, with our own eyes. And this continued until the bear
stood suddenly upright and cried aloud in pain, and thrashed his
forepaws madly about. And Keesh continued to make off over the ice to a
safe distance. But the bear gave him no notice, being occupied with the
misfortune the little round balls had wrought within him."

"Ay, within him," Bim interrupted. "For he did claw at himself, and
leap about over the ice like a playful puppy, save from the way he
growled and squealed it was plain it was not play but pain. Never did I
see such a sight!"

"Nay, never was such a sight seen," Bawn took up the strain. "And
furthermore, it was such a large bear."

"Witchcraft," Ugh-Gluk suggested.

"I know not," Bawn replied. "I tell only of what my eyes beheld. And
after a while the bear grew weak and tired, for he was very heavy and he
had jumped about with exceeding violence, and he went off along the
shore-ice, shaking his head slowly from side to side and sitting down
ever and again to squeal and cry. And Keesh followed after the bear, and
we followed after Keesh, and for that day and three days more we
followed. The bear grew weak, and never ceased crying from his pain."

"It was a charm!" Ugh-Gluk exclaimed. "Surely it was a charm!"

"It may well be."

And Bim relieved Bawn. "The bear wandered, now this way and now that,
doubling back and forth and crossing his trail in circles, so that at
the end he was near where Keesh had first come upon him. By this time he
was quite sick, the bear, and could crawl no farther, so Keesh came up
close and speared him to death."

"And then?" Klosh-Kwan demanded.

"Then we left Keesh skinning the bear, and came running that the news of
the killing might be told."

And in the afternoon of that day the women hauled in the meat of the
bear while the men sat in council assembled. When Keesh