“Let us take it with us when we go out hunting. It may help us to find seal.”
And so one day in the dawn, they came to the old woman’s window and cried:
“Little bear, come and earn a share of our catch; come out hunting with us, bear.”
But before the bear went out, it sniffed at the old woman. And then it went out with the men.
On the way, one of the men said:
“Little bear, you must keep down wind, for if you do not so, the game will scent you, and take fright.”
One day when they had been out hunting and were returning home, they called in to the old woman:
“It was very nearly killed by the hunters from the northward; we hardly managed to save it alive. Give therefore some mark by which it may be known; a broad collar of plaited sinews about its neck.”
And so the old foster-mother made a mark for it to wear; a collar of plaited sinews, as broad as a harpoon line.
And after that it never failed to catch seal, and was stronger even than the strongest of hunters, and never stayed at home even in the worst of all weather. Also it was not bigger than an ordinary bear. All the people in the other villages knew it now, and although they sometimes came near to catching it, they would always let it go as soon as they saw its collar.
But now the people from beyond Angmagssalik heard that there was a bear which could not be caught, and then one of them said:
“If ever I see it, I will kill it.”
But the others said:
“You must not do that; the bear’s foster-mother could ill manage without its help. If you see it, do not harm it, but leave it alone, as soon as you see its mark.”
One day when the bear came home as usual from hunting, the old foster-mother said:
“Whenever you meet with men, treat them as if you were of one kin with them; never seek to harm them unless they first attack.”
And it heard the foster-mother’s words and did as she had said.
And thus the old foster-mother kept the bear with her. In the summer it went out hunting in the sea, and in winter on the ice, and the other hunters now learned to know its ways, and received shares of its catch.
Once during a storm the bear was away hunting as usual, and did not come home until evening. Then it sniffed at its foster-mother and sprang up on to the bench, where its place was on the southern side. Then the old foster-mother went out of the house, and found outside the body of a dead man, which the bear had hauled home. Then without going in again, the old woman went hurrying to the nearest house, and cried at the window:
“Are you all at home?”
“Why?”
“The little bear has come home with a dead man, one whom I do not know.”
When it grew light, they went out and saw that it was the man from the north, and they could see he had been running fast, for he had drawn off his furs, and was in his underbreeches. Afterwards they heard that it was his comrades who had urged the bear to resistance, because he would not leave it alone.
A long time after this had happened, the old foster-mother said to the bear:
“You had better not stay with me here always; you will be killed if you do, and that would be a pity. You had better leave me.”