The Sea-Ringed World by María García Esperón

Author:María García Esperón
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Levine Querido

White-faced Bear

Alutiiq (Sugpiac) tradition

Mighty hunter!

Think, if you will,

when some bear

you wish to kill.

If it’s a mother

there with her cubs,

just let them live;

don’t spill their blood.

Hunting for pleasure?

It’s a mistake,

for there is a bear

who’ll make you pay.

Take no more

than what you need:

anything else

is just evil greed.

Qat’sqaq was the most prominent bear hunter in his village. At first, his friends admired him, but over time, seeing that they could not match him, they began to feel an unhealthy envy toward him. They plotted to ask a powerful shaman to turn him into a beast.

The shaman liked the request. It would be a challenge for his magical arts.

“You must kill a bear,” he told them, “then remove its skin and place it, without his noticing, under Qat’sqaq’s bed.”

The hunters felled a good-size beast and skinned it. Then, led by the shaman, they entered Qat’sqaq’s hut when he was gone, and hid the skin under his bed.

The next day, when Qat’sqaq awoke, he found he had transformed into a huge bear with a white face and paws.

“The white marks will let you know which bear is Qat’sqaq,” the shaman had told the other hunters.

Qat’sqaq went to the tundra to live like a wild beast. He became the most ruthless destroyer of men, giving them no time to shoot their arrows or throw their axes. Once he had ripped them apart, he would examine the remains as if searching for someone.

Many years later, in another village, a young man began to stand out in bear hunting. His name was Panaq and he was constantly risking his life. His friends, worried, begged him to spend less time on the hunt because he would soon run into the dreaded white-faced bear, which would destroy him without mercy.

“They say he is a man who was transformed into a beast by the shaman of the neighboring village. So he has sworn revenge on the human race that wronged him with magic,” they explained.

“I’m not afraid,” Panaq replied, “and if your advice inspires anything in me, it’s the desire to kill every bear that crosses my path.”

A few days after this conversation, Panaq left his village and entered the tundra, intent on finding the white-faced bear to show as a trophy to his friends.

Instead, he found a large mother bear with her two cubs.

Maybe I shouldn’t kill this bear, he mused at the sight. She’s not the beast I’m looking for. Besides, her cubs would be unprotected. Even I have my limits.

Just then, the bear reared up in a threatening stance, wanting to protect her cubs. Panaq instinctively nocked his bow, loosing an arrow with deadly aim and striking the mother bear right in the heart. The cubs fled in terror, and the hunter dragged the carcass to his village.

His friends shook their heads in disapproval.

“You’re offending the race of bears,” they said. “Soon they’ll seek revenge, and the white-faced bear will come for you. Straight to your house it will go.”

This did nothing but stoke the fires in Panaq’s heart.

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