93. The Grisly Bear Boy; or, the Stolen Girls.
Some kind of a "mystery' stole girls from a village. Every morning a girl was missing. The people wept and were afraid. They could not learn what had become of the girls. They proposed to shift camp. Among them was a lad despised by the other people. He was small of stature, lean, and ugly. He dressed in rags. This lad said he would find the girls; but the others laughed, for they did not know his powers. His guardian was the grisly bear, whose skin he used as a blanket. When he covered himself with it, he became possessed of great strength and magical power. The men watched every night to End out what took away the girls ; but invariably at midnight they fell asleep. This sleep was caused by the "mystery.'
One night the lad said he would watch, and, all the other men laughed at him, saying, "How can he detect anything when even the shamans have failed'," The boy donned his bear-skin, and watched. At midnight, from the east appeared a large object moving in the air. It was black, excepting the heart or centre, which was bright as daylight. It entered one of the houses and emerged again, disappearing toward the west. The lad followed in that direction, and, after travelling a long distance, found the tracks of a large man. This was evidently where the "mystery' had alighted on the ground. He followed the tracks and came to the place where the girl's tracks also appeared. The monster had evidently become tired by carrying her so far and now made her walk. At last the tracks reached a beaten trail whit.' entered a hole in the ground. The lad travelled along in the darkness, and at last emerged in another country, where everything seemed old. dirty, and soot-begrimed. The trail was very dusty, but there was no wind to carry the dust. Evidently wind and rain were unknown there. There was plenty of light; although no sun, sky, or clouds were visible. Soon he arrived at a house built across the trail like a high fence. The lad pushed the door, which opened and immediately shut again. He found he could not open it from the inside. Soon he was accosted by a huge soot-begrimed man with a horrid leer on his face. The man was carrying a large sword which shone like a looking-glass, and was about to cut the lad in two with it. 'The latter cried, "Forbear, my friend! I will be your slave, and, besides, I will show you many wonderful things.' The man told the lad to follow him; and, when his back was turned, the lad put on his grisly-bear-skin, and, becoming like a bear, he struck off the man's sword arm with his paws, and then tore him to pieces.
Soon he came to another house, where he discovered some of the girls, who were kept there as prisoners. Continuing his journey, he came to a third fence or house, where he was met by another man like the first one, and he disposed of him in the same way. In a fourth house, he found the rest of the girls, and liberated them. When he tried to return. he could not open the several doors, but he hit them with the monsters' swords, and thus drove them in two. He returned home with all the girls, and the people were glad. He married four of the finest girls, and afterwards became a noted man.
It is said that another time he went underground, and liberated a number of young men who had been stolen from a different village by two monster women. He killed these women in somewhat the same manner as he had killed the men.
