Next in our spotlight of bear stories
comes a tale from the icy Far North….brrr!!
Did you know that the Inuit are
the only people today allowed to hunt
polar bears? In fact, the young Inuit
male must go through his first successful
bear hunt before being accepted as an
adult!
The Inuit treat polar bears with utmost
respect. Consequently, after having hunted
and killed one, they observe a period
of mourning as if for a member of his
own family, remaining prostrate for three
days if it is a male bear and five, for
a female.
"A long long time ago, an
Eskimo woman gave birth to a pair of twins
covered in long fur.
These large babies were called Nanook
and then abandoned by their mother, who
was terrified of their strange appearance.
The twins headed in opposite directions,
one crawling inland and the other went
for the icy waters.
Some years later, the same Inuit woman
had given birth to two more sons. One
spring day, these brothers set off hunting.
One found himself on an iceberg, coming
face to face with a huge polar bear who
spoke and said that he was their long-lost
brother but had forgiven their mother
for having abandoned him. The other brother,
in the meantime, had also encountered
the other twin, who had become a brown
bear.
Since that day forth, the Inuit have always
regarded bears and humans as members of
the same family who do not live together."
- Ancient Inuit Legend
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