F 022 English myth
THE SON OF THE BEAR
Alberto Pablo Ravírez
(1) Long ago a woman had a son whose father was a bear. When the son of the bear would leave his house, the other children teased him and fought with him "tok tok tok." The bear always won the fights, killing the other boys. People who knew the son of the bear told others, "Don’t tease the son of the bear or he will kill you."
That is how the son of the bear lived until he was an adult. He was strong. Some people teased him, saying, "Look at his little tail." He was like a human, except for his tail. Whenever the son of the bear heard this, he got angry. Some people did not know how strong he was. One mestizo pushed him "pomek," and the son of the bear killed him. When the others saw the bear kill the man, they said, "What can we do with the bear? Let’s leave him where the jaguars live, so they will eat him.
(2) One day they sent the bear to a far away hill to bring back firewood. The bear took ten mules to carry the wood. He chopped the firewood "chek." When he looked in the distance, he saw some jaguars coming. He said to them, "Brothers-in-law, where are you going? Eat these mules."
The jaguars ate the mules "tok tok tok." When finished, the bear said to them, "Brothers-in-law, since you have eaten my mules, you must carry this wood back to the village." So the bear tied the wood to the ten jaguars’ backs as though they were mules. The bear hauled a lot of wood with the help of the jaguars. He led the jaguars with a rope.
(3) The other people thought that the son of the bear had been eaten, but that afternoon they looked down the road and saw the bear leading the ten jaguars. When they saw the jaguars, they locked their houses "tok tok." The bear tied the jaguars close to the house while he unloaded the firewood. The others said, "Why have you brought jaguars here? Take them back to the jungle!"
Since the jaguars understood the bear, he sent them away, saying, "Return to the jungle, brothers-in-law. You have now paid me for the mules that you ate."
When the jaguars left, the people left their houses, saying, "Where are the mules?"
"The jaguars ate the mules."
(4) The people said nothing to the bear. Soon the son of the bear killed another person. The others thought, "Let’s send the bear far away to the mountains where he can work alone."
They sent the bear to work where many people had disappeared. The bear took food with him to eat. When he arrived, he prepared his food. As the bear ate, he heard something coming "tok tok tok." He thought, "What’s that?"
He looked and saw a foot jumping. When it arrived, the foot said, "Did I fall on you? I’m going to fall on you."
The bear was angry and said, "I don’t understand the meaning of ‘I’m going to fall on you.’ Fall on me then."
(5) The foot fell on the bear, "pok konta konta konta." The bear grabbed the foot "pomek" and threw it aside. The bear heard something else coming "tok." It fell "pok," and the bear hit it "pok" and threw a second foot aside. The bear heard something else and saw a leg fall. He hit it and threw it aside. Other body parts fell "tok tok tok." As they fell, the bear hit them and threw them aside. The body parts began to form into a body with only the head missing. He heard something else coming "tok tok tok," and it fell "pok." Arms and intestines also fell. The bear hit them with his club and threw them aside. The bear continued to eat his meal while the body parts formed a demon. The demon said to the bear, "If you are a real man, let’s fight."
(6) "No, let’s not fight," answered the bear. The bear calmly continued to eat. The demon came and knocked the bear’s food out of his hands, causing it to fall on the ground "tok." The bear became angry and said, "Why did you knock the food out of my hands? If you want to fight, let’s fight."
"Yes, let’s fight," said the demon.
"You begin," said the bear.
"If you win, you can live in this house," said the demon.
The demon grabbed the bear and they fought for several hours "tok" until a rooster crowed two times.
(7) They continued to fight until the rooster called, "Ooo." The bear was thirsty but he continued to fight "tok tok tok." Dawn came and the rooster crowed again. The demon said, "We’ve fought enough."
The demon stopped fighting, so the bear said, "I beat you."
"This house has a lot of silver in it. I’ll show it to you."
The silver was under a rock. The demon showed him the money, saying, "This is all yours."
The demon left after he gave the money to the son of the bear. The bear lived in the house. Later the bear married and brought his mother-in-law to live with them. They lived happily and the bear became an important person because he had so much money. He had many men working for him. The bear lived a long time and eventually died. That is the story of the son of the bear.
© Copyright by Ronald James Anderson 1998. All Rights Reserved.