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Source: Frank Russell, Myths of the
Jicarilla Apaches, 1898
An Apache boy, while playing with his comrades, pretended to be a bear,
and ran into a hole in the hillside. When he came out his feet and hands
had been transformed into bear's paws.
A second time he entered the den, and his limbs were
changed to the knees and elbows.
Four times he entered the den, and then came forth the
voracious cac-tla-yæ that devoured his former fellow-beings. One day the bear met a fox in the mountains. "I am looking
for a man to eat," said Bear.
"So am I," said Fox, "but your legs are so big and thick
you cannot run very fast to catch them. You ought to allow me to trim down
those posts a little, so you can run as swift as I."
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Bear consented to have the operation performed, and Fox not
only
cut the flesh from the legs of Bear, but also broke the bones with
his knife, thus killing the dreaded man-eater. Taking the leg bones of
Bear with him, he went to the home of the bear family, and there found
two other bears.
These monsters preyed upon the people, who were unable to
kill them, as they left their hearts at home when off on their marauding
expeditions.
Fox remained in hiding until the bears went away. When they
ran among the Indians, Fox responded to the cries for assistance, not by
flying to attack the bears, but by hastening to cut their hearts in two.
The bears were aware that their hearts had been tampered
with, and rushed with all speed to rescue them, but fell dead just
before they reached Fox.
Thus Fox destroyed one of the most dreaded of man's enemies
of that primeval time.
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