Descriptions of the Hunting of the Bear and Related Ceremonies
Lapps and Hunting of the Bear
Dear defeated one of the forest!
Give us perfect health!
Take your catch to the storehouse,
bring a thousand when you come
hundred, hundred as prey.
Clearly I come from the Gods
very happy with a catch.
as if without wonder, without trouble.
Gave a gift provided money.
When I came home
I’ll celebrate for three nights.
Across valleys, roadless mountains.
he drives the evil one before him.
Your torches still came to the shed.
I honor you afterwards.
For a year with the prey of your scythe.
So that I won’t forget the correct song
therefore come once more.
A Lapp who has made a circuit around a bear will invite his closest relatives and friends to a kind of party as the moment for the kill approaches. There they beat the drum in order to get the bear.Circling the bear. In the fall, old and cautious bears habitually go to their dens before the first snowfall. Occasionally it happens that the snow surprises the bear before it has had time to crawl into its winter den, and therefore the hunters usually look for its tracks. When they see the tracks, they will know that the bear is not going to go very far before it will lie down to sleep, and they will not follow the tracks any farther, but make a circle around the mountain or area where they think the bear will make its den. If the hunter, after walking around the circle, notices that the bear has not gone outside the circle, he will make another circle around it. The diameter of the inner circle is much smaller than that of the earlier one. This is called circling the bear. The hunter makes a careful note of the location and leaves the bear in peace until the time when there will be more snow. Then he can get the bear on skis when the snow is hard enough to carry its weight even in the event of the bear’s escaping from his den before it is killed.
The Lapps do not refer to a bear by its proper name while they are getting ready for a bear hunt. They use special secret words for the bear itself and everything associated with it: They show great respect for the bear, they consider it as the most sacred of animals, and therefore it is called ‘sacred game’, ‘little man of the hill’, ‘fur-coat Grandpa’.
According to what Lapps have told us, this bear-hunters’ language and all the strange and clownish bear-hunting activities are based on the following story.
“Three brothers had an only sister whom they hated so much that she had to flee to the wilderness. Totally exhausted, she finally arrived at a bear’s den, and after they became better acquainted, he took her as his wife and had a son by her. When after some time, the bear had grown old and the son had grown up, the bear said to his wife that, because of his advanced old age, he did not want to live any longer and that he wanted to make tracks on the new-fallen snow this fall, so that his wife’s three brothers could see his tracks, circle him and kill him. Even though the wife did everything she could to stop him, the bear was not to be persuaded. He did as he had said, so that the three brothers would circle him using his tracks. In addition, the bear ordered that a piece of brass be placed on his forehead. This was to be a sign to distinguish him from other bears, but also to prevent his son, who was off somewhere, from killing him.
When a deep snow had fallen, the three brothers started off to kill the bear, which they had circled earlier. Then the bear asked his wife if all the brothers had been equally nasty to her. The wife answered that the two older ones had been worse, but that the youngest one had been somewhat kinder. When the brothers arrived at the bear’s den, the bear sprang out and attacked the oldest brother, biting and wounding him very badly. The bear himself was not wounded, and he went back to his den. When the second brother came, the bear attacked him too, injuring him in the same way as the previous one, and went back to his den. Then the bear asked his wife to put her arms around his waist, and after she did so, he walked away from the den on his hand paws, carrying his wife. The wife ordered her youngest brother to shoot the bear and he did.
The wife sat down a short distance away and covered her face because she could not endure seeing the bear shot and now skinned. However she opened one eye in order to look. This may be the origin of the custom that forbids any woman to look at the bear except with her face covered and through a brass ring about which more is told below.
After the three brothers had gotten the bear, and all the meat had been placed in a pot to be cooked, the bear’s son arrived. They told him they had shot a strange animal with a brass piece on its forehead. He told them that the animal thus marked was his father and therefore claimed a share of the bear equal with the hunters. They, however kept refusing, whereupon the son threatened to bring his father back to life if he didn’t get his share. He struck the bearskin with a whip and said, ‘My father! Get up! My father! Get up! Then the meat started boiling so rapidly that it seemed to be jumping out of the pot, and so the brothers had to give him a share. This is probably the origin of the custom that a killed bear is immediately pulled away from the camp and hit with a soft branch. The piece of brass found in the forehead of the bear may have given rise to the custom of decorating all the implements needed in bear hunting with brass spoons and rings.”
The bear’s wife is said to have taught her brothers all the ceremonies to be observed in the bear hunt, and that otherwise they would not be able to overcome such a fierce creature.
The hunter who had made the circle had to be the first to approach. After that came the drum beater, who guided by the drum, was to help find the den, and after him the bravest hunter, who would strike the first blow against the bear. The one in the lead would carry a stick or a branch at the end of which was a brass ring.
“After the bear is killed, they immediately drag it away from the camp and beat it with a branch or a soft twig; hence the expression: ‘beating a bear with a twig’.” “After the bear is killed, the bear hunters strike up a song. He who has the branch in his hand is the conductor. The song begins with these words” ‘Thank you very much! You did not damage a ski pole or a spear”. It often happens that a bear knocks a ski pole from a hunter’s hand and its paw, which is disastrous because the hunter is then rendered defenceless.
“When the bear has fallen, all who have been involved put their skis over the animal as proof that they have defeated it, and also because – if this is not done – a bear might become so arrogant as to run over their skis. Then they twist a willow branch and put it as a ring in the bear’s lower jaw. The best of the bear hunters then ties a belt to it, at which he jerks three times, and in a strange voice sings an oddly worded song declaring that he is the winner. Some take a spear and shake it three times at the bear for the same purpose, singing the same song. Then the bear is covered with spruce branches, and left to lie there until the following day. This is done when the place where the bear is killed is so close to their dwelling that it could be dragged home the same day and skinned.”
“As they come to within hearing distance of their homes, they start a song dedicated to this event, which lets those at home understand that a bear has been killed. Then all the women put on their festive clothes and silver decorations, after which they join the men in singing, welcoming both the men and the dead bear. That song is called the sides song (sacred). The man who acted as leader of the hunt will twist a soft branch, forming a loop at the end of it. This branch is soive risse. With it he will strike the outside of the dwelling three times and say: soive alma (underworld’s man), if a male bear has been killed. If they have killed a female bear, he will say soive neit (underworld’s daughter). Some also give these names to the bear slayer and his wife.”
After these preliminary ceremonies – “all bear hunters will step into a kota, not, however through the usual entrance, but through a passjo raige. Also all the dogs that have participated in the hunt are let in through the same entrance. The women, who are now wearing their silver decorations and festive garments, cover their faces, all at the same time, with a broadcloth or linen covering. When they look at the bear slayers, they do not, however, have their heads covered, but every one of them takes a brass ring, holds it to one eye, and looks through it. At the same time, they spit chewed alder bark at the faces of the hunters. (The use of the alder juice was to neutralize the power of the bear. ) The dogs which have participated in the hunt are also dyed reddish with juice from the alder tree bark. In ancient times, the women had also used colored dyes and made signs of the cross on themselves with the alder-bark solution.
Fragments of Lappish Mythology. Lars Laestadius.
Most of the descriptions used by Laestadius were drawn from work by Pehr Fjellstrom.
