Oban's Myths & Legends
How To Scare A Bear (continued)
Native American - Tewa Legend
retold by Oban
Little Rabbit hopped around under the trees looking for Prickly Pears, but found none. Suddenly he stopped and stared.
Something was lying in the bushes, glinting in a shaft of sunlight.
He reached into the leaves with his front paws and pulled out an old metal horse bell, tied on a dried-up strip of leather.
Little Rabbit hung it round his neck and moved off again. “Clang!” “Clang!” chimed the bell loudly, and Little Rabbit stopped and rubbed his nose.
“This could be very useful,” he said to himself. He hopped to the edge of the wood and carefully hid the horse bell under a small bush. Then he moved back out onto the river bank ready to meet Brown Bear, and munched on Prickly Pear to pass the time.
At noon Brown Bear appeared and they picked a clear spot in the woods for their competition.
Brown Bear drew a circle on the ground with a stick and explained the rules of the contest.
“You must sit in the circle.” He explained. “No matter what happens, or what you hear you must stay there. If you move outside the circle even a little, I win the bet.”
Little Rabbit agreed to the rules and said he would sit in the circle first.
As soon as Little Rabbit was crouched in the circle, Brown Bear turned and bounded further into the woods. A few minutes later Little Rabbit heard strange and scary sounds:
Aaah...Aaah…Aaah..
Grrr…Grrr…Grrr…
Aaah...Aaah…Aaah..
“That’s just Brown Bear trying to scare me.” Little Rabbit said to himself. “He can’t scare me out of the circle.”
The scary sounds got louder and louder and closer and closer, until suddenly a big tree at the edge of the clearing came crashing down, missing Little Rabbit by inches.
“You moved! You moved!” shouted Brown Bear as he bounded over the fallen tree. “I saw you move.”
“No I didn’t.” said Little Rabbit calmly. “See for yourself. I haven’t made any marks outside the circle.”
Brown Bear looked at the ground around the circle and had to agree that Little Rabbit had not moved outside it.
“Now it’s your turn to sit in the circle.” said Little Rabbit.
continue >> How to scare a Bear Part 4
