And when they went out to play together, it would break the children's toy harpoons to pieces, but whenever it wanted to give any one of the children a push, it would always sheathe its claws. But at last it grew so strong, that it nearly always made the children cry. And when it had grown so strong the grown-up people began to play with it, and they helped the old woman in this way, in making the bear grow stronger. But after a time not even grown men dared play with it, so great was its strength, and then they said to one another:
"Let us take it with us when we go out hunting. It may help us to find seal."
And so one day in the dawn, they came to the old woman's window and cried:
"Little bear, come and earn a share of our catch; come out hunting with us, bear."
But before the bear went out, it sniffed at the old woman. And then it went out with the men.
On the way, one of the men said:
"Little bear, you must keep down wind, for if you do not so, the game will scent you, and take fright."
One day when they had been out hunting and were returning home, they called in to the old woman:
"It was very nearly killed by the hunters from the northward; we hardly managed to save it alive. Give therefore some mark by which it may be known; a broad collar of plaited sinews about its neck."
And so the old foster-mother made a mark for it to wear; a collar of plaited sinews, as broad as a harpoon line.
And after that it never failed to catch seal, and was stronger even than the strongest of hunters, and never stayed at home even in the worst of all weather. Also it was not bigger than an ordinary bear. All the people in the other villages knew it now, and although they sometimes came near to catching it, they would always let it go as soon as they saw its collar.
But now the people from beyond Angmagssalik heard that there was a bear which could not be caught, and then one of them said:
"If ever I see it, I will kill it."
But the others said:
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