Brought to bay, the bear rears up on her hind feet and prepares to defend herself, but the robin pierces her with an arrow and she falls over upon her back. The robin being himself very thin at this season is intensely eager to eat some of the bear's fat as soon as possible. In his haste he leaps upon his victim, and becomes covered with blood. Flying to a maple-tree near at hand in the land of the sky, he tries to shake off this blood. He succeeds in getting all off save a spot upon his breast. "That spot," says the garrulous chickadee, "you will carry as long as your name is robin."[1]
But the blood which he does shake off spatters far and wide over the forests of earth below, and hence we see each autumn the blood-red tints on the foliage; it is reddest on the maples, because trees on earth follow the appearance of the trees in the sky, and the sky maple received most of the blood. The sky is just the same as the earth, only up above, and older.
Some time after these things happened to the robin, the chickadee arrived on the scene. These two birds cut up the bear, built a fire, and placed some of the meat over it to cook. Just as they were about to begin to eat, the moose bird put in his appearance.
He had almost lost the trail, but when he regained it he had not hurried, because he knew that it would take his companions some time to cook the meat after the bear was slain, and he did not mind missing that part of the affair so long as he arrived in time for a full share of the food. Indeed, he was so impressed with the advantages of this policy, that ever since then he has ceased to hunt for himself, preferring to follow after hunters and share their spoils. And so, whenever a bear or a moose or other animal is killed to-day in the woods of Megumaage, Micmac Land, you will see him appear to demand his share. That is why the other birds named him Mikchagogwech, He-who-comes-in-at-the-last-moment, and the Micmacs say there are some men who ought to be called that too.
However that may be, the robin and chickadee, being generous, willingly shared their food with the moose bird. Before they ate, the robin and moose bird danced around the fire (neskouadijik), while the chickadee stirred the pot. Such was the custom in the good old times, when Micmacs were brothers all to all and felt it a duty to share their food together, and to thank each other and the Universal Spirit for their present happiness.
But this does not end the story of the bear, though one might think so. Through the winter her skeleton lies upon its back in the
- ↑ The only variation of this legend which I have heard from Yarmouth to Whycococomagh, over three hundred miles distant, occurs at this point. According to it the robin is said to have fallen into the fire in which the bear was being cooked, hence the red burn on his breast.
