Week 11 Story: Hungry Bear

Based on Coyote and Grizzly from Myths and Legends of the Pacific Northwest by Katharine B Judson

Hungry Bear

Once there was a grizzly bear who every year slept all through the winter and awoke in the spring to eat and wander about. One spring, the fresh light and warm air filtered into her cave, and her eyes opened for the first time in months. She felt a sharp pain in her stomach, and heard it grumble. She was ravenous. 

Bear poked her nose outside and sniffed around for something to eat. She smelled salmon berries and lumbered out to eat them. After she had eaten the salmon berries, she still felt hungry. She then ate service-berries and watermelon berries and crow berries and blueberries. She still felt hungry. 

When there were no more berries left, she began to eat mice and rabbits. She caught them in her enormous paws and popped them in her mouth just as she had done with the berries. But her hunger was not satisfied. 

Coyote soon appeared. "Bear!" He called. "What are you doing?"

"I am eating," she replied.

"You are going to eat all the food and leave nothing for the rest of us. You must stop."

Bear ignored Coyote and continued to eat. Coyote grew more and more concerned and decided to intervene. He transformed himself into an eagle and tried to peck at Bear, but at that time she had finished all of the small animals and was beginning to eat the birds, so he had to fly away. 

After the birds came the big animals: deer, caribou, moose. Bear ate all of these. She then went to the village of people. Coyote spied this opportunity to intervene and transformed himself into a man with a spear. But Bear ate up all of the villagers and Coyote barely escaped. Bear still felt hungry. 

She decided to eat the grasses and bushes and trees, the sand and rocks, the clouds out of the sky. Bear grew thirsty and drank the rivers, the lakes, and the sea. Still she was not satisfied. 

When there was nothing left on the earth, Bear looked to the sky. She ate the stars, the moon and the sun. The world grew dark. All that was left was Bear and Coyote and the earth itself. She opened her mouth to eat the earth, but before she could, she began to feel sleepy. Her stomach was finally full. She laid down to rest. 

Coyote then transformed himself into a person again and took out a knife. He cut open Bear's belly and all the things of the world came out. First the sun and the moon and the stars, then the oceans and lakes and rivers and clouds and rocks and big animals and small animals and birds. Everything was restored, and Coyote returned home a hero. 

Finger lickin' good! by Valerie via Flickr

Author's note: The original story features Bear eating too many people and ending with a stomach ache. Coyote goes to heal her and when he criticizes her eating habits she gets mad. He goes through a series of transformations in order to trick her, and eventually kills her. I chose to adapt the story with some inspiration from Silverstein's Hungry Mungry, because it's one of my favorite poems.