Sleeping Bear Mask

When most of the people had left, the guests sat down with tribal elders and men of Uma-kwee’s lodge for another meal of warm steamed clams from a large bent cedar box. Hayoqwis was still dressed as a dancer and the other three dancers also joined them. They sat together in a circle on the dance platform and were served by the young women of the tribe. Each man sipped from a bowls of hot nettle tea. Afterwards, Uma-kwee’s father Se'akwal invited Hayoqwis, his brother Tokwish and the uncle Spe-eth and his three sons to a sweat lodge ceremony that lasted long into the night.

Each man accepted the heat of the lodge for a long as possible, breathing the sweet scented smoke of the fire and listening to soothing flutes music, until making their escape to bathe in the fresh waters of a pool in the steam nearby, only to repeat the process again and again until Hayoqwis fell asleep and had to be nudged awake by Tokwish.

At one interval, uncle Spe-eth began singing the Bear Sleep Song that he sang to Hayoqwis and Tokwish when they were boys being initiated into manhood.

Bear, bear, bear
Weary now that leaves cover forest floors
Bear, bear, bear
Will you dig into a winter den

Find rest safe from snow and wind?

Sleep now, sleep now, sleep now until spring dawns
Dug deep into his dark den that bear fell asleep
And slept all the winter long, long, long, all the cold winter long:

Day and night and day and night and day and night
Day and night and day and night and day and night
Day and night and day and night and day and night

Until the seasons changed, until the seasons changed.
Oh, bear, bear, bear
Oh, bear, bear, bear

Hayoqwis and Tokwish joined in the refrain. They repeated the song several times and invited all the braves to sing along – a special honor reserved for family members. The singing ended when the flute players stopped to go home because it was so late. In the light of the dying embers, Tokwish’s face glowed red where he reclined facing the steaming rocks of the fire pit in the center of the narrow lodge. His hair and skin wet with sweat also glowed along with the steam in the small room just big enough to hold the band of braves and chiefs.

He drank a cup of spring water then said, “Tomorrow my brother must fish for abalone to win the first test. We will take three canoes and our women to set up an abalone camp on a islet that we passed on our journey down to your village. The water is clear and we saw many abalones in the pools below tall rocks that show when the tide is low. It will take us three days to gather the otter-people’s food. Then our women will clean and pound the flesh and we will drill holes in the shells to transform them into decorations to honor your totems. My brother Hayoqwis will prove that he is able to pile up both food and glory for the Duwam’ha. That is why he is called Sea Champion.”

There was a silence, then Se'akwal spoke to him, “The Duwam’ha consider battle scars a great honor and a sign of spiritual power. Tokwish son of Clo-oose please tell us, if you can, how you received the scar that we see across your face.”
Continued