Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

CHANT TO A WERE-BEAR by ANONYMOUS

First Line: "WERE-BEAR, WHY ARE YOU NOT IN HELL?"
Subject(s): ANIMALS;BEARS;MYTHOLOGY - NATIVE AMERICAN;NATIVE AMERICANS;SUPERSTITION; INDIANS OF AMERICA;AMERICAN INDIANS;INDIANS OF SOUTH AMERICA;
Were-bear, why are you not in hell?
Are you too evil for Het-gwau-la-na?
On my neck is this amulet—See it well!
A great bear's tooth to charm you away.

Ai! If you follow my faithful squaw,
Twins she may have, if she sees you now;
In this Laughing Goose Month she must hide away
In the Newborn hut by the willow bough.

I shall paint my face with a red bear paw
And dance in the light of the flowing flame,
If thou art but sent by High Sha-la-na—
Morning and night I shall call thy name!



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