Animal Legends and Lore

[brotherbear]

( in my own words )... During my childhood, I well remember how the gorilla was thought of and portrayed in books and movies. He was a favorite monster from the late 19th century until the mid-20th century. He was pictured as a savage brutal killer of man and beasts; and all other animals feared him. I remember a book in my 5th grade classroom ( 1958 ) about African animals. This particular book had one single centerfold that spread out to depict a wild animal stampede. Within this stampede were an elephant, a rhinoceros, a buffalo, and a lion ( to name a few ). They were all running in terror from a savage gorilla shown beating his chest. 
Many of our early pioneers into the American west and northwest returned will tales of the savage killer grizzly. He was ( like the gorilla ) viewed as a brutal killer of both man and beast; a monster.
The Grizzly, Our Greatest Wild Animal by Enos Mills.
In summing up the animals of the North and West in 1790, Edward Umfreville wrote of the "red and the grizzle bear" that "their nature is savage and ferocious, their power dangerous, and their haunts to be guarded against."
In 1795 Sir Alexander MacKenzie recorded the following:- "The Indians entertain great apprehension of this kind of a bear, which is called the grisly bear, and they never venture to attack it except in a party of least three or four."
Henry M. Brackenridge, author of "Views of Louisiana," wrote the following from hearsay:- "This animal is the monarch of the country which he inhabitates. The African lion or the Bengal tiger are not more terrible than he. He is the enemy of man and literally thirsts for human blood. So far from shunning, he seldom fails to attack and even to hunt him. The Indians make war upon these ferocious monsters with ceremonies as they do upon a tribe of their own species, and, in the recital of their victories, the death of one of them gives the warrior greater renown than the scalp of an enemy. He possesses an amazing strength, and attacks without hesitation and tears to pieces the largest buffalo." Reply