The eagle kamui was angry and cursed them, saying that one of the women would find a crow for a husband and the other one a rat.

The eagle was even more distressed now, but he again heard voices and saw two more women gathering firewood.  He called to them and asked them to delouse his feathers.  The women came over to him and picked all the lice off.  The eagle god felt such relief that he blessed them, saying to the first that she would have a killer whale for a husband and the other a bear.

He later saw the first pair of women, one of whom had a crow for a husband, the other a rat.  As to the second pair, one day he saw the first woman coming toward him with a large serving of blubber as a gift.  The woman thanked the eagle god for her killer whale husband and went away.  On another day, he saw the second woman bearing a large portion of bear meat as a present for him in thanks for sending a bear to her as a husband.

After that, the two women often took presents to him until they grew too old to do so.  The eagle saw them often, until he too became old.

Not only are the kamui everywhere and represented in every sort of narrative the Ainu tell, but their special relationship with bears is also ubiquitous.  Tales are told of virtually every animal an Ainu is likely to encounter, but a large percentage of Ainu folktales have bears in them in one form or another.  Bears are everywhere the object of the hunt and are one of the standards by which a hunter’s skill is measured.  A very common formula in Ainu tales is the phrase “deer and bear.”  These two were the staple food of the Ainu before the modern era, and  the formula is found in nearly every hunting situation.  The Ainu of today still carve bears, which are offered to tourists.  And the tales still reflect that preoccupation, as seen in this long folktale about a young man growing into manhood.  The trials he faces involve a bear at a critical juncture.

The boy grew up under his father’s tutelage, and as he reached manhood, his father gave him his bow and turned the task of hunting for the family over to him.