Yolen has long had an interest in the folk tales and religious beliefs of cultures other than her own. In the case of "The Woman Who Loved a Bear," she retells a Cheyenne story that she found in her reading. It is interesting that she chose to include it in her collection of stories and poems Here There Be Witches, because the magical figure is male, not female. This may be because he shares in common with the witches in Yolen's other tales the ability to transform experience through his magic, and like the witches in "The Face in the Cloth" (please see separate entry), his wisdom holds the key to a woman's liberating herself. In "The Face in the Cloth," a woman liberates herself from her mother's image, aided by hints from three magical sisters; in "The Woman Who Loved a Bear," a woman liberates...