HARD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSSIF. 



quick ! " So the bear jerked with sucli force that the | 

 tail, being fixed fast in the log, was jerked off. And 

 the bear has been tailless from that day. 



In Bornou, Africa, t'_.e hyeena lost his caudal 

 appendage through a similar sly trick, played by the 

 weasel. 



Another story in the same work also contrasts the 

 simplicity of the bear with the arch cunning of the 

 fox. A bear and a fox once joined in a rye-field, 

 and after shearing the rye, took it home to thresh. 

 Then said the fox, "Thou art not good at striking 

 so that the straw may lie still." So the bear struck 

 harder and harder, and the more he struck the more 

 hopped the straw. 



When the threshing was over they had to winnow. 

 Then said the fox, " \Yhether wilt thou have the 

 great heap or the lesser heap ?" "I will have the 

 great heap," answered the bear. Yes, the fox 

 winnowed, and when all was ready the bear took the 

 chaff. But the fox,''poor fellow, he contented himself 

 with taking the lesser heap. 



Stories of wild beasts suckling and rearing children 

 have been current from remotest times ; the Romans 

 borrowed their legend of Romulus and the she-wolf 

 from the Etruscans, who brought it, perhaps, from 

 Mongolian lands, where a version of it yet survives 

 among the Chinese (see Taylor's " Words and 

 Places "). Orson, the hero of French romance, was 

 suckled by a bear, and thence derived along with the 

 name a goodly portion of the bear's reputed strength 

 and wit : — 



" To more than savage strength he joins 

 A more than human skill : 

 For arms ne cunning may suffice 

 His cruel rage to still." 



His ursine aspect too would have quailed the heart 

 of any knight less valiant than Valentine, his brother, 

 unknown, for : 



" His unkempt hair all matted hung 

 His shaggy shoulders round ; 

 His eager eye all fiery glovv'd ; 

 His face with fury frown'd. 



Like eagle's talons grew his nails, 

 His limbs were thick and strong; 



And dreadful was the knotted oak 

 He bare with him along." 



That she-bears should nurture human children is 

 remarkable enough, but more so that a paternal bear 

 should be the ancestor of a royal house ; such, how- 

 ever, according to legendary lore, was the origin of 

 a line of Danish kings. The circumstance was related 

 by Saxo Grammaticus, in the eleventh century, and 

 repeated by Olaus Magnus, Avith apparent trust, in 

 the fifteenth ; but the following account is derived 

 from the " Saga-Hafder " of Afzelius, the Swedish 

 historian, recently deceased. The author introduces 

 his narrative with the remark that in country districts 

 the knowledge is yet retained of the olden sagas 

 respecting magic that could transform human beings 

 into the shape of wild creatures, such as wolves and 

 bears. These enchanted persons could resume their 



own shape at midnight; but at cock-crow, before 

 daybreak, they were compelled to retake the animal 

 form, and run off to the forests and waste ground. 

 Lapp and Finn witches and wizards were especially 

 gifted with this remarkable endowment, being 

 supremest of sorcerers. 



Once, says an old chronicle of the royal Danish 

 families, a rich man dwelt in Sweden, who had a 

 daughter, gifted with the rarest beauty and most 

 agreeable disposition. Near the village lay a green 

 and pleasant spot, where the young often went to 

 amuse themselves. It chanced one day when the 

 beautifid daughter of the rich peasant was there with 

 her playmates, a bear suddenly rushed amidst them 

 out of the forest, and seizing the girl in its fore-paws, 

 hastened with her to its den, far within the forest's 

 depths. There, however, it showed her the greatest 

 kindness, provided her every day with game and 

 fruits, and let her want for nothing. But as the bear, 

 for his own food, killed many cattle in the district, 

 the people collected, gave chase, and effected his 

 death. The peasant's daughter was then found 

 again, and soon after gave birth to a son, which they 

 called Bjorn (Bear). He grew up, stronger than 

 other men, both in body and in mind ; in this it was- 

 thought he took after his father, for it is an old say- 

 ing, " The bear has twelve men's wit and six men's 

 strength." This bear's grandson was Ulf Jarl of 

 Scania, who, with the brother's consent, took to 

 wife Estrid, sister to the Danish king, Knut the 

 Rich. Ulf saved Knut and his fleet from falling intO' 

 the hands of the enemy near the island of Helge ; 

 yet the king never freely accorded him his friendship, 

 and shortly afterwards, when they had quarrelled 

 over a game of chess, and Ulf had fled from offended 

 majesty to sanctuary in Lucius church, he was mur- 

 dered before the altar by a man whom the king had 

 sent for the purpose. 



In the plenitude of his power, Knut the Rich paid 

 little regard to the old maxim that evil deeds be- 

 queath a sorrowful inheritance ; but so it proved. 

 After his death the people of Denmark and Norway 

 fell off from the Skoldunga family, to which his sons- 

 belonged ; and Ulf's son, Swen, surnamed Estrids- 

 son, who on the murder of his father had gone to 

 his relatives in Sweden, was finally, by the aid of the 

 Swedes, placed upon the Danish throne. Some 

 supi^ose that the ancestor of his dynasty was a. robber- 

 chief, who, clad in bear skin, had carried off the 

 beautiful peasant girl to his wild, secluded den. Ac- 

 cording to Pennant, " Ulva," one of the Hebrides, 

 derives its name from this son of a Swedish bear. 



The bear is rarely mentioned by Herodotus, but 

 in one instance appears in his pages associated with 

 animals some of which are even more surprising 

 than Bruin himself. After describing a very hilly 

 part of Libya abounding with forests and wild 

 beasts, he adds : "This is the tract in which the 

 huge serpents are found, and the lions, the elephants, 



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