28 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



the bears, the aspicks, and the horned asses. Here, 

 too, are the dog-faced creatures, and the creatures 

 without heads, whom the Libyans declare to have 

 eyes in their breasts ; and also the wild men, and the 

 wild women, and many other far less fabulous beasts." 

 Sundry superstitions and popular notions apper- 

 taining to the bear prevail in Scandinavia and other 

 countries. In Norway it is a common saying, that 

 on mid-winter day, January 12, winter rolls over on 

 his back, and the weather and the bear also turn them- 

 selves on the other side. The belief that he will 

 never injure a child accredits him with some degree 

 of susceptibility ; and though not gifted with a 

 musical voice, his gentlest tone being usually a gruff 

 and surly growl, he is by no means insensible to the 

 "concord of sweet sounds," if it be true, as be- 

 Keved in the pastoral forests of Sweden, that he will 

 stealthily approach and listen with charmed soul to 

 the modulated notes of the rustic finger-pipe, while 

 it is well known that he flees, as with a sore ear, 

 from the harsh clangour of the cow's horn. Olaus 

 Magnus, who wrote full three centuries ago, informs 

 us that the hero Hialtho grew strong from 

 drinking the blood of a huge bear, which his 

 redoubtable companion Biarcho had slain. 

 That bear's grease is a great nourisher of silken 

 locks is, or was, an article of faith with all 

 young ladies, though boar's grease, called by 

 its name, commonly did duty in its stead. The ^ 



Laplanders, Acerbi tells us, believe bear's 

 grease a sovereign remedy for pains in the 

 limbs ; but Bamsen's unction must be applied 

 for a man's ailments and Bingsen's for those 

 of a woman, or no good will result. In the 

 south of Sweden, too, a medicament supposed 

 by the purchaser to be bear's grease is, or 

 used to be, sold by the apothecaries to the 

 peasants for similar purposes. Sinews of the 

 potent bear were a constituent of the mighty 

 cord, stronger than the cable of a Thunderer, 

 made to bind the wolf Fenrir, whose terrible 

 jaws endangered the sun and the moon. To 

 insure fierce house-dogs, .Swedish peasants 

 used formerly to feed the whelps with wolfs 

 flesh and bear's paws ; a bear's paw also 

 formed part of a Scandinavian midwife's 

 clinical outfit ; and, in our own country, one 

 of the many fanciful remedies for whooping- 

 cough is riding upon a bear's back. In Nor- "] 

 way it is quite as unlucky as in any other 

 country to meet a hare in the morning, but 

 if you meet a bear or a wolf it is a more 

 favourable omen, and you may pursue your journey 

 without alarm. Norwegian peasants also believe 

 that the bear when mortally wounded, flees, if pos- 

 sible, to the nearest tarn or river, where he dives, 

 and bites himself fast to the bottom that he may die 

 there and disappoint the hunter of his warm hide 

 and delectable hams. 



Finally, Bruin, though not so much of a Solomon 

 as some have supposed, has nevertheless suggested 

 the following items of proverbial wisdom to the 

 Danes and the Swedes, i. Danish proverbs : " The 

 bear's skin bites not. There are claws in the bear's 

 skin. The bear bites where he is bound. It is 

 dangerous for a whelp to play with bears' cubs." 

 2. Swedish proverbs : " At home like a bear, abroad 

 like a shot eagle. Soon enough to sell the hide when 

 the bear is shot. Man should not wake a sleeping 

 bear. They who tear with the wolf should have bears' 

 claws. If no ' if had come between, the old woman 

 had bit the bear, and not the bear the old woman." 



A 



BROOKSIDE RAMBLE IN SEx\RCH 

 OF EGGS. 



ARLY one fine morning in the latter part of 

 May, I started in company with a friend on 

 a nesting expedition, to the haunts of some of the 

 rarer species of birds to be met with in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Goosnargh, near Preston. 



E 



Fig. 16.— The K'n^-fisher (Akcdo hisj>ija}. 



Our intended hunting ground lay along the banks 

 of a large and beautiful trout stream called Middleton- 

 Brook, which runs close to Middleton Hall, once 

 the country residence of the Rigby's. 



Arrived at the stream, we at once struck into the 

 woods which fringe its banks on both sides, and 

 were soon in the full enjoyment of the quiet seclusion 



