52 THE NATURALIST IN NORWAY. 



presently returned to the spot bearing a pretty large 

 and heavy piece of dry oak in his mouth, and thus 

 burdened, and as it would seem for the purpose of 

 testing his vaulting powers, he renewed his leaps on to 

 the stump. After a time, however, and when he found 

 that, weighted as he was, he could make the ascent 

 with facility, he desisted from further efforts, dropped 

 the piece of wood from his mouth, and coiling himself 

 upon the top of the stump remained motionless as if 

 dead. 



ff At the approach of evening an old sow and her 

 progeny, five or six in number, issued from a neigh- 

 bouring thicket, and, pursuing their usual track, passed 

 near to the stump in question. Two of her sucklings 

 followed somewhat behind the rest, and just as they 

 neared his ambush Michel, with the rapidity of thought, 

 darted down from his perch upon one of them, and in 

 the twinkling of an eye bore it in triumph on to the 

 fastness he had so providently prepared beforehand. 



" Confounded at the shrieks of her offspring, the old 

 sow returned in fury to the spot, and until late in the 

 night made repeated desperate attempts to storm the 

 murderer's stronghold; but the fox took the matter 

 very coolly, and devoured the pig under the very nose 

 of its mother." 



The Norwegian peasants consider that the fat of the 

 fox is an excellent lubricant for those parts of the 

 body that are affected by rheumatism. An ointment 

 made from the fat of the fox is also supposed to be a 

 certain relief for colic, if rubbed on the pit of the 

 stomach. 



The Norwegian bonde has a profound belief in the 

 French saying, " Le loup nuit plus au paysan, le renard 



