TYROL AND THE TYROLESE 



justice to the food placed before him, that the feel- 

 ings of a hungry bear were roused by the perform- 

 ance. For want of anything else, the bear ate up 

 Romedius' horse. Whereupon the saint preached 

 to him with such eloquence and power, that Bruin, 

 filled with remorse and the desire to recompense the 

 holy man for his loss, offered his own shaggy back 

 as a means of conveyance. The friendship, thus 

 begun, happily continued ; and Romedius and the 

 bear took up their abode in a cave, in the mountains 

 north of Taur. But one day the saint, wishful to 

 take a nap after dinner, was troubled by a fly, that 

 insisted on settling on his nose. In vain St. Rome- 

 dius struck repeatedly at his tormentor ; the fly 

 escaped each time, only to alight again upon the 

 saintly organ of smell. The now thoroughly re- 

 formed bear, anxious to do his master a service, 

 then approached, and aimed such a terrific blow at 

 the small invader, that he struck, not only the fly, 

 but St. Romedius himself, dead on the spot ! The 

 faithful animal, completely overcome by grief, then 

 starved himself to death. So runs the legend ; and 

 thus the poor bear (and herein lies the most melan- 

 choly part of the story) died of hunger after all ! 



The Tyrolese are nothing if not musical. There 

 is something in their music, too, that seems to fit in 

 exactly with the wild beauty of the land. The 

 sweet strains from the trembling strings of the 



229 



