1 88 The Poets Beasts. 



prosaic mind this elegant little monster is full of signifi- 

 cances. At any rate it is quite as pretty as the panther — 

 such a favourite for its beauty with the poets — 



" Fayre was this yonge wif, and therewithal 

 As any weasel hire body gent and smal," — • 



and quite as fierce as the tiger, while its voracity, agility, 

 and various natural endowments, make it one of the most 

 dreadful little creatures in Nature. A thousand times better 

 to be a deer in a tiger's jungle than a rabbit in the same 

 copse as a weasel. 



" My lord and I are kindred spirits, 

 Like in our ways as two young ferrets, 

 Both fashioned as that supple race is, 

 To twist into all sorts of places. 

 Creatures lengthy, lean, and hungering, 

 Fond of blood and burrow-mongering." — Moore. 



Yet the weasel has a benign significance in ancient 

 Hindu myth, as also in Red Indian legends, for one 

 reason, perhaps, that it is erroneously supposed to be the 

 dire foe of snakes and scorpions. Its leanness of person 

 is due to the fact that, when the beasts were invited to 

 help themselves from Manobozho's fat-pool, the super- 

 cilious weasel came last and got none. Pope has a weasel 

 that grows fat in a corn-loft. But the poet may mean upon 

 a diet of mice and not corn. 



A great many poets, it may be, never saw a wild squirrel, 

 so ihey refer only to those in cages, and draw the moral of 

 foolish ambition from the sight. For myself, I think it 

 very pathetic, the hopeless scrambling of the squirrel on its 

 wheel ; and such lines as these exasperate me — 



" Contented like llie playful squirrel 

 To wanton up and down my cage." 



