106 CURIOUS CREATURES. 



forth, on the thirtieth day, mostly five young ones. When 

 first born, they are shapeless masses of white flesh, a little 

 larger than mice; their claws alone being prominent. The 

 mother then licks them into proper shape. 1 The male 

 remains in his retreat for forty days, the female four 

 months. If they happen to have no den, they construct 

 a retreat with branches and shrubs, which is made im- 

 penetrable to the rain, and is lined with soft leaves. 

 During the first fourteen days they are overcome by 

 so deep a sleep, that they cannot be aroused by wounds 

 even. They become wonderfully fat, too, while in this 

 lethargic state. This fat is much used in medicine, and 

 it is very useful in preventing the hair from falling off. 2 

 At the end of these fourteen days they sit up, and find 

 nourishment by sucking their fore paws. They warm 

 their cubs, when cold, by pressing them to the breast, 

 not unlike the way in which birds brood over their eggs. 

 It is a very astonishing thing, but Theophrastus believes 

 it, that if we preserve the flesh of the bear, the animal 

 being killed in its dormant state, it will increase in bulk, 

 even though it may have been cooked. During this 

 period no signs of food are to be found in the stomach 



1 "An unlicked cub " is a proverb which has sprung from this fable. Aristotle 

 was right when he said that bears when newly born were without hair, and 

 blind, but wrong in continuing " its legs, and almost all its parts, are without 

 joints." Still, the popular idea that bears licked their young into shape, lasted 

 till very modern times, and still survives in the proverb quoted. Shakespeare 

 mentions it in 3 Henry VI. iii. 2 : 



" Like to Chaos, or an unlick'd bear whelp, 

 That carries no impression like the dam." 



And Chester, in his Loves Martyr, speaking of the Bear, says 



" Brings forth at first a thing that's indigest, 

 A lump of flesh without all fashion, 

 Which she, by often licking brings to rest, 

 Making a formal body, good and sound. 

 Which often in this iland we have found." 



3 This use of bear's grease is about 1800 years old. 



