CURIOUS CREATURES. 117 



" But that tame Bears may not onely be kept unprofit- 

 ably to feed, and make sport, they are set to the Wheels 

 in the Courts of great men, that they may draw up 

 Water out of deep Wells ; and that in huge Vessels 

 made for this purpose, and they do not help alone 

 this Way, but they are set to draw great Waggons, for 

 they are very strong in their Legs, Claws, and Loins ; 

 nor is it unfit to make them go upright, and carry 

 burdens of Wood, and such like, to the place appointed, 

 or they stand at great men's doors, to keep out other 

 hurtful Creatures. When they are young, they will 

 play wonderfully with Boys, and do them no hurt." 



Topsell goes through the usual stories of bears licking 

 their cubs into shape, and subsisting by sucking their 

 claws but he also affords us much information about 

 bears, which we do not find in modern Natural Histories : 

 " At what time they come abroad, being in the begin- 

 ning of May, which is the third moneth from the Spring. 

 The old ones being almost dazled with long darknes, 

 comming into light againe, seeme to stagger and reele 

 too and fro, and then for the straightnesse of their guts, 

 by reason of their long fasting, doe eat the herbe Arum, 

 called in English Wake-Robbin, or Calves-foot, being of 

 very sharpe and tart taste, which enlargeth their guts, 

 and so, being recovered, they remaine all the time their 

 young are with them, more fierce, and cruell than at 

 other times. And concerning the same Arum, called 

 also Dracunculus, and Oryx, there is a pleasant vulgar 

 tale, whereby some have conceived that Beares eat this 

 herbe before their lying secret, and by vertue thereof 

 (without meat, or sence of cold) they passe away the 

 whole winter in sleepe. 



" There was a certaine cow-heard, in the Mountains 



