BEE. | NATURAL HISTORY. 31 
of Bears. And no beast hath so great sleight to do evil 
deeds as the Bear. And the Bear eateth crabs and ants for 
medicine, and eateth flesh for great strength, and is. an un- 
patient beast and wrathful, and will be avenged on all 
those that him toucheth. If another touch him, anon he 
leaveth the first, and reseth on the second, and reseth on 
the third; and when he is taken, he is made blind with a 
bright basin [cf quotation from “ Julius Cesar”] and is 
bound with chains, and compelled to play: and tamed with 
beating, and is an unsteadfast beast and unstable, and un- 
easy, and goeth therefore all day about the stake to which 
he is strongly tied. He licketh and sucketh his own feet, 
and hath liking in the juice thereof. He can wonderly 
stie [climb] upon trees unto the highest tops of them [and 
robs wild bees of their honey]. And the hunter taketh 
heed thereof, and pitcheth full sharp hooks and stakes about 
the foot of the tree, and hangeth craftily a right heavy 
hammer or a wedge tofore the open way to the honey, and 
then the Bear cometh, and is an hungered, and the log 
that hangeth there on high letteth him, and he putteth 
away the wedge dispiteously, but after the removing, the 
wedge falleth again and hitteth him on the ear, and he 
hath indignation thereof; and putteth away the wedge dis- 
piteously and right fiercely, and- then the wedge falleth and 
smiteth him harder than it did before, and he striveth so 
long with the wedge, until his feeble head doth fail by oft 
smiting of the wedge, and then he falleth down upon the 
pricks and stakes, and slayeth himself in that wise. Bears 
licketh not drink, as beasts do with sawy teeth; and 
sucketh not neither swalloweth, as beasts do that have con- 
tinual teeth, as sheep and men; but biteth the water and 
swalloweth it. Bartholomew (Berthelet), bk. xviii. §§ 112-3. 
Beast. V. Animal. 
Bee. 
Like the bee, culling from every flower 
The virtuous sweets, 
Our thighs pack’d with wax, our mouths with honey, 
We bring it to the hive, and, like the bees, 
Are murdered for our pains. 
: ii, Kine Hewry IV., iv. 5, 75-81. 
