BEARS. 173 



Jerdon states, however, that in their wild state they will now 

 and then kill sheep, goats, &c., and are said occasionally to eat 

 flesh. "This bear has bad eyesight, but great power of smell, 

 and if approached from windward is sure to take alarm. A 

 wounded bear will sometimes show fight, but in general it tries to 

 escape. It is said sometimes to coil itself into the form of a ball 

 and thus roll down steep hills if frightened or wounded. If met 

 suddenly where there is no means of escape, it will attack man at 

 once ; and, curious to say, it always mauls the face, sometimes 

 taking off most of the hairy scalp and frightfully disfiguring the 

 unfortunate sufferer. There are few villages in the interior, 

 where one or more individuals thus mutilated are not to be met 

 with. It has been noticed that if caught in a noose or snare, if 

 they cannot break it by force, they never have the intelligence to 

 bite the rope in two, but remain till they die or are killed. In 

 captivity this bear, if taken young, is very quiet and playful, but 

 is not so docile as the black bear. Like others of its kind it is 

 fond of sucking its own or its neighbour's paws." 



Bears seem to have been favourite beasts with the Eomans 

 for their sports in the circus, and evidently were the first animals 

 used for the purpose of combats, for the introducers of this form 

 of entertainment, Scipio Nasica and Publius Lentulus, exhibited 

 more than fifty at a time ; and subsequently Caligula, the Roman 

 Emperor (37 — 41), alone caused 400 to be slaughtered. Pliny 

 states that the head of the bear is extremely weak, and in the 

 arena of the circus they are often to be seen killed by a blow on 

 the head with the fist. He further adds that it is recorded in 

 their annals that in the consulship of M. Piso and M. Messala, 

 Domitius Ahenobarbus, the curule sedile, brought into the circus 

 one hundred Numidian bears and as many Ethiopian hunters 



(61 B.C.). 



Du Halde states the bear's flesh was much esteemed by the 

 ancients, and was at the time he wrote served up at the table of 

 princes. The Emperor of China would send a hundred leagues 

 to procure bears for an entertainment. There is also strong 

 evidence that in early times the barbarous nations of Germany 

 bred and fed bears simply for the supply of food. 



