180 
PASSIONAL ZOOLOGY. 
of Jura, whicli had been long the terror of the country on account 
of his immoderate appetite for the flesh of young girls — a scan- 
dalous story, which would prove to its believers the superiority 
of the lion over the bear in affairs of gallantry. Then we have 
the tale of Conrad Gessner, who relates how a bear of Savoy once 
carried off a young girl of sixteen, and bore her to his den, where 
he provided for her with all the care of the tenderest father, but 
of a father horribly jealous, who cannot dissemble his injurious 
mistrust, . . . bringing her every day fruits,^ vegetables, and 
honey, but never going forth from his dwelling without closing the 
entrance with an enormous stone. It appears that the parents of 
the poor recluse inquired for her three whole months of the moun- 
tain echoes, before they found her. 
Marolles, who wi ote at the end of the reign of Louis Sixteenth, 
almost confirms by his credulity the false reports which the dis- 
orderly imagination of stor3:^-tellers have in all times rendered cur- 
rent, with regard to the pretended atrocious appetites of certain 
beasts for the flesh of young girls. It was not enough for human 
malice to have calumniated, in its moral lessons, the bear, who has 
not deserved this ; it has also found it necessary to ridicule the 
poor animal, and to make it the butt of numerous mystifications 
more or less incredible. Elian the Greek, makes the bear a low- 
lived murderer, an ignoble assassin, killing for the pleasure of 
killing. 
Once upon a time, says he, there was a lion and a lioness of 
Mount Pangea, who had several children without being the hap- 
pier ; for one day, wdien they were both gone from home, a bear 
entered and treacherously killed their little ones — proof that it is 
always imprudent to leave children alone. The murderous deed 
was hardly finished, before a formidable roaring announces the re- 
turn of the masters of the house. Our bear, as if surprised in 
the flagrant act of infanticide, has only time to climb up a tree in 
the neighborhood. We must forbear to paint the fury of the 
mother at the sight of her slain progeny. It is hard to say 
whether grief or rage predominates in her heart. She howls 
forth at once terrible curses and pitiful groans, and in the thirst 
for vongeanco which consumes her, she describes in the air insen- 
