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PASSIONAL ZOOLOGY. 
protect the laborer; do 3’'ou understand?’' Do I understand? 
why that is as clear as spring water.” ‘‘Then since it is so clear, 
explain to me why frogs have no tails ?” At these words the 
learned man makes tracks . . . and still runs. 
The bear, who constantly recedes before man, and who chooses 
for his dwelling the most remote locations, sufficiently testifies by 
his conduct his pacific intentions, and his desire to renounce a 
struggle where he is sure of coming off second best. But man, 
who wants a pretext to continue his sale of bear-skin hats and 
Pommade du Lion, pretends not to believe in the sincerity of this 
good-will ; he audaciously denies it for the interest of his com- 
merce, and urges the continuation of hostilities, which will soon, 
alas ! cease for want of combatants. 
A proof of the moderate appetites of the bear springs from the 
history of the Roman circus games. Those lovers of blood-spiced 
dramas hardly ever exposed Christians to the teeth of the bear, 
who was officially suspected of distaste toward such executions. 
One of the favorite amusements of Heliogabalus consisted in in- 
toxicating his guests of both sexes, and having them wake up in 
the hairy arms of a bear, but history does not mention that these 
jokes ever had such vexatious consequences as those of the Em- 
peror Nero, who stifled his best friends under piles of roses. 
Most immoral and subversive were the imaginations of these artist 
Caesars of Rome ! 
Another proof attesting the kindliness of the bear’s character 
and the amenity of his manners, is his passion for music. We 
may read in the recitals of Claus Magnus, the Buffon of Northern 
Europe, that when the shepherds of his country, where the bear 
is very common, find themselves marked by a band of these quad- 
rupeds, they pretend not to perceive their dangerous visitors, 
and continue to make the solitudes echo to the clear tones of their 
clarionets ; then choosing the moment when their visitors are 
completely under the charm of the melody, they suddenly blow 
off against their tympanums, a scream, so harsh, so shrill and dis- 
pleasing, that the unfortunate musical amateurs turn round at full 
gallop, and never return. Alexander Dumas, the illustrious au- 
thor of “ The Bear Steak,” confirms the narrative of Claus Mao-- 
