THE BEAR. 
395 
resembling the letter V or Y. Its powers 
of smell are extraordinary. It is very gentle 
and sagacious; and these qualities, together 
with its ludicrous figure, make it a great 
favourite with the East Indian jugglers and 
mountebanks,,who teach it to perform many 
curious feats. There were for a long time 
a pair kept in the Zoological Gardens in 
London. In manners they were rather me¬ 
lancholy, but not ill-tempered or lazy. They 
lived together on very friendly and social 
terms, often lying huddled close together 
for hours, keeping up a low rattling whine 
or purring, which was so far from unmusi¬ 
cal that many people called it their song. 
They generally kept their fore-paws at their 
mouth when they made this noise. The 
one which I saw did not purr, that I recol¬ 
lect, but it seemed very gentle and fond of 
its keeper, who, however, said he- did not 
think it was to be trusted, as it was fond of 
blood; and in India whole families of them 
are accused of attacking travellers, and, after 
throwing them down, munching the hands 
and feet of the victim till the bones are 
crushed, and then sucking the limbs almost 
reduced to a pulp, but tearing the flesh very 
