84 
The Animal-Lore of Shahspeare s Time . 
againe, we found a shee-beare and two young ones : Master Thomas 
Welden shot and killed her : after shee was slayne, wee got the young 
ones, and brought them home into England, where they are alive in 
Paris Garden.” ( Purchas , vol. iii. p. 563.) 
Olaus Magnus, Archbishop of Upsal, the naturalist of 
the North, has a good deal of information, more or less 
trustworthy, to give about bears and their uses. He 
writes:— 
<f The bears are huge, white, and strong, and they will break the 
ice with their paws. These white bears skins are wont to be offered 
by the hunters, for the high altars, or cathedrals, of parochial churches, 
that the priest celebrating Mass standing, may not take cold of his 
feet when the weather is extream cold. In the church at Nidrosum, 
which is the metropolis of the kingdom of Norway, every year such 
white skins are found, that are faithfully offered by the hunters devo¬ 
tion, whensoever they take them, and wolves-skins, to buy wax-light, 
and to bum them in honour of the saints.” (Page 187.) 
According to this author the brown varieties, which were 
often taught to dance and beg, were made the medium of 
instruction as well as amusement:— 
“ The master of these bears, that cannot speak the language of 
other countries, will get a good gain by his dumb beast. Nor doth this 
seem to be done onely, because that these should live by this small 
gain : for the bearherds that lead these bears, are at least ten or twelve 
lusty men; and in their company, sometimes, there go noblemens 
sons, that they may learn the fashions, manners, and distances of 
places, the military arts, and concord of princes, by these merry pas¬ 
times. But since they were found in Germany to spoil travellers and 
to cast them to their bears to eat, most strict laws are made against 
them, that they may never come there again. But that tame bears 
may not onely be kept unprofitably to feed and make sport, they are 
set to the wheels in the courts of great men, that with one or two, or 
more company to help them, they may draw up water out of deep 
wells ; and that in huge vessels made for this purpose, and they do not 
help alone this way, but they are set to draw great waggons, for they 
are very strong in their legs, claws, and loins; nor is it unfit to make 
them go upright, and carry burdens of wood, and such like, to the 
place appointed, or they stand at great mens doors, to keep out other 
hurtful creatures. When they are young, they will play wonderfully 
with boys, and do them no hurt.” (History of the Goths , p. 191.) 
