“Concerning the industrie or naturall disposition of a beare, it is certaine that they are very hardlie tamed, and not to be trusted though they seeme never so tame; for which cause there is a storie of Diana in Lysias, that there was a certaine beare made so tame, that it went uppe and downe among men, and woulde feede with them, taking meat at their handes, giving no occasion to feare or mistrust her cruelty; on a daye, a young mayde playing with the Beare, lasciviously did so provoke it, that he tore her in pieces; the Virgin’s brethren seeing the murther, with their Dartes slew the Beare, whereupon followed a great pestilence through all that region: and when they consulted with the Oracle, the paynim God gave answeare, that the plague could not cease untill they dedicated some virginnes unto Diana for the Beare’s sake that was slaine; which, some interpreting that they should sacrifice them, Embarus, upon condition the priesthoode might remaine in his family, slewe his onely daughter to end the pestilence, and for this cause the virgins were after dedicated to Diana before their marriage, when they were betwixt ten and fifteene yeare olde, which was performed in the moneth of January, otherwise they could not be married: yet beares are tamed for labours, and especially for sports among the Roxalani and Libians, being taught to draw water with wheeles out of the deepest wels; likewise stones upon sleds, to the building of wals.
“A prince of Lituania nourished a Beare very tenderly,
feeding her from his table with his owne hand, for he had used her to be familiar in his court, and to come into his owne chamber, when he listed, so that she would goe abroad into the fields and woods, returning home againe of her owne accord, and with her hand or foote rub the Kinge’s chamber doore to have it opened, when she was hungry, it being locked. It happened that certaine young Noble men conspired the death of this Prince, and came to his chamber doore, rubbing it after the custome of the beare, the King not doubting any evill, and supposing it had bene his beare, opened the doore, and they presently slewe him....
“There are many naturall operations in Beares. Pliny reporteth, that, if a woman bee in sore travaile of child-birth, let a stone, or arrow, which hath killed a man, a beare, or a bore, be throwne over the house wherein the Woman is, and she shall be eased of her paine. There is a small worme called Volvox, which eateth the vine branches when they are young, but if the vine-sickles be annointed with Beare’s blood, that worme will never hurt them. If the blood or greace of a Beare be set under a bed, it will draw unto it all the fleas, and so kill them by cleaving thereunto. But the vertues medicinall are very many; and first of all, the blood cureth all manner of bunches and apostems in the flesh, and bringeth haire upon the eyelids if the bare place be annointed therewith.
“The fat of a Lyon is most hot and dry, and next to a Lyon’s a Leopard’s; next to a Leopard’s a Beare’s; and next to a Beare’s, a Bul’s. The later Physitians use it to cure convulsed and distracted parts, spots, and tumors in the body. It also helpeth the paine of the loins, if the sicke part be annointed therewith, and all ulcers in
the legges or shinnes, when a plaister is made thereof with bole armoricke. Also the ulcers of the feet, mingled with allome. It is soveraigne against the falling of the haire, compounded with wilde roses. The Spaniards burne the braines of beares, when they die in any publicke sports, holding them venemous; because, being drunke, they drive a man to be as mad as a beare; and the like is reported of the heart of a Lyon, and the braine of a Cat. The right eie of a beare dried to pouder, and hung about children’s neckes in a little bag, driveth away the terrour of dreames, and both the eyes whole, bound to a man’s left arme, easeth a quartan ague.
“The liver of a sow, a lamb, and a bear put togither, and trod to pouder under one’s shoos, easeth and defendeth cripples from inflamation: the gall being preserved and warmed in water, delivereth the bodie from Colde, when all other medicine faileth. Some give it, mixt with Water, to them that are bitten with a mad Dogge, holding it for a singular remedie, if the party can fast three daies before. It is also given against the palsie, the king’s evill, the falling sickenesse, an old cough, the inflamation of the eies, the running of the eares, delevery in child birth, the Hæmorrhods, the weaknes of the backe, and the palsie: and that women may go their full time, they make ammulets of Bear’s nails, and cause them to weare them all the time they are with Child.”
The Fox.
By Englishmen, the Fox has been raised to the height of at least a demigod—and his cult is a serious matter attended with great minutiæ of ritual. Englishmen and Foxes cannot live together, but they live for one another, the man to hunt the fox, the fox to be hunted.
If there be a fox anywhere, even in the Campagna at Rome, and there are sufficient Englishmen to get up a scratch pack of hounds, there must “bold Reynard” be tortured with fear and exertion, only, in all probability, to die a cruel death in the end. In the Peninsular War, a pack of foxhounds accompanied the army; in India, failing foxes, they take the nearest substitute, the jackal; and in Australia, faute de mieux, they hunt the Dingo, or native dog. No properly constituted Englishman could ever compass the death of a poor fox, otherwise than by hunting. The Vulpecide—in any other manner—is, in an English county, a social leper—he is a thing anathema. Running away with a neighbour’s wife may be condoned by county society, at least, among the men, but with them the man that shoots foxes is a very pariah, and it were good for that man had he never been born.