Bearer

“ Prelim. p. xxiii. note.
1778.—"They came on foot, the town having neither horses nor palankin-bearers to carry them, and Colonel Coote received them at his headquarters...."—Orme, iii. 719.
1803.—"I was ... detained by the scarcity of bearers."—Lord Valentia, i. 372. b.—
1782.—"... imposition ... that a gentleman should pay a rascal of a Sirdar Bearer monthly wages for 8 or 10 men ... out of whom he gives 4, or may perhaps indulge his master with 5, to carry his palankeen."—India Gazette, Sept. 2. c. 1815.—"Henry and his Bearer."— (Title of a well-known book of Mrs. Sherwood's.) ”

“ One who assists in carrying a body to the grave; a pallbearer. Milton. 3. A palanquin carrier; also, a house servant. [India] 4. A tree or plant yielding fruit; as, a good bearer. 5. (Com.) One who holds a check, note, draft, or other order for the payment of money; as, pay to bearer. 6. (Print.) A strip of reglet or other furniture to bear off the impression from a blank page; also, a type or typeÐhigh piece of metal interspersed in blank parts to support the plate when it is shaved. Bear¶herd· (?) , n. A man who tends a bear. ”

“ The animal he had been chasing sank panting in their midst, and the boy, very much frightened, stood still, letting his bow fall to the ground.
“Why are you trying to kill all my servants?” asked the chief. “Look round and see their shades, with arrows sticking in them. It was I who told the bear to-day how he was to lure you into my power. I shall take care that you shall not hurt my people any more, because you will become a bear yourself.” ”

“ My fur boots are as much a part of me as my beard. Lady, I am, indeed, a foreigner, as to society; I was born in no city, town, or village, but in a cave full of dry leaves and soft twigs. The truth is, I am not a man—but a Bear!”
As he finished speaking he took off his comforter, coat, and cap—and sure enough a Bear he was, and one of the largest that was ever seen! ”

“ That night the Bear said to him: “Hereafter you shall have the same feelings as the bear. When you get angry, you will have a grunt like a bear; and if you get too fierce, tushes like a bear’s will stick out of your mouth, so that the people will know that you are very angry. You shall have my power, and you can go into any of the lodges of the animals, of which I am the chief.” And he told him how to get into these lodges.
That day they stayed in the Bear’s lodge, and the Bear took the claw off from his little finger and gave it and a little bundle of medicine to the boy. ”

“ At this instant that surge of impulse which, when it does come, shatters routine and habit to bits, seized the bear. Without premeditation, he dealt the trainer a cuff that knocked him clean over a wagon-pole and broke his arm. Before any of the other attendants could realize what had happened, the bear was beyond the circle of wagons, and half-way across the buckwheat-fields. In ten minutes more he was in the spicy glooms of the spruce-woods.
His years of association with men had given the bear a great confidence in their resources. ”

“ Set out by the stony path outside the town, and ride ahead till you come to a forest, where a bear will come out upon you. The moment you see him, spring from your horse, and cut its throat with [375] your hunting-knife; but if you hesitate a moment he will fall upon you, and devour you. If, however, you kill your horse dexterously, as you will, the bear will be satisfied with its flesh. You must wait standing by till he has eaten his fill, and watch for the moment when he is about to turn away again, then spring on his back, and he will take you to the castle where the phœnix-bird is kept ”

“ The boy grew to be a noble chief and a great hunter. No hunter could hit a bear trail so soon as he, for he knew just where and how to find the bear trees. But never was he known to cut down a bear tree, or to kill a bear.
However, many were the wolf, panther, and deerskins that hung in his lodge. The hunter's wife sat and made warm coats from the fox and beaver skins [Pg 59] which the hunter father brought in from the chase. But never was the hunter, his wife, or his children seen to wear a bear-skin coat. ”

“ Stand there and be rushed at by a thing that was neither horse nor man? Not if he knew it! And just when the bear was close upon him, Gray Berold, with a squeal of mingled terror and anger, wheeled short round. The bear made a spring, and caught the charger by the tail. The terrified animal bounded forward; the Baron made a downward stroke with his battle-axe that would have felled an ox, and Master Bruin (no offence to you, my dear fellow! it’s the name of all your family, you know) rolled over and over in the dust. ”

“ And every time a bear was killed his shadow returned to the house of the bear chief, with the marks of his wounds plainly to bee seen by the rest.
The chief was furious at the number of bears the hunters had killed, and determined that he would find some way of destroying them. So he called another of his servants, and said to him:
“Go to the thicket near the fork, where the boys killed your brothers, and directly they or the dogs see you return here as fast as ever you can. The mountain will open to let you in, and the hunters will follow you. ”

“ Sometimes, it is true, by sheer roar-power the Master succeeds in silencing one of the bears for a moment, but he can never be said to succeed in cowing a bear. If anybody is cowed it is the Master. Meanwhile the lesser bears press closer and closer, pulling at the damp ends of their rainy moustaches and making whispered suggestions for new devilries in the ears of the chief bears, who nod their heads emphatically but don't pay any attention. ”

“ When his back is up against a wall, he must fight to the last. And that is exactly what the bear was looking for—something against which he could place his back. To the left, about fifty yards away, a great spur of rock broke from the mountainside. If he could once reach that, he knew that he could keep his foes at bay. He knew also, that in order to reach it, he would have to fight every yard of the way. ”

“ I need not tell you who these two forest friends were who had thus saved my life. You have already guessed.”
[41] “Jemmy and Hugo,” whispered the children.
“Jemmy and Hugo, grown up!” nodded Mr. Bear.
“The hunters now began to talk together about whether I might not be of more value to them alive in a menagerie than if they killed me. They spoke of my rich, bright, brown-coloured fur, my large size, my youth. At length they decided to send me to a menagerie. Some of them said that a live bear was a great trouble on a long journey. ”

“ The bear thinks he is running after the maiden, and runs, on the contrary, after the mouse, which he cannot catch. The bear tires himself out, and congratulating the maiden, says to her, "Thou art my mistress, maiden, in playing at blind-man's-buff; to-morrow morning I will send you a herd of horses and a chariot of goods." (The morning aurora comes out of the forest, delivers herself from the clutches of the bear, from the witch of the night, and appears drawn by horses upon a chariot full of treasure. The myth is a lucid one.) ”

“ Now, look out and you will see some sport; the fellow is fitting an arrow to his string, and how cautiously he is doing it, too. It is my belief that he has got himself up as a seal and has been simulating the actions of the animal in order to entice that deluded bear within range. ”

“ At last a huntsman cried out, 'There is the bear!' and, sure enough, the bear crossed a clearing, dragging the Countess, no doubt for the purpose of devouring her undisturbed, into a thicket, for these beasts are great gourmands; they like to dine at ease, as the monks. Married but a couple of days, the Count was most chivalrous. He tried to fling himself upon the bear, hunting knife in his fist; but, my dear sir, a Lithuanian bear does not let himself be run through like a stag. ”

“ A man less wise than the superintendent would have undertaken to drive the sheep out and back to camp, but the superintendent knew the ways of sheep and foresaw that an attempt to rescue them without the aid of dogs and herders would result only in an endless surging to and fro in the basin. Besides it was almost dusk, the bear might come home to supper at any moment and a revolver was of little use in a bear fight in the dark. ”

“ When one became tired with the weight of the belt another carried it. Thus they ran till they had passed the bones of all the warriors, and when they were some distance beyond, looking back, they saw the monster slowly rising. For some time it stood still, not missing the belt. Then they heard [Pg 99] a tremendous howl, like distant thunder, slowly filling the sky. At last they heard the bear cry—
“Who can it be that has dared to steal my belt? Earth is not so large but I can find them,” and it descended the hill in pursuit. With every jump of the bear the earth shook as if it were convulsed. ”

“ This I knew because at one place the foot-mark showed plainly in the gray alkali dust which had accumulated upon a projecting stone a few feet below the ledge. Obviously whoever the visitor was, he had entered and left by this pass. Returning to camp I sat down on a log lost in thought. My reverie was at last broken by the voice of my guide quietly remarking. “Well, Le-loo, what’s your judication?”
“Pete,” I said, “that bear walks on its hind-legs; there is not the sign of a forefoot anywhere along the trail. ”

“ At no great distance up he met the beast, making its way leisurely across the creek, and, in his excitement, he fired both barrels into the bear's shoulder; and then the same thing happened that had happened to me—those refilled cartridges had jammed, and there was nothing for it but to [Pg 30] run for his life. Luckily he had badly lamed the animal, or his chance of escape would have been nil, and, as it was, in another two hundred yards the bear would have been into him. ”

“ By this time the young men had come up and found the bear dead, so they dipped their arrows in the blood, and picking up the bear, carried it into the house of the chief, the poor little boy coming behind them. ”

“ To this discourse the bear, more and more surly and agitated, listens without conviction; round and round the tree he paces and howls lamentably, till, just as the first beams of the rising sun light up the scene, an archer speeds an arrow to his heart. ”

“ When I got home about dusk that evening, I found that some one had broken into my house and had stolen a hind-quarter of elk, a box of matches, a frying-pan, and—of all queer things to select—a bear-trap. What on earth any one can want with a bear-trap at this season of the year, I can’t think, when there is hardly a bear out of his winter-quarters yet; and if he was he’d be as thin as a rail. I found the fellow’s tracks easily enough—tall man—big feet—long stride—and trailed them down the gulch to a point where another man had been sitting on a rock waiting for him. ”

“ Why, you travel a hundred miles to get a shot at a bear, and think little of it too. The bear hunter must keep up a correspondence with the Ofwer Jagmästerer of the different provinces, and get information whenever the peasants have ringed a bear as they call it—that is to say, ascertained that he is within a certain circle, and then out with the sledge and the dogs, and the rifles, and away up the river, or across the lake, as it may be. You do not meet with a bear at every turning, I can assure you. ”

“ So she got into Tiny-cub's and rested her bones.
Goldenhair was asleep when the three bears came in.
Said Big Bruin, "I'm hungry to eat, let's begin—
"Who has been to my porridge?" he roared with such might;
His voice was like wind down the chimney at night.
"Who has been to my porridge?" growled out Mrs. B——;
Her voice was like cats fighting up in a tree. ”

“ He was about to go off with these angry words when a sudden growl was heard, and a black bear trotted out of the wood. The dwarf jumped up in a great fright, but he hadn’t time to reach his place of retreat, for the bear was already close to him. Then he cried in terror: ‘Dear Mr. Bear, spare me! I’ll give you all my treasure. Look at those beautiful precious stones lying there. Spare my life! what pleasure would you get from a poor feeble little fellow like me? ”

“ We shall certainly be looked up before long. But, there is something I do not [Pg 76] understand about that bear, Dêh-Yān. In my country, south of the ranges, a brown bear ambushes and waylays, but rarely attacks by day and in the open. Is it more usual here? Are thy people's weapons so weak that a bear has no fear of them? or is this a Ghost-Bear, thinkest thou?—This beast should either have followed your tribe down, or have laid up for the winter. What is he doing abroad in snow?—Is he a bear at all? Did any warrior of your tribe die during the past summer? ”

“ Our bears, too, are creatures of vast physical power. Often, as I rode the mountain for cattle, have I come across a dead and fallen pine tree, which would have defeated the best efforts of a horse to move, completely torn from its bed in the earth and leaves, and either overturned or thrown one side by the mighty arms of a bear. He was in search of a dinner cf grubs—those white, helpless worms which make their dull homes under rotten logs—and Sir Bear made no more ado of lifting and laying aside a pine tree in his grub-hunt than would you or I of a billet of firewood. ”

“ What about the time when the bears were caught short of N. P. Commons?"
"There you are talking. But are we big enough to run a corner? And do we know how to do it? You see, you've got to make your bears before you can trap them." ”

“ THE BEAR, WITH HIS WIFE AND SON, TAKES A WALK.
Said she to herself, “To rob bears is no sin;
The three bears have gone out, so I think I’ll go in.”
She entered their parlor, and she saw a great bowl,
And in it a spoon like a hair-cutter’s pole.
“That porridge,” said she “may stay long enough there,
It tastes like the food of the surly old bear,”
She tried Mammy Muff’s, and she said, “Mrs. B——,
I think your taste and my taste will never agree.”
GOLDENHAIR EATS UP TINY-CUB’S PORRIDGE.
Then she tried Tiny-Cub’s bowl, and said, “This is nice ”