Note 29 — Chapter XII · WÄLSCH-TIROL. VAL SUGANA.—GIUDICARIA.—FOLKLORE.

A showman came through a village with a dancing-bear. The people went out to see him, and gave him plenty of halfpence. ‘Suppose we try our luck, and go about showing a bear too; it seems a profitable sort of trade,’ said one of the lookers-on to another. ‘Ay, but where shall we find one?’ objected the man addressed. ‘Oh, there must be bears to be found; it needs only to go out and look for them.’ They went out to look for a bear, and at last really found one,29 which ran before them and plunged into a cave. ‘I’ll tell you what we’ll do,’ said the peasant who had proposed the adventure, ‘I’ll creep into the cave and seize the bear, and you take hold of my legs and pull us both out together.’ The other assented; and in went the first. But the bear, instead of letting him seize it, bit off his head. The other pulled him out as agreed, but was much astonished to find him headless. ‘Well, to be sure!’ he cried, ‘I never noticed the poor fellow came out this morning without his head. I must go home and ask his wife for it.’ So saying, he ran back to the man’s house. ‘I say, neighbour,’ he cried, ‘did you happen to notice, when your husband went out this morning, whether he had his head on?’ ‘I never thought to look,’ replied the wife, ‘but I’ll run up and see if he left it in bed; but tell me,’ she added, ‘will he catch cold for going out without his head on?’ ‘I don’t know as to that,’ replied the man; ‘but if he should want to whistle he might find it awkward!’