Note 56 — Chapter X · NORTHWARDS HO! TO STYKKISHÓLM AND GRAFARÓS.

This popular German expression is evidently the Scandinavian Besse, for Berr or Bersi = Bär, a bear. Besse, again, has a suspicious likeness to the Yakut “Ese,” the most respectful term in the language, = grandfather or monseigneur, applied by those Siberian Mongols to the great white bear, their most formidable foe. Bruin in Gothland being the “king of the beasts,” to do a thing with Besse’s leave is equivalent to doing it without leave. The quaint quadruped is much noticed in folk-lore; “Mishka” is his pet name in Russia; “Berengarius” is derived from the French Dan Beringer; and Ephraim and Ole Cuffey are well known in the U.S. Persia abounds in tales about his wearing a turband and riding asses.