cling fast to the bough, and that he would not be persuaded to come
any farther, "Well, well," says Friday, "you no come farther, me go; you
no come to me, me come to you:" and upon this he goes out to the smaller
end of the bough, where it would bend with his weight, and gently lets
himself down by it, sliding down the bough, till he came near enough to
jump down on his feet, and away he runs to his gun, takes it up, and
stands still. "Well," said I to him, "Friday, what will you do now? Why
don't you shoot him?"--"No shoot," says Friday, "no yet; me shoot now,
me no kill; me stay, give you one more laugh:" and, indeed, so he did,
as you will see presently; for when the bear saw his enemy gone, he
comes back from the bough where he stood, but did it mighty cautiously,
looking behind him every step, and coming backward till he got into the
body of the tree; then with the same hinder end foremost, he came down
the tree, grasping it with his claws, and moving one foot at a time,
very leisurely. At this juncture, and just before he could set his hind
foot on the ground, Friday stepped up close to him, clapped the muzzle
of his piece into his ear, and shot him dead. Then the rogue turned
about to see if we did not laugh; and when he saw we were pleased, by
our looks, he falls a laughing himself very loud. "So we kill bear in
my country," says Friday. "So you kill them?" says I: "why, you have no
guns."--"No," says he, "no gun, but shoot great much long arrow." This
was a good diversion to us; but we were still in a wild place, and our
guide very much hurt, and what to do we hardly knew: the howling of
wolves ran much in my head; and, indeed, except the noise I once heard
on the shore of Africa, of which I have said something already, I never
heard any thing that filled me with so much horror.

These things, and the approach of night, called us off, or else, as
Friday would have had us, we should certainly have taken the skin of
this monstrous creature off, which was worth saving; but we had near
three leagues to go, and our guide hastened us; so we left him, and went
forward on our journey.

The ground was still covered with snow, though not so deep and dangerous
as on the mountains; and the ravenous creatures, as we heard afterwards,
were come down into the forest and plain country, pressed by hunger, to
seek for food, and had done a great deal of mischief in the villages,
where they surprised the country people, killed a