INTRODUCTION XXV

with the enmity of the Fox and the Wolf, or,
as some say, of the Fox and the Bear. Dr.
Krohn has shown that precisely these traditions
still exist as traditions among the Folk of to-day.
We have, accordingly, evidence here of the
continued existence of a fable among the Folk
for at least seven centuries, during which it has
spread through all the continents.

M. Sudre and Dr. Krohn go even further.
They. think they can localise the original home
and scene of at least one part of the tradition.
The incident of the Iced Wolf’s Tail, to which
I have already referred, occurs in many places,
especially in North Europe, as the Iced Bear’s
Tail, and is there used to explain why the
Bear’s tail is so short. It is, indeed, obvious,
that the story as told in the Reynard Cycle
loses much of its efficacy from the fact that
the Wolf is nearly as well provided with
a brush as Master Reynard himself. The
Reynard story can only be told of an individual
Wolf, the Northern folk-tale is appropriately
applied to the Bear in general. If we regard
the Northern Fable as the original, it is, in its
way, a myth told to explain a natural pheno-
menon, viz. ‘Why the Bear’s tail is so short,’
the actual title of one of the folk-tales.