Myths and Tales form Greece and Romania May 2012 | Page 129

That night a cold wind started blowing, so cold that even the cinders
in the fire would freeze. So the water froze solid too and caught the bear’s tail
in. After a while, unable to stand the pain anymore, the bear yanked with all
his might. And instead of catching fish, the poor bear was left without a tail!
He now started growling in agony and jumping up and down with pain;
and angry with the fox for having tricked him, he made for her den to beat
the life out of her. But the sly fox knew how to dodge the bear’s anger. She’d
got out of her den and gone into a tree hollow nearby; and when she saw the
bear coming without a tail, she shouted at him: