ariora. But the girl repulsed him: 'I am not your wife yet,' she
cried.

"'Yet if Juon were to ask for you, I suppose you would not say no?'

"The girl honestly confessed that she would not.

"At this Tobicza was mad with rage. 'Let him come hither then, if he
loves you,' cried he, 'let him tear you away from me if he be the better
man. I will strike him dead with this--see!' And drawing a long
goat-skin bag out of his girdle, the bottom of which was choke full of
ducats, and whirling it round his head like a morning-star[27] he turned
forestwards and roared: 'Come hither, tattered Juon, thou ragged dog!
'Tis now maiden-market day if you want to buy Mariora! Come forth thou
cowardly hound and let me beat you to death! I'll fell you to the earth
with my ducats. I'll break your head with my gold money.' And the whole
crowd laughed at and loudly applauded these witticisms.

[Footnote 27: A spiked club.]

"But just as he was raging most furiously, a great roaring suddenly
arose from the direction of the forest,--whereupon the crowd rushed away
from their tents to their horses, overturning barrels and trunks as they
went, the women screaming and the men cursing, and all with one voice
exclaiming: 'the bear is coming!' 'Juon is coming with his bear!'

"That was enough for every one. Only the most determined sportsmen care
about tackling a bear in the open, for even when mortally wounded the
beast is quite capable of taking his revenge. In an instant every soul
rushed headlong from the summit of Geina into the roads below, leaving
behind bride, dowry and drinking booth; so that when the bear and Juon
leaped out of the juniper bushes there was nobody left on Geina. Nobody,
that is, but Mariora, who did not fly with the fugitives, but hid
herself in the tent.

"Tobicza had headed the race, but as his legs were heavy with the mead
he had drunk, he threw away his big bag of gold to lighten his limbs and
prevent Juon from overtaking him. But Juon, snatching it up, whirled it
round like a sling and threw it with all his might after his rival,
exclaiming: 'There's your money, big voice! take it and buy a wife with
it. You are nothing at all without it. But I am still Juon, though I
have only an axe in my hands.'

"Then he went up to Mariora, kissed and embraced her, and asked her if
she would be his bride and go away and live with him in the forest. And
when she said: 'Yes,' he kissed her again and took her with him into the