The Legend of Anton Tozbar - Spik

Tozbar - The Bear

In 1871 a nasty bear came into the poor Trenta valley, making damage. So, the best hunters of Trenta valley decided to get rid of him. It was April, 1871, when they organised a big hunt, where one group closed the whole valley of Beli potok and proceeded from bottom of the valley upwards, while the second group of five hunters went even much earlier around the mountain group (Pihavec), closing the valley from above. They knew the beast was somewhere in the steep valley, but the outcome of the hunt was uncertain.

It was morning and Anton Tozbar was on the edge of the upper group, near Planja walls, when suddenly the big brown beast appeared in front of him. No possible escape for both of them! The bear was pushed by noisy people, Tozbar was standing on the narrow ledge, the only possible passage. The first shot from some 80 feet distance was a good one, but not deadly. The animal ran further down and Tozbar after it, loading the gun once again. Suddenly the bear mounted on his last feet, prepared to attack, Tozbar aimed carefully and shot the second bullet from the distance of some 20 feet. The bear was deadly shot, but before breathing its last, reached Tozbar who could now fight only with bare hands and the empty gun. With its last powers the beast tore off Tozbar's lower jaw, when one of the other hunters came. The beast jumped after him, the man jumped up a rocky wall, holding for a pine-bush, but the beast still tore his leg. Then the bear finally died. When other hunters came, they found the poor Tozbar all in blood, but still alive.

Tozbar survived, but was doomed for the rest of his life to wear a kerchief under his nose by way of hiding and protecting the gaping wound. He could only feed on soup and liquids, so he carried the appropriate equipment all the time with him, hunting, working, guiding on mountains, living for 20 more years. At the time of accident Tozbar had one child, all others came after the accident. The story also goes (told by Julius Kugy) that one day he travelled to the dentist in Ljubljana, due to a teribble toothache (in the upper jaw, of course). The civil dentist accepted him, he took off his kerchief after which he cried 'Jesus, Maria, Josef' and lost consciousness. A military doctor was needed to take care of the poor man. The look on Tozbar's wound had to be terrible. The poor man died in a work accident, hit by a falling tree. Still nowadays you can see near his home, at the first house at the bottom of serpentines of the road over Vrsic a sign with a picture on it, showing this accident.

Source: Julius Kugy: Aus vergangener Zeit. Leykam Verlag, Graz, 1943.

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