Mediaeval Lore from Bartholomew AnglicusBartholomaeus, Anglicus, active 13th century
History
Mediaeval Lore from Bartholomew Anglicus
Bartholomaeus, Anglicus, active 13th century
Civilization, Medieval; Science, Medieval
Other hounds flee and avoid the wood hound as pestilence and venom:
and he is always exiled as it were an outlaw, and goeth alone wagging
and rolling as a drunken beast, and runneth yawning, and his tongue
hangeth out, and his mouth drivelleth and foameth, and his eyes be
overturned and reared, and his ears lie backward, and his tail is
wrinkled by the legs and thighs; and though his eyes be open, yet he
stumbleth and spurneth against every thing. And barketh at his own
shadow.... Pliny saith that under the hound's tongue lieth a worm that
maketh the hound wood, and if this worm is taken out of the tongue,
then the evil ceaseth.... Also an hound is wrathful and malicious, so
that for to awreak himself, he biteth oft the stone that is thrown to
him: and biteth the stone with great woodness, that he breaketh his
own teeth, and grieveth not the stone, but his own teeth full sore.
Also he is guileful and deceivable, and so oft he fickleth and fawneth
with his tail on men that pass by the way, as though he were a friend,
and biteth them sore if they take none heed backward. And the hound
hateth stones and rods, and is bold and hardy among them that he
knoweth, and busieth to bite and to fear all other, and is not bold
when he passeth among strangers. Also the hound is envious, and
gathereth herbs privily, and is right sorry if any man know the virtue
of those herbs, as is also evil apaid if any strange hounds and
unknown come into the place where he dwelleth; and dreadeth lest he
should fare the worse for the other hound's presence, and fighteth
with him therefore. Also he is covetous and scarce, and busy to lay up
and to hide the relief that he leaveth. And therefore he commoneth
not, nor giveth flesh and marrow-bones that he may not devour to other
hounds: but layeth them up busily, and hideth them until he hungereth
again.... And at the last the hound is violently drawn out of the
dunghill with a rope or with a whip bound about his neck, and is
drowned in the river, or in some other water, and so he endeth his
wretched life. And his skin is not taken off, nor his flesh is not
eaten or buried, but left finally to flies, and to other divers worms.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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