[85] While actual incorporation was doubtless regarded as the most effectual, mere possession was not by any means to be despised. Thus Porta tells us that “if you would have a man become bold and impudent, let him carry about him the skin or eyes of a Lion or a Cock, and he will be fearlesse of his enemies—nay, he will be very terrible unto them.” Scores of equally valuable hints may be gathered from these old authors. [86] In another book we consulted, “Notes for Cookerie, gathered from experienced Cookes,” published in 1593, it is equally emphatic that “a Cock to be stewed to renew the weake” must be a red one. There is naturally here a connection suggested between the colour of the bird and the ruddy hue of health that is to be hoped for after such a dietary. [87] MS. No. 10,074 in the Royal Library, Brussels. [88] In the Middle Ages animals were frequently haled before the judges for various offences. In 1266 a pig was burnt at Fontaney, near Paris, for having killed a child, and in 1386, at Falaise, a sow was condemned to death for a similar offence. Horses and cattle were solemnly tried before the magistrates for manslaughter, and either expiated their offence on the gallows or were burned. [89] Aubrey tells us that in his younger days people had “some pious ejaculation when the cock did crow, which put them in mind of ye Trumpet at ye Resurrection.” [90] “The peasants’ trusty clock, True morning watch, Aurora’s trumpeter, The lion’s terror, true astronomer, Who leaves his bed when Sol begins to rise And when Sunne sets then to his roost he flies.” _Speculum Mundi._ “O chanticleer, Your clarion blow, the day is near.” LONGFELLOW, _Daybreak_. [91] Spenser. [92] Macbeth. [93] An old writer, one Fulgentius, declares that so far from this croak being monotonous “the Raven hath sixty-four sundry chaunges of her voice.” No other observer seems to have detected this. [94] A fourteenth-century MS., the “Cursor Mundi,” says of the raven’s exit from the ark:— “Than opin Noe his windowe Let ut a rauen and forth he flow Dune and vp sought here and thare A stede to sett upon somequar. Vpon the water sone he fand A drinkled best ther flotand. Of that fless was he so fain To schip came he neuer again.” [95] This notion of the sightlessness of the young swallow was a very popular one. The chelidonium, or swallow wort, according to Aristotle and Dioscorides was so called because the swallows use it to give sight to their young. Goldfinches, linnets, and other birds, in like manner were believed to use the eyebright; while the hawks strengthened their vision, we are told, by means of the plant that was hence called the hawkweed, and still retains that name.