But some wolves be so malicious that they will eat in the night and in the day they will go a great way thence, two miles or more, especially if they have been aggrieved in that place, or if they feel that men have made any train with flesh for to hunt at them. They do not complain (cry out) when men slay them as hounds do, otherwise they be most like them. When men let run greyhounds at a wolf he turns to look at them, and when he seeth them he knoweth which will take him, and then he hasteneth to go while he can, and if they be greyhounds which dare not take him, the wolf knows at once, and then he will not hasten at his first going. And if men let run at him from the side, or before more greyhounds which will seize him, when the wolf seeth them, and he be full, he voideth both before and behind all in his running so as to be more light and more swift. Men cannot nurture a wolf, though he be taken ever so young and chastised and beaten and held under discipline, for he will always do harm, if he hath time and place for to do it, he will never be so tame, but that when men leave him out he will look hither and thither to see if he may do any harm, or he looks to see if any man will do him any harm. For he knoweth well and woteth well that he doth evil, and therefore men ascrieth (cry at) and hunteth and slayeth him. And yet for all that he may not leave his evil nature. [86] G. de F., p. 66, has "evil biting." [87] He keeps to the coverts. [88] Acherned, from O. Fr. _acharné_, to blood, from _chair_, flesh. [89] Needles. See Appendix: Snares. [90] _Aucepis_ (Shirley MS.). G. de F., p. 69: _haussepiez_, a snare by which they were jerked from the ground by a noose. Men say that the right fore foot of the wolf is good for medicine for the evil of the breast and for the botches (sores) which come to swine under the shoulder.[91] And also the liver of the wolf dried is good for a man's liver, but thereof I make no affirmation, for I would put in my book nothing but very truth. The wolf's skin is warm to make cuffs or pilches (pelisses), but the fur thereof is not fair, and also it stinketh ever unless it be well tawed.[92] [91] This should be "jaw." G. de F., p. 70, has _maisselles, i.e._ Mâchoires. [92] Prepared. Tawing is a process of making hides into leather--somewhat different from tanning. There were tawers and tanners. CHAPTER VIII OF THE FOX AND OF HIS NATURE