THE HUNTED STAG. 175 



at large, and not in one district only. Some 

 of these books, too, seem to contain evidence 

 that the contents were partially transcribed 

 from a work originally written in Norman- 

 French, and probably in France, where deer 

 may develop their horns in a slightly dif- 

 ferent sequence. Norman-French may still 

 be continually traced in hunting terms ; the 

 word " soil," for instance, which is said of a 

 stag bathing, was anciently written soule. 



