CRAB.] NATURAL HISTORY. 71 



Cow. 



The breese upon her, like a cow in June 

 Hoists sails and flies. 



ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA, iii. 10, 14. 



WHEN the kine do oft calve and have many calves, it 

 is a token as men mean that in winter shall be much rain. 

 And when they have sore feet, it is medicine therefor 

 to anoint them between the horns with oil and pitch and 

 other medicines. And have the gout and die of that evil ; 

 and the token thereof is when they bear down their ears, 

 and eat not. And when she is stung with a great fly, 

 then she raiseth up her tail in a wonder wise, and startleth 

 as she were wood about fields and plains. 



Bartholomew (Berthelet], bk. xviii. 109. 



THE hoofs of the fore-feet of a Cow dried, and made 

 in fine powder, increaseth milk in nurses if they eat it in 

 their pottage, or use it in their drink ; and being cast 

 upon burning coals, the smoke thereof doth kill mice, or 

 at the least doth drive them away. 



Lupton, "A Thousand Notable Things," bk. i. 4. 



Cowslip. 



Freckled cowslip. 



KING HENRY V., v. 2, 49. 



COWSLIP, because the cow licketh this flower up with 

 her lips. Minshetts Dictionary, s.v. 



COWSLIPS [or] tWO-in-a-hose. Gerard's "Herbal," s.v. 



Crab. 



If like a crab you could go backward. 



HAMLET, ii. 2, 206. 



GREAT cold grieveth them [i.e., fish] sore, and namely 

 them that have stones in their heads as Crabs and other 

 such. For the stone in the head runneth and freezeth, 

 and such a fish dieth soon. Also the Crab is enemy to 

 the oyster, for he liveth by fish thereof with a wonderful 

 wit. For because that ye [? he] may not open the hard 

 shell of the oyster, he spieth and awaiteth when the oyster 

 openeth, and then the Crab (that lieth in await) taketh a 

 little stone, and putteth between the shells, that the oyster 



