HERB.] NATURAL HISTORY. 153 



her chickens, and loseth her feathers. And her kindly love 

 about her chickens is known by roughness of feathers, and 

 by hoarseness of voice. 



Bartholomew (Bertkelet\ bk. xii. 18. 



[N.B. In the article from which the above is an extract, 

 the word "chickens" is spelt as follows: chekyns, chekens, 

 chekynnes, chekennes, chykynnes, chykyns, and chykens.] 



AN odd number of eggs should always be put under a 

 Hen, and that while the moon is waxing from the tenth 

 to the fifteenth day. The flesh of hens clears the voice. 



Hortus Sanitatis, bk. iii. ch. liii. 



THE Hens of country-houses have a certain ceremonious 

 religion. When they have laid an egg, they fall a trembling 

 and quaking, and all to shake themselves. They turn about 

 also, as in procession, to be purified, and with some festue 

 [or fescue, a straw] or such like thing, they keep a ceremony 

 of hallowing, as well themselves as their eggs. 



Holland's Pliny, bk. x. ch. xli. 



IF it thunder while she is broody the eggs will be addle, 

 yea, and if the Hen chance but to hear an hawk cry they 

 will be marred. The remedy against thunder is to put an 

 iron nail under the straw of the Hen's nest, or else some 

 earth newly turned up with the plough. 



Ibid., ch. liv. 



AT this day, the English inhabitants eat almost no flesh 

 more commonly than Hens. 



Fynes Moryson, " Itinerary," bk. iii. ch. iii. 



V. Fowl. 



Herb. 



SEEDS AND HERBS FOR THE KITCHEN. 



AVENS Betony Bleets or Beets, white or yellow Blood- 

 wort Bugloss Burnet Borage Cabbage, remove in June 

 Clary Coleworts Cresses Endive Fennel French 

 Mallows French Saffron, set in August Lang de Beef 



