LION.] NATURAL HISTORY. 183 



they hele [*'.*., cover or conceal] their fores [i.e., goings] 

 and steps, for hunters should not find them. And it is 

 trowed that the Lion- whelp, when he is whelped, sleepeth 

 three days and three nights ; and the place of the couch 

 trembleth and shaketh by roaring of the father, that 

 waketh the whelp that sleepeth. It is the kind of Lions 

 not to be wroth with man, but if they be grieved or hurt. 

 Also their mercy is known by many and oft ensamples ; 

 for they spare them that lie on the ground, and suffer 

 them to pass homeward that be prisoners, and come out 

 of thraldom, and eat not a man nor slay him, but in great 

 hunger. The Lion is in most gentleness and nobility, 

 when his neck and shoulders be heled with hair and 

 mane ; and he that is gendered of the pard Jacketh that 

 nobility. The Lion knoweth by smell if the pard 

 gendereth with the lioness, and reseth [rageth] against the 

 lioness that breaketh spousehead [wedlock], and punisheth her 

 full sore, but if she wash her in a river, and then it is not 

 known to the Lion. And when the lioness whelpeth, her 

 womb is rent with the claws of her whelps, and whelpeth 

 therefore not oft. And the lioness whelpeth first five 

 whelps, and afterward four, and so each year less by one, 

 and waxeth barren when she whelpeth one at last. And 

 she whelpeth whelps evil shapen and small, in quantity 

 [i.e., size] of a weasel in the beginning. And whelps of 

 six months may unneath [hardly] be whelped, and whelps 

 of two months may unneath move. And when the Lion 

 eateth once enough, afterward he is meatless two days or 

 three. And if him needeth to flee, he casteth up his 

 meat into his mouth, and draweth it out with his claws, to 

 be in that wise the more light to run and to flee. The 

 Lion liveth most long, and that is known by working and 

 wasting of his teeth ; and then in age he reseth on a 

 man ; for his virtue and might faileth to pursue great 

 beasts and wild. And then he besiegeth cities to ransom, 

 and to take men ; but when the Lions be taken, then they 

 be hanged, for other Lions should dread such manner pain. 

 The old Lion reseth woodly [madly, furiously] on men, 

 and only grunteth on women, and reseth seld on children > 

 but in great hunger. By the tail the boldness and heart 

 of the Lion is known, as the horse is known by the ears. 

 For when the Lion is wroth, first he beateth the earth 



