PHEASANT.] NATURAL HISTORY. 241 



Pepper. 



TWELFTH NIGHT, iii. 4, 158. 



PEPPER is the seed or the fruit of a tree that groweth in 

 the south side of the hill Caucasus, and serpents keep the 

 woods that Pepper groweth in ; and when the woods of 

 Pepper be ripe, men of that country setteth them on fire, 

 and chacen (chase) away the serpents by violence of fire, 

 and by such burning the green of Pepper, that was white 

 by kind, is made black and rivelly [/".., wrinkled]. And 

 of Pepper be three manner kinds, long (and that is not 

 ripe), white, and black. And black Pepper is most virtuous, 

 and may longest be kept in heat, and is stronger than 

 other Pepper and the more heavy it is, the better it is, 

 and the more new. And it is feigned new by fraud and 

 guile of merchandise ; for they cover the most eldest 

 Pepper, and spring [/.<?., sprinkle] thereon ore of silver, or 

 of lead, for it should so seem fresh and new because of the 

 white husk. Bartholomew (Bertbelet], bk. xvii. 131. 



[Pepper came also from Amboyna, in the East Indies (Beau- 

 mont and Fletcher, " Fair Maid of the Inn "), and from Guinea 

 (Webster, "Devil's Law-Case.")] 



Pheasant. 



WINTER'S TALE, iv. 4, 769. 



THE Pheasant is caught thus : sometimes the fowler, 

 being covered with a cloth on which this bird is painted, 

 shows himself to the Pheasant, which follows the man so 

 covered, who does not retire nor fly, and at last, the Pheasant 

 is caught in a net by the fowler's mate lying in wait. This 

 bird is sad in rainy weather, and hides itself in thickets 

 and woods. It digs its beak into the ground, and believes 

 itself to be altogether hidden in this way. It moults from 

 fatness. Hortus Sanitatis, bk. iii. 46. 



PHEASANTS will die of lice, unless they bestrew them- 

 selves with dust. Holland's Pliny, bk. xi. ch. xxxiii. 



MEN may talk of country Christmasses, and court-gluttony, 

 Their thirty-pound buttered eggs, their pies of carps' tongues, 

 Their Pheasants drench'd with ambergris. 



Massinger, " City Madam," i. ii. 3. 



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