WILD BOAR AND HIS NATURE 49 



have a hard skin and strong flesh, especially upon 

 their shoulders which is called the shield. Their 

 season begins from the Holy Cross day in Sep- 

 tember ^ to the feast of St. Andrew ^ for then they 

 go to the brimming of the sows. For they are 

 in grease when they be withdrawn from the sows. 

 The sows are in season from the brimming time 

 which is to say the tzvelfth day after Christmas till 

 the time when they have farrowed. The boars 

 turn commonly to bay on leaving their dens for 

 the pride that is in them, and they run upon some 

 hounds and at men also. But when the boar is 

 heated, or wrathful, or hurt, then he runneth upon 

 all things that he sees before him. He dwelleth 

 in the strong wood and the thickest that he can 

 find and generally runneth in the most covered 

 and thickest way so that he may not be seen as he 

 trusteth not much in his running, but only in his 

 defence and in his desperate deeds.^ He often 

 stops and turns to bay, and especially when he is at 

 the brimming and hath a little advantage before 

 the hounds of the first running, and these will 

 never overtake him unless other new hounds be 

 uncoupled to him. 



He will well run and fly from the sun rising to 

 the going down of the sun, if he be a young boar 



^ September 14. ^ November 30. 



' Despiteful or furious deeds. G. de F., p. 60, says that he 

 only trusts in his defences and his weapons ("en sa défense 

 et en ses armes"). 



D 



