HOW TO KNOW A GREAT HART 143 



And if men ask him by the head whereby he 

 knoweth that it is a great hart and an old, he may 

 answer, that the tokens of the great hart are by 

 the head, and so the first knowledge is when he 

 hath great beams all about as if they were set as 

 it were with small stones, and the mules nigh the 

 head and the antlers, the which are the first tines, 

 be great and long and close to the mule and well 

 apperyng (pearled) and the royals which are the 

 second tines, be nigh the antlers, and of such 

 form, save that they should not be so great ; and 

 all the other tines great and long and well set, 

 and well ranged and the troching as I have said 

 before, high and great, and all the beams all along 

 both great and stony, as if they were full of 

 gravel, and that all along the beams there be small 

 vales that men call gutters, then he may say that 

 he knows it is a great hart by the head. 



After I will tell you how ye should know a 

 great wild boar, and for to know how to speak 

 of it among hunters of beyond the sea. And if a 

 man see a wild boar the which seemeth to him 

 great enough, as men say of the hart chaceable of 

 ten, he shall say a wild boar of the third year 

 that is without refusal, and whenever they be not 

 of three years men call them swine of the sounder, 

 and if he see the great tokens that I shall rehearse 

 hereafter he may say that he is a great boar. Of 

 the season and nature of boar and of other beasts. 



