CHAPTER VI 



OF THE WILD BOAR AND OF HIS NATURE 



A WILD boar is a common beast enough and there- 

 fore it needeth not to tell of his making, for there 

 be few gentlemen that have not seen some of them. 

 It is the beast of this world that is strongest armed, 

 and can sooner slay a man than any other. Neither 

 is there any beast that he could not slay if they 

 were alone sooner than that other beast could slay 

 him,^ be they lion or leopard, unless they should 

 leap upon his back, so that he could not turn on 

 them with his teeth. And there is neither lion 

 nor leopard that slayeth a man at one stroke as 

 a boar doth, for they mostly kill with the raising 

 of their claws and through biting, but the wild 

 boar slayeth a man with one stroke as with a knife, 

 and therefore he can slay any other beast sooner 

 than they could slay him. It is a proud ^ beast 



^ In spite of the boar being such a dangerous animal a 

 wound from his tusk was not considered so fatal as one from 

 the antlers of a stag. An old fourteenth-century saying was : 

 " Pour le sanglier faut le mire, mais pour le cerf convient la 

 bière." 



* Proud. G. de F., p. 56, orguilleusc. G. de F., p. 57, says 

 after this that he has often himself been thrown to the ground, 



46 



