50 THE MASTER OF GAME 



of three years old. In the third March counting 

 that in which he was farrowed, he parteth from his 

 mother and may well engender at the year's end.^ 



They have four tusks, two in the jaw above and 

 two in the nether jaw ; of small teeth speak not 

 I, the which are like other boar's teeth. The two 

 tusks above serve for nothing except to sharpen 

 his two nether tusks and make them cut well and 

 men beyond the sea call the nether tusks of the 

 boar his arms or his files, with these they do great 

 harm, and also they call the tusks above gres^ 

 (grinders) for they only serve to make the others 

 sharp as I have said, and when they are at bay they 

 keep smiting their tusks together to make them 

 sharp and cut better. When men hunt the boar 

 they commonly go to soil and soil in the dirt and if 

 they be hurt the soil is their medicine. The boar 

 that is in his third year or a little more is more 

 perilous and more swift and doth more harm than 

 an old boar, as a young man more than an old 

 man. An old boar will be sooner dead than a 

 young one for he is proud and heavier and deigneth 

 not to fly, and sooner he will run upon a man than 

 fly, and smiteth great strokes but not so perilously 

 as a young boar. 



A boar heareth wonderfully well and clearly, 



^ As this is somewhat confused wc have followed G. de F. 's 

 text in the modern rendering. 



^ F'rom the French ^tV, grinding-stone or grinders. 



