CHAPTER III 



OF THE HART AND HIS NATURE 



The hart is a common beast enough and therefore 

 me needeth not to tell of his making, for there be 

 few folk that have not seen some. The harts be 

 the lightest (swiftest) beasts and strongest, and 

 of marvellous great cunning. They are in their 

 love, which men call rut, about the time of the 

 Holy Rood 1 in September and remain in their 

 hot love a whole month and ere they be fully out 

 thereof they abide (in rut) nigh two months. 

 And then they are bold, and run upon men as a 

 wild boar would do if he were hunted. And they 

 be wonderfully perilous beasts, for with great pain 

 shall a man recover that is hurt by a hart, and 

 therefore men say in old saws : " after the boar 

 the leech and after the hart the bier." For he 

 smiteth as the stroke of the springole, 2 for he has 

 great strength in the head and the body. They 

 slay, fight and hurt each other, when they be in 

 rut, that is to say in their love, and they sing in 



1 September 14. See Appendix : Hart, Seasons. 



2 An engine of war used for throwing stones. 



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