THE WOLF AND HIS NATURE 61 



some village or in a brook, he will be little at bay 

 except when he can go no further. Sometimes 

 wolves go mad and when they bite a man he will 

 scarcely get well, for their biting is wonderfully 

 venomous on account of the toads they have 

 eaten as I have said before, and also on account of 

 their madness. And when they are full or sick 

 they feed on grasses as a hound does in order to 

 purge themselves. They stay long without meat 

 for a wolf can well remain without meat six days 

 or more. And when the wolfs bitch has her 

 whelps commonly she will do no harm near 

 where she has them, for fear she hath to lose 

 them. And if a wolf come to a fold of sheep 

 if he may abide any while he will slay them all 

 before he begins to eat any of them. Men take 

 them beyond the sea with hounds and greyhounds 

 with nets and with cords, but when he is taken 

 in nets or cords he cutteth them wonderfully fast 

 with his teeth unless men get quickly to him to 

 slay him. Also men take them within pits and 

 with needles * and with haussepieds 2 or with veno- 

 mous powders that men give them in flesh, and 

 in many other manners. When the cattle come 

 down from the hills the wolves come down also 

 to get their livelihood. They follow commonly 



1 Needles. See Appendix : Snares. 



2 Aucepis (Shirley MS.). G. de F., p. 69: haussepicz, a 

 snare by which they were jerked from the ground by a noose. 



