THE HABITS OF HOUNDS 83 



their whelps nine weeks or more ; the whelps be 

 blind when they be whelped till they be nine 

 days old and then they may well see and lap well 

 when they be a month old, but they have great 

 need of their dam to the time that they be two 

 months old, and then they should be well fed 

 with goat's milk or with cow's milk and crumbs 

 of bread made small and put therein, especially in 

 the morn and at night. Because that the night 

 is more cold than the day. And also men should 

 give them crumbs in flesh-broth, and in this wise 

 men may nourish them till they be half a year 

 old, and by that time they shall have cast their 

 hooks, and when they have cast their hooks, they 

 should teach them to eat dry bread and lap water 

 little by little, for a hound that is nourished with 

 grease and fat broth when he casts his hooks, and if 

 he hath always sops or tit-bits, he is a chis 1 (dainty) 

 hound and of evil ward. And also they be not 

 so well breathed than if they have eaten always 

 bread and water. When the bitches be lined they 

 lose their time, and also while they be great with 

 whelps, and also while their whelps suck. If they 

 are not lined, soon they will lose their time, for 

 their teats remain great and grow full of wind 

 until the time that they should have had their 



1 "Chis," or "cheese," hound, probably dainty hound, a 

 chooser, from " cheosan," Mid. Eng. " choose," to distinguish : 

 also written " ches," " chees." (Stratmann.) 



