HOW TO KNOW A GREAT HART 139 



have before said. 1 (After I will tell you how a 

 man shall speak among good hunters of the office 

 of venery.) First he shall speak but a little, and 

 boast little, and well (work 2 ) and subtlely, and he 

 must be wise and do his craft busily, for a hunter 

 should not be a herald of his craft. And if it 

 happen that he be among good hunters that 

 speaketh of hunting he should speak in this 

 manner. First if men ask him of pastures he 

 may answer as of harts and for all other deer, 

 sweet pastures, and of all biting beasts as of wild 

 boar, wolves, and other biting beasts he may 

 answer, they feed, as I have said before. And if 

 men speak of the fumes ye shall call fumes of a 

 hart, croteying of a buck, and of a roebuck in the 

 same wise of a wild boar and of black beasts and 

 of wolves ye shall call it lesses, and of hare and 

 of conies ye shall say they crotey, of the fox 

 wagging, of the grey the wardrobe, and of other 

 stinking beasts they shall call it drit, and that of 

 the otter he shall call sprainting as before is said. 

 And if men asketh of the beasts' feet, of the harts 

 ye shall say the trace of a hart and also of a buck, 

 and that of the wild boar and of the wolf also 



1 A whole line is missing here in our MS. The words in 

 brackets are taken from the Shirley MS. It runs : "Affter I 

 wal telle yowe a man howe he shal speke amonge good hunters 

 of y offyce of venerye." 



2 The word " work " has been omitted. " Et bien ouvrer 

 subtilement" (G. de F. p. 134). 



