158 THE MASTER OF GAME 



eyes, then he must set his lymer in his fues. And 

 if it be a deer that enter-changeth, 1 that is to say 

 if a deer puts his hind feet in the trace of the fore- 

 feet without passing on, it is no good token, but if 

 he sets his hinder feet far from the fore feet it is a 

 good token, for when a hart entre-marcheth it is a 

 token that he is a light deer and well running and 

 of great flight, for if he had a side belly and great 

 flanks he could not entre-marche, but the contrary 

 would he do. 2 And sometimes when the hart 

 makes a long stride with the hind foot, commonly 

 they cannot fly well, and have been little hunted. 

 And if he has of the fumes, he should put them in 

 his horn with grass, or in his lap 3 with grass, for 

 a man should not bear them in his hand, for they 

 would all break. And when he should meet in 

 the fields anything that pleaseth him, he should 

 draw towards his covert, for to make him draw 

 the sooner to his stronghold, and when he findeth 

 where he goeth in, then he should break a bough 

 towards the place where the hart is gone, and 

 take the scantilon, and follow him no further in 

 the wood. Then he should make a long turn and 



1 See Appendix: Hart. 



2 The explanation of this sentence is that a stag which entre- 

 marched or sur-marched, or in other words placed the hind 

 foot on the track or beyond the track made by the front foot, 

 was a thin or light deer, and therefore not a fat stag, which 

 latter was what the hunter would be looking for. 



3 Lappet of his coat. 



