History of Animal Plagues. ^ 57 



bus et tribus noctibus, et ne comedant porcellos; et si comc- 

 derint, tercia pars precii reddatur emptori^ nee recambire debent 

 inditio/ 



And for sheep : — 



' Signis oves vendiderit, debet esse sub dylyssruyt (evictione) ; 

 et sub dere (vertigine) tribus diebus et tribus noctibus ; et sub 

 llederu (morbo pulmonis) a festo Sancti Michaelis in autumno 

 usque ad medium Aprilis, donee ter comederunt usque ad 

 satietatem ac novis parellis in vere/ 



'Agnorum venditor debet esse sub dilyssruyt (evictione); et 

 sub dere (vertigine) tribus diebus et noctibus ; et sub Scah'ie a 

 festo Omnium Sanctorum usque ad Kalendas Aprilis ; et sub 

 llederu (morbo pulmonis) a predicto festo usque Kalendas Maii; 

 emptor non debet ducere eos agnos Scalnosos septem annis 

 ante/ 



A.D. 987. An excessive drought and a most scorching heat 

 during the summer. Bad weather brought a famine on many 

 countries/ A serious epizooty appeared among cattle in Eng- 

 land in the form of dysentery, which caused a great mortality. 

 Malignant fevers among the people, ' In this year two plagues 

 of an unknown character appeared in England, to wit : fever 

 among men, and pestilence among aniinals and men, which the 

 English term ' scitta/ but which in Latin is known as dysentery 

 [Jluxus). These ravaged the whole of England, and the destruc- 

 tion to men and animals was quite incredible/ - 



These pestilences appear to have prevailed in Ireland at 

 the same time. ' Great and unusual wind. Preternatural [i.e. 

 magical) sickness {tregait Fithnaisi, demoniacal colic), by demons, 

 in the east of Ireland, which caused mortality (or-slaughtcr) of 

 men plainly before men's eyes.' ' The commencement of the 

 great murrain of cows [bo-ar mor) — the strange " maelgarbh," 

 which had never come before/ ^ ' A pestilence {treg/iail-coYn:) 

 ill the eastern parts of Ireland from demons, which caused a 



' Ftinctius. Chronicon. 



^ Simeon Diiuelnicn. De Gest. Reg. Angl. Scrip. Hist. Angl. (Twysdcn) 

 p. i6t. See also Joh. Brompton. Hist. Angl. p. 878. Henry dc Kuyghtoii. Do 

 EvL-iit. Angl., p. 2314. 



■* Annals of the Four Masters. 



