FALLOW-DEER SHOOTING. 309 



connected with deer were numerous ; for instance, 

 at the death of a hunted deer, after it was bled, 

 the person of highest rank present took say, that 

 is, made an incision to ascertain the fatness. The 

 same personage had the privilege of cutting off the 

 head ; which ceremony being concluded, the hunter 

 first up at the death blew a triple mort, if the 

 quarry was a stag or hart ; or a double mort, if a 

 buck : and then the rest blew a recheat. They 

 then, for the amusement of the assembled peasantry, 

 concluded the ceremony with leashing, if they could 

 find a convenient victim some luckless wight who 

 had come too late into the field, or who had mis- 

 taken a term of art, or had hallooed a wrong deer, 

 or attempted to leave the field before the death. 

 The poor fellow was held either across the saddle 

 or on a man's back, and some one present claimed 

 the privilege of presenting him with ten pounds and 

 a purse, or, in other words, of administering ten 

 lashes with a pair of dog-couples tolerably severe, 

 and an eleventh, the purse, that was heavier than 

 all the other ten put together. 



In those days, the male fallow-deer was called 

 during the first year a faun, the second a pricket, 

 the third a sorrel, the fourth a sore, the fifth a 

 buck of the first head, the sixth a buck. The 

 female fallow-deer was called during the first year 

 a faun, the second a prickefs sister, the third a 

 doe.* The buck comes in season the 8th of July, 

 and goes out at Holy- Rood Day, which is the 14th 



* Nelson's Game Laws. London, 1736. 



