400 PEOCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Mar. 21, 



that this one happened to be tamed by the hermit. There may indeed 

 be a doubt as to whether the Bubalus mentioned here be actually the 

 Bos urus ; but interpreted by the light of what we know in other 

 districts respecting the hunting of Bos urus, I think that probably 

 it was the animal mentioned in this passage : at all events, the 

 passage is worthy of note. 



In the * Wars of Charlemagne,' written by a monk of St. Gall, a 

 remarkable anecdote is told of a hunt in the forest near Aix-la- 

 Chapelle, in which the king was attacked by a Bos urus, and in 

 which, for the first time in history, " hose " are mentioned*. " On 

 the next day Charles, very tired of the quiet and leisure, prepares 

 to go into the forest to hunt (Bisontium vel Urorum) Bisons or Uri, 

 and to take the Persian ambassadors along with him, who, when 

 they saw these gigantic animals, struck with very great terror, 

 took to their heels ; but the hero Charles, unmoved, mounted on a 

 very swift horse, coming up close, drew his sword and attempted to 

 cut off the head of one of them. But when he missed his stroke, the 

 most fierce beast, rending his sandals and gaiters, and grazing his 

 thigh with just the tip of its horn, made him a little more cautious, 

 and then, enraged by the slight wound, took refuge in a most safe 

 retreat, bristling with thickets and stones ; and when all his suite, 

 to curry favour with the king, wished to take off their hose (hossas 

 suas vellent extrahere), he forbade them, saying, ' In this phght I 

 must go to Hildegarda (one of his wives).' And Isambardus, the son 

 of "Warinus, the persecutor of your patron Otmarus, having followed 

 up the beast when he dared not approach nearer, thrust his lance 

 between its shoulder and throat, pierced its heart, and presented it, 

 still quivering, to the king. This deed he pretended not to notice ; 

 and leaving the dead animal to his companions, he returned home, 

 and called the queen (Hildegarda), and showed her his torn hose, 

 and said to her, ' What reward is he worthy of who has delivered 

 me from an enemy inflicting these things upon me ? ' And when she 

 answered, ' Of every good,' the king told her every particular ; and 

 having had the vast (immanissimis cornibus) horns brought forward 

 as a proof that he was telling the truth, moved the queen to tears 

 and groans and beating of her breasts." . . . 



It is clear, then, that at this time (the beginning of the 9th 

 century) Bisons and Uri were still to be found in the forests near 

 Aix-la-Chapelle. The description of the horns proves that the ani- 

 mal was one of the latter species, as the size of the horns of the 

 former is not such as to warrant the use of the term " immanissima." 

 In the remarkable collection of MSS. preserved in the Abbey of St. 

 Gall is one by Ekkehard the younger, who lived from a.d. 980 to 1036, 

 and composed a set of graces for the use of the monks, in which we 

 are indebted to the custom of returning thanks after every dish for 

 the preservation of the names of the animals they atef. Among 



* Monachi Sangallensis Lib. ii. de Eebus Bellicis Caroli Magni. Folio. (Du 

 Chesne.) Chap. xi. 



t "Benedictiones ad mensasEkkehardi Monaclii Sangallensis," ArchreoL Journ. 

 vol. xxi. pp. 117-136. " D extra Dei veri comes assit carnibus uri" (p. 125). 



