LION, | NATURAL HISTORY. 183 
they hele [i.e., cover or conceal] their fores [ie., goings] 
and steps, for hunters should not find them. And it is 
trowed that the Lion-whelp, when he is whelped, sleepeth 
three days and three nights; and the place of the couch 
trembleth and shaketh by roaring of the father, that 
waketh the whelp that sleepeth. It is the kind of Lions 
not to be wroth with man, but if they be grieved or hurt. 
Also their mercy is known by many and oft ensamples ; 
for they spare them that lie on the ground, and suffer 
them to pass homeward that be prisoners, and come out 
of thraldom, and eat not a man nor slay him, but in great 
hunger. The Lion is in most gentleness and nobility, 
when his neck and shoulders be heled with hair and 
mane; and he that is gendered of the pard lacketh that 
nobility. The Lion knoweth by smell if the pard 
gendereth with the lioness, and reseth [rageth] against the 
lioness that breaketh spousehead [wedlock], and punisheth her 
full sore, but if she wash her in a river, and then it is not 
known to the Lion. And when the lioness whelpeth, her 
womb is rent with the claws of her whelps, and whelpeth 
therefore not oft. And the lioness whelpeth first five 
whelps, and afterward four, and so each year less by one, 
and waxeth barren when she whelpeth one at last. And 
she whelpeth whelps evil shapen and small, in quantity 
[i.2., ae of a weasel in the beginning. And whelps of 
six months may unneath [hardly] be whelped, and whelps 
of two months may unneath move. And when the Lion 
eateth once enough, afterward he is meatless two days or 
three. And if him needeth to flee, he casteth up his 
meat into his mouth, and draweth it out with his claws, to 
be in that wise the more light to run and to flee. The 
Lion liveth most long, and that is known by working and 
wasting of his teeth; and then in age he reseth on a 
man; for his virtue and might faileth to pursue great 
beasts and wild. And then he besiegeth cities to ransom, 
and to take men; but when the Lions be taken, then they 
be hanged, for other Lions should dread such manner pain. 
The old Lion reseth woodly [madly, furiously] on men, 
and only grunteth on women, and reseth seld on children, 
but in great hunger. By the tail the boldness and heart 
of the Lion is known, as the horse is known by the ears, 
For when the Lion is wroth, first he beateth the earth 
