PHEASANT, | NATURAL HISTORY. 241 
Pepper. 
Tweirru NicHt, iii, 4, 158. 
Pepper is the seed or the fruit of a tree that groweth in 
the south side of the hill Caucasus, and serpents keep the 
woods that Pepper groweth in; and when the woods of 
Pepper be ripe, men of that country setteth them on fire, 
and chacen (chase) away the serpents by violence of fire,— 
and by such burning the green of Pepper, that was white 
by kind, is made black and rivelly [7.e., wrinkled]. And 
of Pepper be three manner kinds, long (and that is not 
ripe), white, and black. And black Pepper is most virtuous, 
and may longest be kept in heat, and is stronger than 
other Pepper—and the more heavy it is, the better it is, 
and the more new. And it is feigned new by fraud and 
guile of merchandise; for they cover the most eldest 
Pepper, and spring [i.e., sprinkle] thereon ore of silver, or 
of lead, for it should so seem fresh and new because of the 
white husk. Bartholomew (Berthelet), bk. xvii. § 131. 
[Pepper came also from Amboyna, in the East Indies (Beau- 
mont and Fletcher, ‘‘ Fair Maid of the Inn’’), and from Guinea 
(Webster, ‘ Devil’s Law-Case.’’)] 
Pheasant. 
Winter’s Tavz, iv. 4, 769. 
Tue Pheasant is caught thus: sometimes the fowler, 
being covered with a cloth on which this bird is painted, 
shows himself to the Pheasant, which follows the man so 
covered, who does not retire nor fly, and at last, the Pheasant 
is caught in a net by the fowler’s mate lying in wait. This 
bird is sad in rainy weather, and hides itself in thickets 
and woods. It digs its beak into the ground, and believes 
itself to be altogether hidden in this way. It moults from 
fatness, . Hortus Sanitatis, bk. iii, § 46. 
Pueasants will die of lice, unless they bestrew them- 
selves with dust. Holland's Pliny, bk. xi, ch. xxxiii. 
Men may talk of country Christmasses, and court-gluttony, 
Their thirty-pound buttered eggs, their pies of carps’ tongues, 
Their Pheasants drench’d with ambergris. 
Massinger, “ City Madam,” i. ii. 3. 
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