SHREW-MousE.| NATURAL HISTORY. 287 
name and behalf of those whom they would hurt and mis- 
chief, according to the practice of pricking the images of 
any person in wax, used in the witchcraft of these days. | 
Holland’s Pliny, bk. xxviii, ch. ili, and note. 
\ 
Sherris. 
ii. Kinc Hewry IV., iv. 3, 110, etc. 
[Wine of Xeres.] 
V. Sack. 
Shough. : 
MacserTH, ili. 1, 94. 
[A kind of rough-haired dog.] 
2 
Shrew[-mouse]. 
[Szvew is only used by Shakespeare of woman. The word 
has the same meaning (v. zz/ra).] 
A SHREW-MoUSE quasi shrewd mouse, which by biting 
cattle so venometh them that they die, whereof came our 
English “I beshrew thee,” when we wish ill. 
Minshew’s Dictionary, s.v. 
Ir is a ravening beast, feigning itself gentle and tame, 
but being touched, it biteth deep, and poisoneth deadly. 
They annoy vines, and are seldom taken, except in cold; 
thay frequent ox-dung. If they fall into a cart-road, they 
die and cannot get forth again, They go very slowly, 
they are fraudulent, and take their prey by deceit. Many 
times they gnaw the ox’s hoofs in the stable. They love 
the rotten flesh of a raven. The Shrew being cut and 
applied in the manner of a plaister doth effectually cure 
her own bites. The dust of a cart-rut [in which a Shrew 
has died] being taken and sprinkled into the wounds made 
by her poisonous teeth is a very excellent and present 
remedy for the curing of the same. If horses or any 
other labouring creature do feed in that pasture or grass 
in which a Shrew shall put forth her venom or poison in, 
they will presently die. 
Topsell, “ Four-footed Beasts,” pp. 415-20, 
