2S4 LEPORID^— LEPUS 



« 



Another old term, the "relief" of a hare, from the French relever— 

 to arise, hence = her arising to go to her pasture, and in later usage = 

 her feeding, seems to have fallen into disuse. 



A hunter was said to " quest " or " seek " for a hare. This, in the 

 time of Twici, huntsman to King Edward II., he did with a "limer" or 

 " lymer," that is a scenting hound led in a " liam " or leash, which 

 practice, however, seems to have died out subsequently, since it is not 

 advocated as a part of hare hunting by The Master of Game. When 

 found in its form, the animal was " moved " or " started." When caught 

 it was " stripped " or " eased " of its " skin, and its fat was usually 

 known as " grease," as by Twici and the Master of Game, but in The 

 Boke of St Albans it is called " tallow." 



The old MSS. contain many other sportsmen's terms. The 

 droppings were known as "crotels," "croties," or " crotishings." We 

 read of " A huske of hares, a don of hares " ; again, " A hare ys 

 formed schulderyng or lenyng ... a cony sytteth" (MS. Digby, 196, 

 160-161 ; isth century MS. in Bodleian Library, Oxford). 



Of the numerous epithets applied to hares, the most famous is " mad," 

 which is confined to the expression " mad as a March hare " {cf how- 

 ever, " hare-brained "). This idea has been immortalised anew by 

 " Lewis Carroll " in Alice in Wonderland, but is of old standing, since 

 it is mentioned in an early 15th-century (about 1420) translation of 

 Palladius on Husbondrie (Early Eng. Text Soc), 62, lines 36-38 — 



" Yit in this moone is for to sowe tares 

 And not in March, lest they ennoie thi beestes, 

 Thi oxen might be woode thereof as hares." 



The two next most common epithets are " timid " or " timorous," and 

 " melancholy." The latter has been variously, but never yet satis- 

 factorily explained ; it occurs in Shakespeare, as in Henry IV., i., 2 — 

 " What sayst thou to a hare, or the melancholy of Moorditch ? " 

 According to the author of The Noble Arte of Venerie (1575, 160), 

 the hare " is one of the moste melancholike beastes that is " ; and 

 this supposed quality is discussed in Baillie-Grohman's editions of The 

 Master of Game. The beast figures also as the " merry brown hare," 

 as in Charles Kingsley ; "purblind" in Venus and Adonis (see above, 

 p. 253); and "intelligent,"' the latter quality, as well as that of timidity, 

 being shared with the stag in Aristotle's Historia Animalium (ed. 

 Thompson, i., i, 488'' 15), and being therefore of very ancient origin. 



(Celtic) : — Old Irish — cermna (Cormac) is glossed as meaning " brown 

 hound in the brake " ; the same explanation is given of the modern Irish 

 fiadmuin,fiamuin ; gearr-fhiadh (pronounced gearree), literally = " small 

 deer"; miol mhaighe = " hea.st of the field" or "plain"; pata, patan, 

 with diminutives paiteog, patachan, pheatdn, the latter in Wilde, Proc. 

 Roy. Irish Acad., vii., 1862, 188. 



