826 The Domestication of Animals in the Middle Ages. 



panied by two cats ; but these subjects were evidently designed 

 with a satirical aim. 



There was another animal tamed in the middle ages, which, 

 curiously enough, took partly the place of the cat; this was 

 the weasel (mustela). This little animal was celebrated for its 

 intelligence and cunning, the latter of which enabled it to over- 

 come animals much bigger and stronger than itself. Alexander 

 Neckam describes it as a great hunter and destroyer' of rats, 

 for which quality no doubt it was domesticated ; and he adds 

 that, in its domesticated state, it always carried its victims to lay 

 them at the feet of its master or mistress. According to Neckam, 

 it was a vengeful animal, and in the ignorance of those times 

 it was believed to possess a deadly venom. This interesting 

 writer tells the following story of a domesticated weasel. There 

 was an old and poor woman who kept a weasel in her house, 

 which had a litter of young. One day, while the mother weasel 

 was absent, the old woman took the little weasels from their 

 nest, and concealed them. When the old weasel returned, she 

 searched in vain in every part of the house for her offspring, 

 until at length, in her despair, she resolved on at least obtain- 

 ing revenge, and finding a basin full of milk, she vomited her 

 venom into it, intending that whoever drank of it should be 

 poisoned. But the woman, who was only trying an experiment, 

 and had watched all the weasel's movements, had, unobserved, 

 replaced the young weasels in their nest. When the mother 

 discovered them, she could not contain her joy, but she also 

 wished to recall her vengeance, and she proceeded immediately 

 to overturn the basin and spill the milk, so that nobody might 

 drink of it. Another well-known writer of the same age, 

 Giraldus Cambrensis, tells this same story, with slight varia- 

 tions, as having occurred in his time near Pembroke, in Wales ; 

 so that it was evidently a well-known popular story, and no 

 doubt people believed it. But it presents a good illustration 

 of the practice of employing the domestic weasel instead of the 

 domestic cat. 



The list of animals which were domesticated during the 

 middle ages might be greatly enlarged, but the few notes here 

 thrown together will probably be considered enough for a paper 

 which must necessarily be limited. Squirrels ought to be men- 

 tioned amongst the favourite pets of the mediaeval ladies, who 

 are pictured in the illuminations of manuscripts as sometimes 

 holding them by a cord fixed to a collar, while in some cases 

 the squirrel is kept in a revolving cage, exactly like those in 

 use at the present day. Wo read of an archbishop who kept 

 a tame crane, winch he had taught to bow its head and practise 

 genuflexions when its master said grace at table, which gained 

 for both a reputation for sanctity; whereas a secular nobleman 



