OF THE WOLF AND OF HIS NATURE
A wolf is a common beast enough and therefore I need not tell of his
make, for there are few men _beyond the sea_, that have not seen some
of them. They are in their love in February with the females and then
be jolly and do in the manner as hounds do, and be in their great heat
of love ten or twelve days, and when the bitch is in greatest heat
then if there are any wolves in the country they all go after her as
hounds do after a bitch when she is jolly. But she will not be lined
by any of the wolves save by one. She doth in such a wise that she
will lead the wolves for about six or eight days without meat or drink
and without sleep for they have so great courage towards her, that
they have no wish to eat nor to drink, and when they be full weary she
lets them rest until the time that they sleep, and then she claweth
him with her foot and waketh him that seemeth to have loved her most,
and who hath most laboured for her love, and then they go a great way
thence and there he lines her. And therefore men say _beyond the seas
in some countries_ when any woman doth amiss, that she is like to the
wolf bitch for she taketh to her the worst and the foulest and the
most wretched and it is truth that the bitch of the wolf taketh to her
the foulest and most wretched, for he hath most laboured and
fasted[85] for her and is most poor, most lean and most wretched. And
this is the cause why men say that the wolf saw never his father and
it is truth sometimes but not always, for it happeneth that when she
has brought the wolf that she loveth most as I have said, and when the
other wolves awaken they follow anon in her track, and if they can
find the wolf and the bitch holding together then will all the other
wolves run upon him and slay him, and all this is truth in this case.
But when in all the country there is but one wolf and one bitch of his
kind then this rule cannot be truth.
[85] G. de F., p. 63, has: "Pource qu'il a plus travaillé et plus
jeuné que n'ont les autres."
And sometimes peradventure the other wolves may be awake so late that
if the wolf is not fast with the bitch or peradventure he hath left
her then he fleeth away from the other wolves, so they slay him not so
in this case the first opinion is not true.
They may get young whelps at the year's end, and then they leave their
father and their mother. And sometimes before they are twelve months
old if so be that their teeth are fully grown after their other small
teeth which they had first, for they teethe twice in the year when
they are whelps. The first teeth they cast when they are half a year
old _and also their hooks_. Then other teeth come to them which they
bear all their life-time and never cast. When these are full grown
again then they leave their father and mother and go on their
adventures, but notwithstanding that they go far they do not bide long
away from each other and if it happens that they meet with their
father and with their mother the which hath nourished them they will
make them joy and great reverence alway. And also I would have you
know that when a bitch and a wolf of her kind hath fellowship together
they generally stay evermore together, and though they sometimes go to
seek their feeding the one far from the other they will be together at
night if they can or at the farthest at the end of three days. And
such wolves in fellowship together get meat for their whelps the
father as well as the mother, save only that the wolf eateth first his
fill and then bears the remnant to his whelps. The bitch does not do
so for she beareth all her meat to her whelps and eateth with them.
And if the wolf is with the whelps when the mother cometh and she
bringeth anything and the wolf has not enough he taketh the feeding
from her and her whelps, and eateth his fill first, and then he
leaveth them the remnant, if there be any, and if there be not any
left they die of hunger, if they will, for he recketh but little so
that his belly be full. And when the mother seeth that, and has been
far to seek her meat she leaveth her meat a great way thence for her
whelps, and then she cometh to see if the wolf is with them, and if he
be there she stayeth till he be gone and then she bringeth them her
meat. But also the wolf is so malicious that when he seeth her come
without food he goeth and windeth her muzzle and if he windeth she
hath brought anything he taketh her by the teeth and biteth her so
that she must show him where she hath left her food. And when the
bitch perceiveth that the wolf doth this when she returneth to her
whelps she keepeth in the covert and doth not show herself if she
perceiveth that the wolf is with them, and if he be there she hideth
herself until the time he hath gone to his prey on account of his
great hunger, and when he is gone she brings her whelps her food for
to eat. And this is truth.
Some men say that she bathes her body and her head so that the wolf
should wind nothing of her feeding when she cometh to them, but of
this I make no affirmation.
There be other heavy wolves of this nature, the which be not so in
fellowship, they do not help the bitch to nourish the whelps but when
a wolf and a bitch are in fellowship and there are no wolves in that
country by very natural smelling he knoweth well that the whelps are
his and therefore he helpeth to nourish them but not well. At the time
that she hath whelps the wolf is fattest in all the year, for he
eateth and taketh all that the bitch and whelps should eat. The bitch
beareth her whelps nine weeks and sometimes three or four days more.
Once in the year they are in their love and are jolly. Some men say
that the bitches bear no whelps while their mother liveth, but thereof
I make no affirmation. The bitches of them have their whelps as other
tame bitches, sometimes more, sometimes less. They have great strength
especially before (fore-quarters), and evil[86] they be and strong,
for sometimes a wolf will slay a cow or a mare and he hath great
strength in his mouth. Sometime he will bear in his mouth a goat or a
sheep or a young hog and not touch the ground (with it), and shall run
so fast with it that unless mastiffs or men on horseback happen to run
before him neither the shepherds nor no other man on foot will ever
overtake him. They live on all manner of flesh and on all carrion and
all kinds of vermin. And they live not long for they live not more
than thirteen or fourteen years. Their biting is evil and venomous on
account of the toads and other vermin that they eat. They go so fast
when they be void (are empty) that men have let run four leashes of
greyhounds, one after the other and they could not overtake him, for
he runs as fast as any beast in the world, and he lasts long running,
for he has a long breath. When he is long hunted with running hounds
he fleeth but little from them, but if the greyhounds or other hounds
press him, he fleeth all the covert[87] as a boar does and commonly he
runs by the high ways. And commonly he goeth to get his livelihood by
night, but sometimes by day, when he is sore ahungered. And there be
some (wolves) that hunt at the hart, at the wild boar and at the
roebuck, and windeth as far as a mastiff, and taketh hounds when they
can. There are some that eat children and men and eat no other flesh
from the time that they be acherned[88] (blooded) by men's flesh, for
they would rather be dead. They are called wer-wolves, for men should
beware of them, and they be so cautious that when they assail a man
they have a holding upon him before the man can see them, and yet if
men see them they will come upon them so gynnously (cunningly) that
with great difficulty a man will escape being taken and slain, for
they can wonder well keep from any harness (arms) that a man beareth.
There are two principal causes why they attack men; one is when they
are old and lose their teeth and their strength, and cannot carry
their prey as they were wont to do, then they mostly go for children,
which are not difficult to take for they need not carry them about but
only eat them. And the child's flesh is more tender than is the skin
or flesh of a beast. The other reason is that when they have been
acharned (blooded) in a country of war, where battles have been, they
eat dead men. Or if men have been hanged or have been hanged so low
that they may reach thereto, or when they fall from the gallows. And
man's flesh is so savoury and so pleasant that when they have taken to
man's flesh they will never eat the flesh of other beasts, though they
should die of hunger. For many men have seen them leave the sheep they
have taken and eat the shepherd. It is a wonderfully wily and gynnous
(cunning) beast, and more false than any other beast to take all
advantage, for he will never fly but a little save when he has need,
for he will always abide in his strength (stronghold), and he hath
good breath, for every day it is needful to him, for every man that
seeth him chaseth him away and crieth after him. When he is hunted he
will fly all day unless he is overset by greyhounds. He will gladly go
to some village or in a brook, he will be little at bay except when he
can go no further. Sometimes wolves go mad and when they bite a man he
will scarcely get well, for their biting is wonderfully venomous on
account of the toads they have eaten as I have said before, and also
on account of their madness. And when they are full or sick they feed
on grasses as a hound does in order to purge themselves. They stay
long without meat for a wolf can well remain without meat six days or
more. And when the wolf's bitch has her whelps commonly she will do no
harm near where she has them, for fear she hath to lose them. And if a
wolf come to a fold of sheep if he may abide any while he will slay
them all before he begins to eat any of them. Men take them _beyond
the sea_ with hounds and greyhounds with nets and with cords, but when
he is taken in nets or cords he cutteth them wonderfully fast with his
teeth unless men get quickly to him to slay him. Also men take them
within pits and with needles[89] and with haussepieds[90] or with
venomous powders that men give them in flesh, and in many other
manners. When the cattle come down from the hills the wolves come down
also to get their livelihood. They follow commonly after men of arms
for the carrion of the beasts or dead horses or other things. They
howl like hounds and if there be but two they will make such a noise
as if there were a route of seven or eight if it is by night, when the
weather is clear and bright, or when there are young wolves that have
not yet passed their first year. When men lay trains to acharne (with
flesh) so as to take them, they will rarely come again to the place
where men have put the flesh, especially old wolves, leastways not the
first time that they should eat. But if they have eaten two or three
times, and they are assured that no one will do them harm, then
sometimes they will abide. But some wolves be so malicious that they
will eat in the night and in the day they will go a great way thence,
two miles or more, especially if they have been aggrieved in that
place, or if they feel that men have made any train with flesh for to
hunt at them. They do not complain (cry out) when men slay them as
hounds do, otherwise they be most like them. When men let run
greyhounds at a wolf he turns to look at them, and when he seeth them
he knoweth which will take him, and then he hasteneth to go while he
can, and if they be greyhounds which dare not take him, the wolf knows
at once, and then he will not hasten at his first going. And if men
let run at him from the side, or before more greyhounds which will
seize him, when the wolf seeth them, and he be full, he voideth both
before and behind all in his running so as to be more light and more
swift. Men cannot nurture a wolf, though he be taken ever so young and
chastised and beaten and held under discipline, for he will always do
harm, if he hath time and place for to do it, he will never be so
tame, but that when men leave him out he will look hither and thither
to see if he may do any harm, or he looks to see if any man will do
him any harm. For he knoweth well and woteth well that he doth evil,
and therefore men ascrieth (cry at) and hunteth and slayeth him. And
yet for all that he may not leave his evil nature.
[86] G. de F., p. 66, has "evil biting."
[87] He keeps to the coverts.
[88] Acherned, from O. Fr. _acharné_, to blood, from _chair_, flesh.
[89] Needles. See Appendix: Snares.
[90] _Aucepis_ (Shirley MS.). G. de F., p. 69: _haussepiez_, a snare
by which they were jerked from the ground by a noose.
Men say that the right fore foot of the wolf is good for medicine for
the evil of the breast and for the botches (sores) which come to swine
under the shoulder.[91] And also the liver of the wolf dried is good
for a man's liver, but thereof I make no affirmation, for I would put
in my book nothing but very truth. The wolf's skin is warm to make
cuffs or pilches (pelisses), but the fur thereof is not fair, and also
it stinketh ever unless it be well tawed.[92]
[91] This should be "jaw." G. de F., p. 70, has _maisselles, i.e._
Mâchoires.
[92] Prepared. Tawing is a process of making hides into
leather--somewhat different from tanning. There were tawers and
tanners.