HOW A GOOD HUNTER SHALL GO IN QUEST TO HEAR THE HARTS BELLOW
Also a good hunter should go before daybreak to hear the harts bellow
which peradventure bellow in the forest in divers parts, and to look
by the bellowing of the harts which seemeth to him the greatest. And
always hearkening nearer and nearer under the wind, in such wise that
when he will begin to sue, that he need nothing but to bring the lymer
to the fues. And anon when he seeth that it is a hart that he findeth,
uncouple the finders, but not too many, and this, for fear of falling
in danger (of losing the right deer), should be done right early as
soon as men can see day-light, for in that time the harts chase the
hinds, and go hither and thither and abide no while in one place as
they do in the right season. And because a man cannot come nigh him
with a lymer, it is good to uncouple the hounds, for the hounds will
get nigh them quicker and the bolder hounds will soon dissever
(separate) the harts from the hinds. The harts bellow in divers
manners, according as they be old or young, and according whether
they be in a country where they have not heard the hounds, or where
they have heard them. Some of them bellow with a full open mouth and
often cast up their heads. And these be those that have heard the
hounds only a little in the season, and that are well heated and
swelled. And sometimes about high noon they bellow as before is said.
The others bellow low and great and stooping with the head, and the
muzzle towards the earth, and that is a token of a great hart, and an
old and a malicious, or that he hath heard the hounds, and therefore
dare not bellow or only a few times in the day, unless if it be in the
dawning. And the other belloweth with his muzzle straight out before
him, bolking and rattling in the throat, and also that is a token of a
great and old hart that is assured and firm in his rut. In short all
the harts that bellow greatest and mightiest by reason should be
greatest and oldest.