CHAPTER IX
OF THE GREY (BADGER) AND OF HIS NATURE

The grey (badger) is a common beast enough and therefore I need not tell you of his making, for there be few men that have not seen some of them, and also I shall take no heed to speak much of him, for it is not a beast that needeth any great mastery to devise of how to hunt him, or to hunt him with strength, for a grey can fly but a little way before he is overcome with hounds, or else he goes to bay and then he is slain anon. His usual dwelling is in the earth in great burrows and if he comes out he will not walk far thence. He liveth on all vermin and carrion and all fruits and on all things such as the fox. But he dare not venture so far by day as the fox, for he cannot flee. He liveth more by sleeping than by any other thing. Once in the year they farrow as the fox.[97] When they be hunted they defend themselves long and mightily and have evil biting and venomous as the fox, and yet they defend themselves better than the fox. It is the beast of the

BADGER-DRAWING

(From MS. f. fr. 616, Bib. Nat., Paris)

[Click for a larger image.]

world that gathereth most grease within and that is because of the long sleeping that he sleepeth. And his grease bears medicine as does that of the fox, and yet more, and men say that if a child that hath never worn shoes is first shod with those made of the skin of the grey that child will heal a horse of farcy if he should ride upon him, but thereof I make no affirmation. His flesh is not to eat, neither is that of the fox nor of the wolf.

[97] G. de F., p. 76, adds: "And they farrow their pigs in their burrows as does the fox."