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hath a hind, and commonly longer traces. Nevertheless there are some hounds well traced, which have the sole of the foot as a staggard or a small stag, but the talon and the ergots are not so great nor so large. Also a great hart and an old one has a better sole to his foot, and a better talon and better bones and greater and larger than has a young deer or hind. And so in putting in the earth the hart's foot and the hind's foot as I have said, he shall know the difference and better than I can devise. And also the hinds commonly have their traces more hollow than a staggard or a stag, and more open the cleeves (toes) in front than a hart of ten, for of the others reck I never. The judgment is in the talon (when it is great and large; and in the sole of the foot)[176] when it is great and broad, and the point of the foot broad. And men have seen a great hart and an old one, the which had hollow traces, and that cannot matter so that he hath the other signs before said. For a hollow trace and sharp cleeves betoken no other thing than that the country the hart hath haunted is a soft country or hard, and where there be but few stones, or that he has been hunted but little. And also if a man find such a hart, and men ask him what hart it is, he may answer that it is a hart chaceable of ten, that should not be refused. And if he sees an hart's foot that hath these signs aforesaid the which are great and broad, he may say that it is an hart that some time had borne ten tines, and if he see that the aforesaid signs are greater and broader he may say that it is a great hart and an old (one), and this is all he may say of the hart. Also he should call the foot of the hart the trace, and of the wild boar also. Also the hunters of beyond the sea call of an hart and of a boar the routes and the pace (path) and both is one. Nevertheless pace, they call their goings where a beast goes in the routes, there where he has passed, nevertheless I would not set this in my book, but for as much as I would English hunters should know some of the terms that hunters use beyond the sea, but not with intent to call them so in England.

[176] The words in brackets have been omitted in our MS. but are in the Shirley MS. and G. de F. p. 129; they have been thus inserted to complete the sense.

CHAPTER XXIV
HOW A MAN SHOULD KNOW A GREAT HART BY THE FUMES[177]

[177] See Appendix: Excrements.

After I shall teach you to know a great hart by the fumes of the hart, for sometimes they crotey in wreaths, and sometimes flat and sometimes formed, and sometimes sharp at both ends, and sometimes pressed together, and sometime in many other manners as I have said before. When they crotey flat and it be in April or in May or in June if the croteyes be great and thick it is a token that it is a hart chaceable, and if he find the fumes wreathed, and it be from the middle of June to the middle of August in great forms and in great wreaths and well soft, it is a token that it is a hart chaceable, and if he find the fumes that are formed and not holding together as it is from the beginning of July into the end of August, if they are great and black and long and are not sharp at the ends, and are heavy and dry without slime, it is a token that it is a hart chaceable. And if the fumes are faint and light and full of slime, or sharp at both ends, or at one end, these are the tokens that he is no deer chaceable. But if it be when they burnish that they crotey their fumes more burnt and more sharp at the one end, but anon when they have burnished, they crotey their fumes as before, and for that the fumes be good and great; if they be slimy it is a token that he has suffered some disease. From the end of August forward, the fumes are of no judgment for they undo themselves for the rut.