Alauntes were used as war dogs, and it was said that when once they seized their prey they would not loose their hold.
Cotgrave (Sherwood's App.) says that the mastiff resembles an Alan, and also Wynn in his book on the "British Mastiff" (p. 45) says that he is inclined to think that the Alan is the ancient name for mastiff, and thinks it possible that the Phœnicians brought this breed to the British Isles. He cannot have known the description given us of the Alan by the "Master of Game," nor can he have been acquainted with the work of Gaston Phœbus, for he says that the Alan is not mentioned among any of the earlier dogs of France and Germany. There is ample evidence that they existed in France from very early days. Probably they were relics left there by the Alani in their wanderings through Gaul. About the same period as our MS. we find Alans mentioned by Chaucer, who in the "Knight's Tale" describes Lycurgus seated on his throne, around which stand white Alaunts as big as bulls wearing muzzles and golden collars.
The ancient Gallo-Latin name of veltrahus, or veltris, which in the first instance denoted a large greyhound used for the chase of the bear and wild boar, passed later to a different kind of dog used for the same purpose. These veltres, viautres, or vautres were also known under the name of Alan, and resembled the Great Dane or the German Boarhound (De Noir., vol. ii. p. 295-7).
O. Fr. auntilor, antoiller, or andoiller, derived from a Teutonic root; Anglo-Saxon andwlit; Frank. antlutt or antluzze; Goth. andawleiz; O. Ger. antliz; face. Gaston Phœbus and Roy Modus and other old French authors almost invariably use teste, or head, when referring to a hart's antlers, but English writers did not observe time-hallowed terms of venery so rigorously, and our author frequently uses the jarring and, from every point of view, incorrect term "horns" when speaking of the hart's attire or head. The substance of deers' antlers is true bone, the proportion of their constituents differing but very slightly from ordinary bones. The latter, when in a healthy condition, consist of about one-third of animal matter or gelatine, and two-thirds of earthy matter, about six-sevenths of which is phosphate of lime and one-seventh carbonate of lime, with an appreciable trace of magnesia. The antlers of deer consist of about thirty-nine parts of animal matter and sixty-one parts of earthy matter of the same kind and proportion as is found in common bone. Later on, a more sportsmanlike regard for terms of venery is observable, and Turbervile in one of his few original passages impresses upon his fellow-sportsmen: "Note that when you speake of a harts hornes, you must terme them the Head and not the Hornes of a hart. And likewise of a bucke; but a Rowes hornes and a Gotes hornes are tollerable termes in Venery" (1611, p. 239).
Up to the end of the seventeenth century it was customary when speaking of a stag's head to refer only to the tines "on top," or the "croches" or "troches," leaving unconsidered the brow, bez and trez tines, which were called the stag's "rights," and which every warrantable hart was supposed as a matter of course to possess. When referring to the number of tines a head bore, it was invariably the rule to use only even numbers, and to double the number of tines borne by the antler which had most. Thus, a stag with three on each top was a head of "twelve of the less" (or "lasse"); "twelve of the greater" when he had three and four on top, or, counting the rights, six and seven tines, or, as a modern Scotch stalker would call it, a thirteen-pointer. The extreme number of tines a hart was supposed to bear was thirty-two.
barcelette, bercelette, is a corruption of the O. Fr. berseret, a hunting dog, dim. of bersier, a huntsman; in Latin, bersarius, French, berser, bercer, to hunt especially with the bow. Bercel, biercel, meant a butt or target. Italian, bersaglio, an archer's butt, whence bersagliere, archer or sharpshooter (Oxford, and Godefroy Dict.).
Given the above derivation, it may be fairly accepted that bercelet was a dog fitted to accompany a hunter who was going to shoot his game—a shooting dog. The "Master of Game's" allusion also points to this. He says some mastiffs (see Mastiff) become "berslettis, and also to bring well and fast a wanlace about." We might translate this sentence: "There are nevertheless some (mastiffs) that become shooting dogs, and retrieve well and put up the game quickly" (see Appendix: Wanlace).
Jesse conceives bracelettas and bercelettus to come from brache, but that can scarcely be so, as we see the two words used together, as the following quotations will show:
"Parler m'orez d'un buen brachet.
Qens ne rois n'ont tel berseret."
T. M. i. 14404.