hardeyl, to tie couples of hounds together. From the French word harder, which has the same meaning: Harder les chiens, and harde, the rope with which they are tied. It is derived from hart, hard, art, a binder of willow or other pliable wood used for fastening fagots together (Lit. and God.). The primitive way of tying hounds together was by passing such a small flexible branch through the couplings which bent back on itself, both ends being held. "Les chiens ... seront enhardez par les couples à genoivres ou à autre josne bois tors" (Roy Modus, f. xlvii. recto). In France there used to be two hardes to each relay and not more than eight hounds in every harde (D'Yauville). In England there used to be about the same number. The term was still used in Blome's time (1686), for he writes in his "Gentleman's Recreation": "The huntsman on foot that hath the charge of the coupled hounds, and before that must have hardled them, that is, with a slip, for the purpose ready secured three or four couple together, that they may not break in from him, to run into the cry of the Finders" (p. 88).
Harling was a word used in Devonshire, and as it meant tying the hound together by means of a rope passed through the rings of the couples, it is undoubtedly a corruption of the word hardeling. "Until comparatively recent times the hounds in Devonshire were taken to the meet and held in this manner until the time came to lay the pack on" (Collyns).
Hardel, the technical O. E. term for binding together the four legs of the roebuck, the head having been placed between the two forelegs, in order to carry him whole into the kitchen.
Pliny records the fable that hares "are of many and various sexes." Topsell remarks that "the Hebrews call the hare 'arnebet,' in the feminine gender," which word gave occasion to an opinion that all hares were females (pp. 264, 266).
"In the Gwentian code of Welch laws supposed to be of the eleventh century, the hare is said not to be capable of any legal valuation, being in one month male and in another female" (Twici, p. 22).
Certainly in many of the older writings on hares the pronouns "her" and "him" are used indiscriminately in the same sentence. Sir Thomas Browne in his treatise on vulgar errors asserts from his own observation that the sex of the hare is changeable, and that the buck hare will sometimes give birth to young. Up to the end of the eighteenth century there was a widespread and firm belief in this fable (Brehm, ii. p. 626). Buffon describes it as one of the animal's peculiar properties, and from the structure of their parts of generation he argues that the notion has arisen of hermaphrodite hares, that the males sometimes bring forth young, and that some are alternately males and females and perform the functions of either sex.
"Master of Game" (copying G. de F.) states that the hare carries her young for a period of two months, but in reality the period of gestation is only thirty days. Harting says that the adult hare will breed twice or thrice in the year, but Brehm declares they breed as many as four times, and but seldom five times (Encyclop. of Sport, vol. ii. p. 504; Brehm, vol. ii. p. 626; G. de F. p. 47).
G. de F. (p. 43) says of a hare, "Elle oït bien, mais elle voit mal." "Master of Game" translates this simply as She hath evil sight; but does not say she hears well. The sense of hearing is most highly developed in the hare, and every lightly breaking twig or falling leaf will disturb her. It is said that of old when warreners wished to prepare hares for the market they filled their ears with wax, so that, not being continually disturbed by noises, they did not move about much, and grew sleek and fat (Blome, p. 95). G. de F.'s assertion that the hare "has evil sight" is also confirmed by Brehm, who, however, says that they are endowed with a keen sense of smell, whereas G. de F. says elle sent pou.
Attention has already been called to the Duke of York's statement that "the hare hath great fear to run." This arose probably from the similarity of the words peur and pouvoir in the MSS., for it should read "hath great power to run," the principal MSS. which we have examined showing pouvoir. Verard in his first edition of G. de F. also has the same rendering as the Duke of
