She attends until the Star called Arcturus be raised.

 

Chapter 16.

Of the Nature and Subtleties of Harts.

Isidore says the Hart is right contrary to the Serpent, and that when he is old, decrepit and sick, he goes to the dens and caves of Serpents, and with his nostrils he puffs, and forces his breath into their holes, in such sort by virtue and force thereof he constrains the Serpents to come forth; and being come forth, he kills them with his foot, and afterwards eats and devours them. He goes to drink, and so the venom spreads though all the veins of his body, and when he feels the venom work, he runs to chafe and heat himself; immediately, he begins to void and purge himself, in such sort that nothing remains in his belly, coming forth by all the conduities and pores nature has made in him. And by this means, he renews his force and heals himself, casting his hair. 

When Harts pass the great rivers, or some arm of the sea, to go to rut in some isle or forest, they assemble themselves in great herds; and knowing which of them is strongest and best swimmer, they make him go foremost, and then he which comes next him stays up his head upon the back of the first, and the third upon the back of the second, and consequently all the rest do in like manner, even unto the last, to the end that the one may relieve the other, and when the first is weary, another takes his place.

Pliny says they can endure to swim thirty miles endways, and he has seen experience thereof in the Isle of Cyprus, from whence they go commonly unto the Isle of Cylice, the which is thirty miles distant. To speak a truth, I have seen some hunted in forests adjoining to the sea, which have been so sore hunted that they launched into the sea, and have been killed by fishermen ten miles from the shore. 

The Hart marvels and is astonished when he  hears one call or whistle in his fist. For proof, when you see a Hart before you in the daytime and he be in the plain, call after him saying ware! ware! or take heed, and you shall see him turn back for doubt of the voice he heard. 

He loves to hear instruments, and assures himself when he hears a flute or any other sweet noise. He hears very perfectly when his head and his ears are set upright, but when he holds them down, he hears not so well. When he is on foot and is not afraid, he marvels at all things he sees, and takes pleasure to gaze at them, as a carter and his  cart, or any beast laden with anything. 

Pliny says a Hart's age is known by his teeth, by his feet, and by his head, as I will declare hereafter in the treatise of judgement of the Hart. Furthermore, he says the antlers and croches of a Hart multiply from the first head he bears, until he be seven years old, and afterwards they multiply not but only in greatness, and that also according to the rest and good feeding, or the stirring they shall have. They bear sometimes more and sometimes fewer croches, and is the reason men have judged a Hart of ten, as sometimes have been seen. 

Furthermore, he says the first head a Hart bears is dedicated and given to Nature, and that the four elements do every of them take therein a portion. Isidore is of another opinion, saying the Hart buries and hides his first head in the earth, in such sort a man shall hardly find it. And to speak a truth, I could never find any that were mewed or cast by the own accord; nevertheless, I have seen one that said he had seen them, but therein I report me to which may be thought. 

The Hart has a property, that if he go to feed in a young spring or copse, he goes first to seek the wind, that he may find if there be any person in the copse which may interrupt him. And if any man take a little bough, branch or leaf, and piss or spit upon it, if he leave it in the spring or copse where the Hart should feed, he will not fail to find it out, and then he will feed no more in that place.

Pliny says when the Hart is forced with hounds, his last refuge is to come about houses unto a man, unto whom he had rather yield himself than unto the hounds, having knowledge and understanding what things be most contrary and hateful unto him, the which I have seen by experience that a Hind being ready to calf has rather avoided and eshewed the way and place where dogs did resort than men were accustomed to be; as also when she would conceive, she attends until the star called Arcturus be raised, and carries her calf eight or nine months, the which are calved in May commonly, although I have seen some fall later according to the nouriture and age of the Hind. 

There are some Hinds which have two calves at once, and before she calves, she purges her with the herb call Traganath; and after she has calved, she eats up the skin wherein the calf did lie. Pliny says moreover, if a man take the Hind immediately after she has calved, he should find a stone in her body the which she has eaten or swallowed to make her calve with more ease, the which stone should be very requisite and profitable for women that are with child. 

When the Hind's calf is great, she teaches it to run and to leap, and the coast it must keep to defend itself from the hounds. 

The Harts and Hinds may live a hundred years, according to Phoebus' saying. We find in ancient historiographers that a Hart was taken having a collar about his neck full three hundred years after the death of Caesar, in which collar Caesar's arms were engraved, and a note written, saying Caesaris me fecit, whereupon the Latin proverb came, which says Cervinos annos vivere.