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Sources : Hare
Herodotus [c. 484 – c. 425 BCE] (Histories, Book 3.108) The hare is so prolific, for that it is the prey of every beast and bird and man; alone of all creatures it conceives in pregnancy; some of the unborn young are hairy, some still naked; while some are still forming in the womb others are already being chased and killed. - [Godley translation]
Pliny the Elder [1st century CE] (Natural History, Book 8, 81; 8, 83; 11, 54): [Book 8, 81] There are also several kinds of hare. In the Alps there are white hares, which are believed to eat snow for their fodder in the winter months — at all events they turn a reddish color every year when the snow melts — and in other ways the animal is a nurseling of the intolerable cold. The animals in Archelaus states that a hare is as many years old as it has folds in the bowel: these are certainly found to vary in number. The same authority says that the hare is a hermaphrodite and reproduces equally well without a male. Nature has shown her benevolence in making harmless and edible breeds of animals prolific. The hare which is born to be all creatures' prey is the only animal beside the shaggy-footed rabbit that practices superfetation, rearing one leveret while at the same time carrying in the womb another clothed with hair and another bald and another still an embryo. Also the experiment has been made of using the fur of the hare for making clothes, although it is not so soft to the touch as it is when on the animal's skin, and the garments soon come to pieces because of the shortness of the hair. [Book 8, 83] In Ithaca imported hares die on the very edge of the shore... [Book 11, 54] Moreover hares sleep with the eyes wide open... - [Rackham translation]
Aelianus [170-230 CE] (On the Characteristics of Animals, Book 2, 12): The hare has certain innate characteristics. For one thing it sleeps with its eyelids open; for another it proclaims its age when it half shows certain apertures. Also it carries some of its young half-formed in its womb, some it is in process of bearing, others it has already borne. - [Scholfield translation]
Isidore of Seville [7th century CE] (Etymologies, Book 12, 1:23): The hare [lepus], as if the word were levipes (“swift foot”), because it runs swiftly. Whence in Greek it is called lagós, because of its swiftness, for it is a speedy animal and quite timid. - [Barney, Lewis, et. al. translation]
Gerald of Wales [c. 1146 – c. 1223] (Topographia Hibernica, chapter 12): There are a great number of hares, but they are a small breed, much resembling rabbits both in size and the softness of their fur. In short, it will be found that the bodies of all animals, wild beasts, and birds, each in its kind, are smaller here than in other countries; while the men alone retain their full dimensions. It is remarkable in these hares, that, contrary to the usual instincts of that animal, when found by the dogs, they keep to cover like foxes, running in the woods instead of in the open country, and never taking to the plains and beaten paths, unless they are driven to it. This difference in their habits is, I think, caused by the rankness of the herbage in the plains, checking their speed. - [Forester translation, 1863, chapter 19]
Thomas of Cantimpré [circa 1200-1272 CE] (Liber de natura rerum, Quadrupeds 4.65): A hare, as he says [i.e. Liber rerum] is a very small animal. It grows rapidly. Among other animals it is the most timid, so that it rarely goes out to graze later in the night. It is never fat, as Pliny testifies. The weasel is said to play with the hare for fun. And when it sees the hare is tired of the game, it seizes its throat with its teeth and squeezes it very hard. Soon the hare, feeling the bite of the weasel, tries to escape with haste, but being burdened with the treacherous weight, even if it is able for a little while to escape death by running, its weariness prevents that escape, for the weasel follows. So it happens that having exhausted the hare, that wicked beast kills it with cunning and eats it. They change their sex every year. In the winter months they have snow for food; and this is proved by the fact that they glow behind the snow. Ambrose: In some parts of the world, hares turn white in winter, but return to their original color in summer. As the Experimentator says, the hare, in the time of sowing and reaping, rejoices and is moved to play, as if it were playing a game, because it thinks it has time in abundance, and therefore a time for pleasure, not for merit. A hare's lung is placed over its eyes. But when it is broken and anointed it heals wounded feet. Its bile brightens the eyes. Its kidneys, dried and powdered, and drunk, expel stones from the bladder. Its blood, drunk with warm water, does the same thing. Its flesh generates thick blood; but it is useful to those who have too much moisture. Its legs are longer behind, so it happens that it is easier for it to climb a mountain than to go down. It does not chew the cud. It sleeps with its eyes open. Says the great Basil, that the race of hares is not easily destroyed, wherever they begin to live, and this because they multiply beyond estimation, so that a special favor may be said of them: Grow and multiply. If a hare is fed indoors with people and lacks natural speed of movement, it grows fat on its kidneys and dies. For much movement in an animal diminishes its fat, which it would certainly have been able to gain from much food. The hare dances around the place where it should rest, with multiple bends, in order to deceive the hunters; and this can be experienced especially in the season of snow. Solinus: The hare, being born as the prey of all, had to multiply beyond measure, and in this nature was kind, since almost alone, when it gives birth to offspring, it simultaneously bears one clothed with hair in the womb, another without hair, and another stored in the seed. - [Badke translation/paraphrase]
Bartholomaeus Anglicus [13th century CE] (Liber de proprietatibus rerum, Book18.67): The Hare is called Lepus, as it were Levipes, light foote, for hée runneth swiftly, and is called Lagos in Gréeke, for swiftnesse in running. And li. 12. Isidore sayth, that every swifte beast is fearefull and fighteth not, and hath no manner kinde of armour nor of wepon, but onely lightnesse of members and of lims, & is feeble of sight as other beasts be, that close not the eye lids in sléeping, and is better of hearing than of sight, namely when he reareth up the eares. His eares be full long and pliant, & that is néedefull for to defend the eyen, that be open, & not defended with covering, nor with heling to kéep them from gnats and flyes great & small, for against noyfull things, kinde giveth remedy to creatures, as Avicen[na] saieth. And therefore kinde giveth to the Hare lightnesse and pliantnesse of limmes, and swiftnesse of course and of running, to kéep him from houndes & other beasts that pursue him: and kind giveth him long eares, against gnats and flyes, that grieve oft and busiy his féeble eyen, as he saith: & kinde giveth much haire under his feete, that the haire of the féete maye defende the flesh thereof from hurting in running, & for he should by lyghtnesse thereof in no wise let the féete in running: and therfore Arist[otle] saith li. 3. that the Hares feete be hairie beneath, & that is seldome séene in other beasts. His hinder legs be longer than the former, and that is néedfull to reare the body when he flyeth: & when he runneth against an hil, he is harder to take, than when he runneth downward toward the valley, & that is for shortnes of the fore legs, for because of lownesse of the fore part of the body, hée falleth soone when he runneth downe the hill, and may not continue evenly his course and running, & for he séeth, that he shall fall when he runneth and flyeth downe a hill, he runneth therefore aside and aslont by the hill side, and reareth the former legs as he may, towarde the highnesse of the hills side, and ofte beguileth the hounds that him pursueth, and scapeth in that wise. And li. 8. ca. 55. Plini[us] speaketh of Hares and sayth, that many kindes be of Hares, for some are more in quantitie, with more great haire and rough, and more swifte of course and of running, than those that be called Cuniculi, and so héere this name Lepus, is the name of Hares and of Conies: for Conies be called Parvi Lepores, small Hares & féeble, & they dig the earth with their clawes, and make them bowers & dens under the earth, and dwell therein, and bring foorth many Rabets & multiply right much. And in some Woodes of Spain, be so many Conies, that somtime they wast and destroy corne in the fielde, by the which they cause hunger in the Countrey and lande: and Rabets are so loved in the Iland Balearitis, yt those Rabets be taken and eaten of men of the countrie, though the guts be unneth cleansed. And it followeth there, ye Archelaus the Author saith, that as manye dens as be in the increasing of the Conies, so many yeres they have of age. In the bodye are so many hoales, as the Conies have yeres. Therefore it is said that they gender without males, & have both sexes, male and female: therefore many men suppose, that the Conie gendereth and is gendered without male, as he sayth: and such Conies be so plenteous, and bring forth so much breede, that when they bring forth one Rabet or moe, anone she hath another in hir wombe, and is a profitable beast both to meate and to clothing, and to many maner medicines, for his ruenning helpeth agaynst venime, and stancheth the flixe of the wombe, his bloud abateth ache & smarting of eyen, as Plinius sayth, and Dioscorides also: and in no beast with téeth in either jawe, is ruenning found, but in the Hare, as Arist[otle] saith: and the elder the ruenning is, the better it is, as Plinius saith. - [Batman]
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04-01-2024, 10:37 PM
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