Page 385
De Vulpe. cap. 114.
A Foxe is called Vulpes, and hath that name, as it were wallowing féete a∣side, and goeth neuer forthright, but al∣way in by wayes, and with fraud, and is a false beast and deceiuable: for when he lacketh meate, he faineth himselfe dead, and then fowles come to him, as it were to a carren, and anone he catcheth one and deuoureth him, as Isi. saith lib. 12. The Foxe halteth alway, for ye right legges be shorter than the lefte legs: his skinne is very hairy, rough, and hot, his taile is great and rough, and when an hound weneth to take him by the taile, he taketh his mouth full of haire, & stop∣peth it. The Foxe doth fight with the Brocke for dens, & defileth the Brockes den with his vrine and with his dirte, and hath so the mastrie ouer him, with fraud and deceipt, and not by strength. The Foxe inhabiteth himselfe in holes and dens vnder the earth, and stealeth & deuoureth more tame beasts than wild. Arist. saith li. 8. The Hart is friend to a Foxe, and fighteth therefore with the Brock and helpeth the Foxe. Betwéene the Foxe and the Brocke, is kindelye wrath:and often the Foxe ouercommeth the Brock, more by guile, than by might and strength: and is a right gluttonous beast, and deuoureth much: and he gen∣dreth blinde whelpes, as doth the Lyon and the Woolfe, as Arist. saith libro. 16. For as Solinus saith, in all beasts that gender brood incomplete, ye cause is glut∣tonie: for if kinde suffered them to a∣bide vntill they were complete, they should slay the dam with sucking: and therefore kinde maketh them not to be full complete, least they should slay their owne kinde by gluttonie and great de∣sire of meate. The Foxe is a stinking beast and corrupt, and doth corrupt ofte the places that they dwell in continual∣ly, and maketh them to be barren: his wombe is white, and the necke vnder the throate, and his taile is redde & his backe: his breth stinketh, and his biting is some deale venemous, as Plin. sayeth. And when hounds do pursue him, hee draweth in his taile betwéene his legs, and when he seeth he may not scape, hee pisseth in his taile that is full hairie and rough, and swappeth his taile full of pisse in the hounds faces yt pursue him, and the stench of the pisse is full grie∣uous to the houndes, and therefore the hounds spare him somwhat. The Foxe faineth himselfe tame in time of neede: but by night he waiteth his time, and doth shrewd déedes. And though he bée right gu••••efull and malitious, yet hée is good and profitable in vse of medicine, as Plin. sayth lib. 28. cap. 8. For his grea••e and marow helpeth much against shrin∣king of sinewes, as it is said: his blond is accounted tempering and dissoluing, and departing harde things, and is good therefore to breake the stone in the bla∣der and in the reynes, as it is supposed. Plinius setteth there other opinions of great men, of properties of Foxes, of whom I force not to make mention: but he saith, that if a man haue vpon him a Foxe tongue in a ring or in a bracelet, he shal not be blinde, as witches meane.
(* 1.1The lyuer of the Foxe is sayde to be good to restore the lyuer in man or woman: his smell is a great helpe a∣gainst the Palsie, therefore he is tyed néere the lodgings of the diseased.)