Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/260

 240 Hiftory of Dome flic Man7iers remarkable part in mediaeval ftories. The aptnefs of this bird for imitation led to an exaggerated efl:imate of its powers, and it is frequently made to give information to the hulband of 'the weaknefTes of his wife. Several mediaeval ftories turn upon this fuppofed quality. The good chevalier de la Tour-Landry, in his book of counfels to his daughters, compofed in the fecond half of the fourteenth century, tells a ftory of a magpie as a warning of the danger of indulging in gluttony. "I will tell you," he fays, " a ftory in regard to women who eat dainty morfels in the abfence of their lords. There was a lady who had a pie in a cage, which talked of everything which it faw done. Now it happened that the lord of the houfehold preferved a large eel in a pond, and kept it very carefully, in order to give it to fome of his lords or of his friends, in cafe they fhould vifit him. So it happened that the lady faid to her female attendant that it would be good to eat the great eel, and accordingly they eat it, and agreed that they would tell their lord that the otter had eaten it. And when the lord returned, the pie began to fay to him, ' My lord, my lady has eaten the eel.' Then the lord went to his pond, and miffed his eel ; and he went into the houfe, and alked his wife what had become of it. She thought to excufe herfelf eafily, but he faid that he knew all about it, and that the pie had told him. The refult was that there was great quarrelling and trouble in the houfe ; but when the lord was gone away, the lady and her female attendant went to the pie, and plucked all the feathers from his head, faying, 'You told about the eel.' And fo the poor pie was quite bald. But from that time forward, when it faw any people who were bald or had large foreheads, the pie faid to them, 'Ah! you told about the eel!' And this is a good example how no woman ought to eat any choice morfel by gluttony without the know- ledge of her lord, unlets it be to give it to people of honour j for this lady was afterwards mocked and jeered for eating the eel, through the pie which complained of it." The reader will recognife in this the origin of a much more modern ftory. One of the ftories in the celebrated mediaeval colleftion, entitled "The Seven Sages," alio turns upon the talkative qualities of this bird. There was a burgher who had a pie which, on being quefl:ioned, related whatever