Page:Anglo-Saxon Riddles of the Exeter Book (1963).djvu/52

 having now come forth they leave their coverings lying behind them as they tread the ground.

This was best explained by Mrs. von Erhardt-Siebold in MLN (1950), 97–100. Ten Chickens, in Anglo-Saxon ten ciccenu, having six consonants and four vowels. When they are first hatched their skins cling to the broken shells. Then they begin to eat and are soon covered with down.

My neck is white, my head is tawny and so are my sides. I am swift in my stride. I bear weapons of battle. On my back there is hair and the same on my cheeks. Over my eyes two ears stand up. I walk on my toes in the green grass. My doom is certain if anyone finds me, if a slaughterous fighter finds me hidden where I make my home, bold with my bairns. And there I abide with my little family when the stranger comes to my very doors. Death is their doom. I must carry them off, save them by flight with fear in my heart away from my home. If he crowds me hard, moving on his belly, I dare not abide that fierce one in my burrow (that would be surely not a good counsel) but bravely I must with both hands and feet create a path through the high hill. Easily I can save them, my beloved kin, if I can bring my household by a secret way through the hollow hill; for there I need fear never a whit the murderous whelp. If the hateful foe follows me hard through the narrow track he shall have no lack of the clash of battle when we meet in the burrow;