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 lxv (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.
29 (K-D 15)
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;
