sermon against the extravagant dress of the ladies, and that he had blamed particularly the bareness of their necks and their horns. He had directed people, on the approach of women thus dressed, to cry "Hurte, belin," and "Beware of the ram" ... "If we do not get out of the way of the women, we shall be killed; for they carry horns to kill men. They carry great masses of other people's hair upon their heads."
Et commande par aatie,
Que chascun 'hurte, belin,' die.
Trop i tardon,
'Hurte, belin,' pur le pardon.
Se des fames ne nous gardon,
Ocis serommes;
Cornes ont por tuer les hommes.
D'autrui cheveus portent granz sommes,
Desus lor teste.
We learn from the two last lines of this extract that the horns were supported with (or made of) false hair. After having further warned people of the danger of such a horned animal, and expatiated on the impropriety of going with the neck uncovered, the satirist returns again to the horns, and says that the Bishop had promised ten days' pardon to all who would cry "Heurte, belier," at their approach. "By the faith I owe St. Mathurin! they make themselves horned with platted hemp or linen, and counterfeit dumb beasts"—
Et à toz cels .x. jors pardone,
Qui crieront à tel personne,
'Hurte, belin!'
Foi que je doi saint Mathelin!
De chanvre ouvré ou de lin
Se font cornues,
Et contrefont les bestes mues.
"There is much talk of their horns, and in fact people laugh at them throughout the town"—
De lor cornes est grant parole,
Genz s'en gabent, n'est pas frivole,
Parmi la vile.
The foregoing extracts prove the existence of this description of head-dress in France at the beginning of the fourteenth. As might be expected from the known analogy in the history of costume in the two countries, we find the same fashion existing at the same time in England, which proves
