¶ Ipse semet canit, Αὐτὸς [406] αὐτὸν αὐλεῖ, ipse suimet tibicen est: proverbium conveniens cum alias tum in illos qui semetipsos laudant, qui mos est gallis gallinaceis, etiam quum e pugna se proripuerint. Plato in Theaeteto, Φαινόμενά μοι ἀλεκτρυόνος ἀγεννοῦς δίκην, πρὶν νενικηκέναι, ἀποπεδήσαντες ἀπὸ τοῦ λόγου ᾄδειν, id est, Videmur mihi ignavi galli in morem, quum ante victoriam a sermone resilierimus canere, Erasmus.

¶ He sings himself, Autòs autòn auleî, he himself is the flutist of himself: a proverb befitting both other situations and those praising themselves, a custom which is proper to the roosters, also when headlong they abandon a fight. Plato in the dialogue Theaetetus writes: Phainómená moi alektryónos agennoûs díkën, prìn nenikëkénai, apopedësantes apò toû lógou áidein, that is, Socrates: It seems that, like a scurvy rooster, we crow before we won, jumping down from the reasoning, Erasmus from Rotterdam.

¶ Ex sambuco magis canoram buccinam tubamque credit pastor ibi caesa, ubi gallorum cantum frutex ille non exaudiat, Plinius[1]. Hoc cur fiat, si modo verum est, (inquit Caelius Calcagninus in epistolicis quaestionib. lib. 2.) nemo facile dixerit. Sunt qui hoc non simpliciter, sed συμβολικῶς traditum putent, more Pythagorico, ut multum diversum quam dicitur, intelligatur. Sicut proditum est, non ex omni ligno Mercurium debere fieri: Deum non populari ritu, sed electo ac religioso colendum esse: sic non vulgari, sed remotiori Musicae incumbendum esse admonentes, non ex obvia quaque sambuco tibiam sambucenque coagmentari oportere dixerunt, et expedire ut remotiora petantur, atque inde decerpatur ubi cantus galli non obstrepat. Nam sic hodie quoque locum longe sepositum ad quem nemo adeat significantes, dicunt in eo ne gallum quidem unquam exauditum. Aut certe stridula illa atque admodum obstrepera vox galli hebetare, et stridore suo quodammodo diffindere et convellere potest penetrabilem ac fungosam sambuci materiem: utpote qua leo etiam tantae animal constantiae consternetur. Alii sunt qui eo dicto nil praeterea ostendi putent, quam sylvestrem sambucum sativae multo esse praeferendam: quod ea procul locisque abditis, haec prope inter nostra septa adolescat, Haec ille.

¶ The shepherd believes that from the elder can be made a bugle and a trumpet more high-sounding if this bush is cut where it doesn't hear the song of the roosters, Pliny. Why this happens, supposing that it's true (Celio Calcagnini says in the 2^nd book of Epistolicae quaestiones) nobody could easily say it. Some believe that this has been handed down not in a naked way but symbolikôs, allegorically, like Pythagoras, so that it is meant in a very different way from that it is said. Like they handed down that Mercury doesn't have to be made with any kind of wood: a god must be worshipped not in an usual way, but in special and respectful one: so, when recommending that we must to aim not at an ordinary music but at a little bit different one, they said that a flute and a sambuca must be built not from a whatever elder coming within range, and that it is worthwhile to aim at a little bit different things, and that therefore it has to be picked where the song of the rooster doesn't resound. In fact in the same way also today, when they want to point out a very secluded place where nobody succeeds in arriving, they say that neither a rooster has even been heard there. At least, that shrill and extremely shouting voice of the rooster can weaken and break and traumatize in some way with its screeching the penetrable and spongy material of which the elder is constituted: since also the lion, animal of so a great courage, is frightened by him. Others, according to what has been said, are believing that doesn't need further demonstrations the fact that the wild elder is very preferable to the cultivated one: since the former grows faraway and in secluded places, the latter nearby, among our hedges. These his words

Materies quidem sambuci mire firma traditur. constat enim ex cute et ossibus. quare venabula ex ea facta praeferunt omnibus. Quoniam vero loca sylvestria (qualia sunt in quibus gallorum cantus non auditur) sicciora sunt, ligna etiam illic sicciora solidioraque fiunt, et ex tali materia tibiam magis canoram tornari credibile est, cum unumquodque corpus eo magis sonorum sit quo siccius simul solidiusque.

Really the material constituting the elder is said to be very solid. For it is constituted by the bark and the central hard parts. Therefore they prefer the hunting spits made with it in comparison with all the others. Really since the woody places (as are those in which the song of the roosters is not heard) are drier, here also the timber becomes more dry and compact, and it is believable that from such a material can be made by the lathe a more sonorous flute, since whatever structure is as more sonorous as more is dry and solid at the same time.

¶ Ἀλεκτοροφωνία, id est gallicinium, apud Marcum Evangelistam[2]. Περὶ ἀλεκτρυόνων ᾠδὰς, ἀλεκτρυόνων ᾀδόντων, ὑπὸ τὸν ᾠδόν ὄρνιθα, Pollux. Κῆρυξ ὁ ἀλεκτρυών. τρίτον δὲ ᾄδει, Suidas, Τῆς νυκτὸς ἤδη περὶ δευτέραν οὔσης ὀρνίθων ᾠδὴν, Synesius in epistola. Ὄρνιθες τρίτον ἄρτι τὸν ἔσχατον ὄρθρον ἄειδον, Theocritus Idyll. 31.[3] Καθ’ὃν καιρὸν ἀλεκτρυόνες ᾄδουσι, τοὺς συνοικοῦντας ἰδίῳ κηρύγματι ἐπὶ ἔργον ἐγείροντες, Heliodorus in Aethiopicis. Διάτορόν τι καὶ γεγωνὸς ἀναβοήσας, Lucianus[4] de gallinaceo quem et ὀξύφωνον cognominat. Ἕως ἐβόησεν ἀλέκτωρ, Homerus in Batrachomyomachia. {Ἄδειν} <ᾌδειν> verbum de gallinaceorum voce privatim usurpatur, Pollux et Eustathius. ut κοκκύζειν de cuculis, Pollux[5] et Aristophanis Scholiastes. sed Hyperides et Demosthenes de gallinaceis etiam κοκκύζειν dixerunt, Pollux. Gaza Aristotelis interpres pro hoc verbo cucurrire reddidit. Vide plura in Cuculo a. Κοκκύζειν τὸν ἀλεκτρυόνα (ἤγουν ᾄδειν ὡς αὐτῷ ἔθος) οὐκ ἀνέχονται, Cratinus[6] apud Eustathium[7]. qui et hoc Platonis Comici[8] citat, Σὲ δὲ κοκκύζων ἀλέκτωρ προκαλεῖται. Cum Nibas coccyssaverit, Ὅταν {νίβας} <Νίβας> κοκκύσῃ: proverbium[9] simillimum illi ad Graecas calendas. Tradunt in Thessalonica Macedoniae civitate vicum esse, cui nomen Nibas, ubi galli nunquam vocem {a}edant[10], (ut Nibas per synecdochen dicatur pro gallinaceis qui in eo vico sunt.) Hesychius addit (ait) nibades dici capras cristatas, ut ab iis expectetur τὸ κοκκύζειν, quod est gallinaceorum, Erasmus. Νιβάδες αἱ τοὺς λόφους ἔχουσαι αἶγες, Hesych. et Varinus. ego capras feras quae montium iuga nivosa incolunt, interpretarer, non ut Erasmus cristatas, nam et νίβα nivem[11] exponunt: et νιφόβολον, ὑψηλόν.

¶ Alektorophønía, that is the song of the rooster, in Mark the evangelist. Perì alektryónøn øidàs, alektryónøn aidóntøn, hupò tòn øidòn órnitha - Around the songs of the roosters, of the singing roosters, toward the song of the rooster, Julius Pollux. Kêryx ho alektryøn. Tríton dè áidei - The messenger rooster. In fact he sings three times, lexicon Suidas. Tês nyktòs ëdë perì deutéran oúsës orníthøn øidën - Being already around the second nighttime song of the roosters, Synesius of Cyrenae in a letter. Órnithes tríton árti tòn éschaton órthron áeidon - Really now the roosters were singing the last dawn the third time, Theocritus Idyll 31 24. Kath'hòn kairòn alektryónes áidousi, toùs synoikoûntas idíøi kërýgmati epì érgon egeírontes - The roosters sing at proper time, spurring to the job with their announcement those living in the same abode, Heliodorus of Emesa in Aethiopica or Theagenes and Charicleia. Diatorón ti kaì gegønòs anaboësas - You have shouted in a penetrating and loud way, Lucian apropos of the rooster which gives the epithet of oxýphønon - with sharp voice. Héøs eboësen aléktør - Until a rooster sang with an outspread voice, Homer in Batracomiomachia.  The verb áidein is used in a specific way for the voice of the roosters, Julius Pollux and Eustathius of Thessalonica. As it happens for kokkýzein apropos of the cuckoos, Julius Pollux and the expounder of Aristophanes. But Hyperides and Demosthenes apropos of the roosters also said kokkýzein, Julius Pollux. Theodore Gaza, Aristotle's translator, translated this verb with cucurrire - to do a cock-a-doodle-doo. See quite a lot of data in the chapter of the cuckoo paragraph a. Kokkýzein tòn alektryóna (ëgoun áidein høs autôi éthos) ouk anéchontai - They don't bear that the rooster does a cock-a-doodle-doo (that is, that he crows as it is his custom), Cratinus in Eustathius, who also quotes this verse of Comic Plato: Sè dè kokkýzein aléktør prokaleîtai - The rooster asks you to sing. When Nibas will have sung, Hótan Níbas kokkýsëi: a proverb very similar to that one saying at Greek calends. They report that nearby the Macedonian town  of Thessalonica there is a place called Nibas where the roosters never sing (and Nibas for synecdoche is said for the roosters present in that locality). Hesychius of Alexandria adds (says) that some tufted goats are said of Nibas, since we would expect from them tò kokkýzein –that they sing, which is characteristic of the roosters, Erasmus from Rotterdam. Nibádes hai toùs lóphous échousai aîges - The goats of Nibas having tufts, Hesychius and Varnus. I would mean the wild goats inhabiting the snow-covered tops of the mountains and not tufted as Erasmus says, in fact they also report níba with the meaning of snow, as well as niphóbolon, hypsëlón - struck by snow, that is, high.

Amator quidam apud Theocritum Idyllio 7. ne expectemus (inquit) amplius, ὁ δ’ὄρθριος ἄλλον ἀλέκτωρ | Κοκκύσδων νάρκαισιν (ἀπραξίαις) ἀνιηρῇσι διδοίη.

A lover at the lines 123-124 of the 7^th idyll of Theocritus says: don't delay longer, ho d'órthrios állon aléktør | Kokkýsdøn nárkaisin (apraxíais) aniërêisi didoíë - The early-rising rooster, singing, has to leave another to the annoying torpors (inactivities).

Gallinacei nomina vel epitheta a cantu eius sumpta, ὀρθροβόας, κοκκοβόας, ὀρθριοκόκκυξ  et ὀλόφωνος, supra in H. a. memorata sunt. {Ὅσπερ} <Ὥσπερ> ὁ περσικὸς ὥραν πᾶσαν καναχὼν ὀλόφωνος ἀλέκτωρ.[12] Apodus, vox galli immatura et intempestiva[13], Scoppa grammaticus. est autem Graeca vox ἀπῳδὸς, id est absonus. Ἀλεκτρυόνα τὸν τοῦ Φιλίππου παραλαβὼν | Ἀωρὶ κοκκύζοντα, καὶ πλανώμενον, Heraclides apud Athenaeum[14].

The names or epithets of the rooster derived from its song, orthrobóas, kokkobóas, orthriokókkyx and olóphønos have been previously quoted in H. a., page 402. Høsper ho persikòs høran pâsan kanachøn olóphønos aléktør - As the all voice Persian rooster shouting for a whole hour. Apodus, the immature voice of the rooster and out of time, the grammarian Lucio Scoppa. In fact it corresponds to the Greek word apøidòs – singing out of tune, dissonant, not singing anymore -, that is, without sound. Alektryóna tòn toû Philíppou paralabøn | Aørì kokkýzonta kaì planømenon – After he caught the Rooster of Phillip while singing early and strolling about, Heraclides the comedy writer in Athenaeus.

¶ Ἐνδομάχας ἀλέκτωρ, Pindarus in Olympijs Carmine 12. id est, gallinaceus intestina et domestica praelia pugnans. Φιλονεικότεροι ἀλεκτρυόνων, id est gallinaceis pugnaciores, Erasmus ex Luciano.

¶ Endomáchas aléktør - The rooster fighting in home, Pindarus in 12^th poem of Olympics. That is, the rooster fighting intestine and domestic struggles. Philoneikóteroi alektryónøn, that is, more wranglers than the roosters, Erasmus from Lucian.

Adde gregem cortis, cristatarumque volucrum
Induperatores, laterum qui sidera pulsu
Explaudunt, vigilique citant Titana canore,
Et regnum sibi Marte parant: quippe obvia rostris
Rostra ferunt, crebrisque acuunt assultibus iras.
Ignescunt animis, et calcem calce repulsant
Infesto: adversumque affligunt pectore pectus.
Victor ovans cantu palmam testatur, et hosti
Insultans victo, pavidum pede calcat iniquo.
Ille silet, latebrasque petit, dominumque superbum
Ferre gemit: comes it merito plebs caetera regi,
Politianus in Rustico.

Add the crowd of the courtyard, and the supreme leaders of the combed birds, who by flapping the wings applaud the stars, and with a vigilant song call the Sun son of the Titan Hyperion, and they get the kingdom for themselves by fighting: for they strike beaks to beaks and sharpen their anger with frequent assaults. They burn in spirit and drive back the heel with a dangerous heel: and hit with the breast the opposite breast. The jubilant victor declares the victory by his crowing, and leaping on the defeated enemy, he tramples the faint-hearted with his hostile foot. The latter keeps silent seeking a hiding place, and moans because he must endure a haughty master: the rest of the flock of necessity goes along with the king, Poliziano in Rusticus.

Gallus gallinaceus Ubi erat haec (olla) defossa, occepit ibi scalpur<r>ire ungulis | Circum circa, Plautus[15]. Ipse salax totam f{o}ecundo semine gentem | Implet, et oblongo nunc terram scalpur<r>it[16] ungui | Rimaturque cibos, nunc {a}edita nubila visu | Explorat cauto, Politianus in Rustico.

The rooster: Where this (the pot) was buried there he started to scrape all around with toenails, Plautus. Still he libidinous fills with the fruitful semen his whole harem, and now with long claws scratches the earth and rummages in search of foods, now with a careful glance examines the clouds aloft, Poliziano in Rusticus.

¶ Verbena quoquo modo applicata prohibet τὴν τοῦ αἰδοίου ἔντασιν, ita ut si gallus eam gustaverit, gallinas supervenire nequeat, Kiranidae interpres ut gallus gallinam non calcet, (saliat nimirum,) edendam ei verbenam dari iubet cum furfure et polenta. Idem si cinaedius[17] lapis gallo detur cum polenta, cinaedum futurum scribit. Dicunt quidam decrepitum gallum, ovum ex se generare, idque in fimo ponere absque testa, sed pelle tam dura ut ictibus validissimis resistat: atque hoc ovum fimi calore foecundari ita ut basiliscus ex eo gignatur: qui serpens sit per omnia gallo similis, sed cauda longa serpentina. ego hoc verum esse non puto, quanquam ab Hermete proditum, scriptore apud multos fide digno, Albertus. Et rursus, Basiliscos aliquando dicunt gigni de ovo galli, quod plane falsum est et impossibile. nam quod Hermes [407] docet basiliscum generare in utero (generari in fimo) non intelligit de vero basilisco, sed de elixir (elydrio) alchymico, quo metalla convertuntur.

¶ The verbena, applied in whatever way, prevents tën toû aidoíou éntasin - the rigidity of the penis, so that if the rooster will have eaten it, he doesn't succeed in mating with hens; the translator of Kiranides so that the rooster doesn't mount the hen (that is, doesn't climb on her) advises to give him to eat the verbena with bran and barley polenta. He still writes that if the rooster is given a cinaedus stone with barley polenta, he will become a cinaedus. Some say that a decrepit rooster produces inside of himself an egg, and that he lays it in manure without shell, but with a hard membranous wrapping so that it bears the strongest hits: and that this egg is made fertile by manure's heat, so that it a basilisk originates from it: which is a snake quite similar to a rooster, but with a long tail of snake. I believe that this is not true, although this has been handed down by Hermes Trismegistus, who for many people is a writer worthy of faith, Albertus Magnus. And he adds: They say that the basilisks sometimes are born from the egg of a rooster, which is false and quite impossible. In fact when Hermes affirms that the basilisk takes origin in the uterus (takes birth in manure) he doesn't mean the true basilisk, but the alchemic elixir (celandine stone), with which the metals are converted - in gold.