Thomas of Cantimpré [circa 1200-1272 CE] (Liber de natura rerum, Worms 9.5-6): [The translation of this description from Latin is highly uncertain, and should be used with caution. Thomas describes the buffones twice, the second time giving the alternate name cornuti.] [Worms 9.5] As he says [i.e. Liber rerum], buffones are among others are considered worms. But it is a poisonous reptile, having a pestilent sight, and foul to the touch. It feeds on earth, and this in weight and measure. For as much as it can hold in its forefoot, this is its daily food. For it fears lest the earth fail it for food; and in this it signifies the greedy and the covetous man. [Worms 9.6] There is a genus of buffones in the region of Gaul, which has the name cornuti [horn or trumpet]; and this from the sound of their voices, from the fact that they seem to be trumpeting. They have two colors, black [tetrum, perhaps atrum] and saffron [croceum, yellow/saffron/gold]. When they are born, they produce the sound of the trumpets as usual. By turns they call two by two. They are loud in Gaul alone; elsewhere they lose their voices and are mute. And these signify the preachers who do not want to preach except among those they know and in their own country, not heeding the judgment of the prophet Jonah, who by thus disobeying God, was given to be devoured by a whale. - [Badke translation/paraphrase]