CANES BELLICOSI +or+ PUGNACES.
[Sidenote: Gratii Halieut. vs. 98.]
_Quibus est audacia præceps._
The type of this class is given by Gratius in the following lines,
which must be taken as a general description, requiring some latitude
in its application to individuals:[336]
[Sidenote: Gratii Cyneg. vs. 269.]
Sint celsi vultus, sint hirtæ frontibus aures,
Os magnum, et patulis agitatos morsibus ignes
Spirent, adstricti succingant ilia ventres,
Cauda brevis, longumque latus, discretaque collo
Cæsaries, non pexa nimis, non frigoris illa
Impatiens: validis tum surgat pectus ab armis,
Quod magnos capiat motus, magnisque supersit.
Effuge, qui latâ pandit vestigia planlâ,
Mollis in officio, siccis ego dura lacertis
Crura velim, et solidos hæc in certamina calces.
By its side we may place its counterpart in Greek;—for, notwithstanding
the Oppianic sketch has been appropriated by Bodinus to the Albanese,
it certainly may be viewed in a broader light, as a picture in outline
of the whole pugnacious family, without reference to individuals:
[Sidenote: Oppian. Cyneg. L. +i.+ 413.]
θοῦροι δ’ αὖθ’ ἕτεροι, τοῖσιν μενεδήϊος ἀλκὴ,
ὅσσοι καὶ ταύροισιν ἐπέχραον ἠϋγενείοις,
καὶ σύας ὑβριστῆρας ἐπαΐξαντες ὄλεσσαν
ὅσσοι μηδὲ λέοντας ἑοὺς τρείουσιν ἄνακτας,
ζατρεφέες, πρώνεσσιν ἐοικότες ἀκρολόφοισι.
σιμότεροι μὲν ἔασι προσώπατα, δεινὰ δ’ ὕπερθε
νεύει ἐπισκυνίοισι μεσόφρυα, καὶ πυρόεντες
ὀφθαλμοὶ χαροπῇσιν ὑποστίλβοντες ὀπωπαῖς·
ῥινὸς ἅπας λάσιος, κρατερὸν δέμας, εὐρέα νῶτα·
κραιπνοὶ δ’ οὐ τελέθουσιν, ἀτὰρ μένος ἔνδοθι πολλὸν
καὶ σθένος ἄφραστον, κραδίη καὶ θυμὸς ἀναιδής.
The introduction of a third, more recent portrait, will be justified by
the chaste Latinity of Peter Angelio, and the faithful accuracy of his
pen:
[Sidenote: P. Angelii Bargæi Cyneg. L. +v.+]
Ille tibi ingentes tauros aggressus, et ursos
Sistat, et imposito fugientes vulnere tardet:
Cui summæ pendent aures, cui laxa supernè
Labra fluant, cui vultus atrox, cui maxima cervix,
Obtusumque caput, pressumque ante omnia rostrum:
Præterea magnique pedes, unguesque recurvi:
Molle solum, sublime femen, suppressior alvus:
Ipsaque rectorum longa internodia crurum:
Spina duplex, pingues lumbi, color helvus,[337] honestum
Pectus: et è patulis efflet qui naribus ignem,
Latratu quoties sylvas implevit, et amplo
Pectore conceptas subitus decurrit ad iras.
Tum verò splendent oculi, collumque tumescit,
Et caudam crebrò villosa in terga retorquet.
The quarry of these savage hounds consisted of animals more ferocious
than their assailants—such as
[Sidenote: Gratii Halieut. vs. 73.]
Trahit in præceps non sana ferocia mentis.
Following the order of the poetical manual, to which we are indebted
for our first-cited outline of the race, the Mede and Celt arrest our
earliest attention, followed by the Ser, Lycaonian, Hyrcanian, Briton,
Molossian, and others:
[Sidenote: Gratii Cyneg. vs. 155.]
——magna indocilis dat prælia Medus,
Magnaque diversos extollit gloria Celtas.[338]
The Persian appears to have been a connecting link between the
pugnacious and sagacious classes, though his neighbours of Media and
Hyrcania were a purely savage breed. The Persian was a mongrel variety—
[Sidenote: Ejusd. vs. 158.]
Perses in utroque paratus.
[Sidenote: De Naturâ Animal. L. +iii.+ c. +ii.+]
The character of the “indocilis Medus” we may infer from Ælian’s
description, already cited, of the men and horses of the country—which
at the conclusion he also extends to the dogs—ταῦτά τοι καὶ περὶ τῶν
κυνῶν ἔπεισι νοεῖν μοι. The latter were fierce, impetuous, and of great
size.
There is evidently no connexion between the Celtæ of Gratius and κύνες
Κελτικαὶ of Arrian, though deriving their name from the same source,
and seemingly of the same country. The former were originally perhaps
the only varieties of the canine species inmates of the kennels of Gaul,
[Sidenote: Savary Venat. Cervin. Leges. L. +i.+]
Gallia cùm pridem coleret devota Dianam,
the sagacious and swift-footed hounds being subsequently admitted
therein;—but not until the older mode of hunting ferocious animals with
savage dogs had fallen into disrepute, from the superior attraction
of the improved style; or into disuse, from the gradual extirpation
of beasts of prey. As the latter disappeared, or were driven into
remote fastnesses, we may suppose the more timid and fugacious
creatures supplied their place; and, multiplying in the ratio of the
others’ diminution, afforded abundant quarry to the Vertragus, and the
archetype of the _chien courant_ of modern France.
How beautifully are the more innoxious sports of sylvan life, and
superior claims of the hare and deer hunt, touched by Ovid in the fable
of Venus and Adonis. The goddess of love turns huntress:
[Sidenote: Ovid. Metam. L. +x.+ 537.]
Per juga, per sylvas, dumosaque saxa vagatur
Nuda genu, vestem ritu succincta Dianæ:
Hortaturque canes; tutæque animalia prædæ,
Aut pronos lepores, aut celsum in cornua cervum,
Aut agitat damas; à fortibus abstinet apris.
Raptoresque lupos, armatosque unguibus ursos
Vitat, et armenti saturatos cæde leones.
Te quoque, ut hos timeas (si quid prodesse monendo
Possit) Adoni, monet. ‘Fortisque fugacibus esto,’
Inquit; ‘in audaces non est audacia tuta.
Parce meo, juvenis, temerarius esse perîclo.
Neve feras, quibus arma dedit natura, lacesse;
Stet mihi ne magno tua gloria. Non movet ætas,
Nec facies, nec quæ Venerem movêre, leones
Setigerosque sues, oculosque animosque ferarum.
Fulmen habent acres in aduncis dentibus apri;
Impetus est fulvis et vasta leonibus ira.’
No wonder that the Celtic people by degrees discontinued the warlike
chase, fraught with innumerable perils, and substituted the harmless
pursuit of fugacious quarry, with keen-scented and swift-footed
hounds, according to the injunctions of the meretricious queen to her
disobedient “sweete boy;”
[Sidenote: Sir A. Golding Ovid’s Metam. B. 10.]
Pursuing game of hurtlesse sort, as hares made lowe before,
Or stagges with lofty heades, or buckes;—
which, in the days of Arrian, constituted their principal field sport.
[Sidenote: Strabo L. +iv.+ p. 138.]
[Sidenote: L. +viii.+ c. 40. ex Vlitii Emend.]
Julius Pollux, in his Onomasticon, mentions the Celtic war-dogs,
and Oppian also includes Κελτοὶ in the muster-roll of his first
cynegetic.[339] It is probable that they were a-kin to those of ancient
Britain; for we are told by Strabo, who lived soon after Gratius,
that the exports from this island to Gaul consisted of δέρματα, καὶ
ἀνδράποδα, καὶ κύνες εὐφυεῖς πρὸς τὰς κυνηγεσίας. Κελτοὶ δὲ καὶ πρὸς
τοὺς πολέμους χρῶνται, καὶ τούτοις, καὶ τοῖς ἐπιχωρίοις. Whence it
appears that the Celts had native Canes Venatici which they employed
in war,[340] as well as those imported from Britain.[341] In this
adaptation of canine ferocity the Celtæ were not peculiar; but
as dogs, thus applied, can scarce be considered in their sporting
character, it is unnecessary to multiply citations. Let the few
instances hereafter adduced suffice on this head. Whether these Celtic
dogs are the Gallic hybrids of the natural historian I cannot say: “hoc
idem,” says Pliny, “è lupis Galli, quorum greges suum quisque ductorem
è canibus et Lyciscam habent. Illum in venatu comitantur, illi parent.
Namque inter se exercent etiam magisteria.” There were whole packs of
these dogs in every chase or forest, “that had for their leader some
particular demi-wolf, which the rest accompanied in hunting, obeyed,
and were directed by; keeping an order among themselves of government
and mastership.”
Gratius mentions, in the next place, the Ser, the Lycaonian or
Arcadian, the Hyrcanian, and the union of the latter with the tiger.
[Sidenote: Gratii Cyneg. vs. 159.]
Sunt qui Seras alant, genus intractabilis iræ;
At contrà faciles, magnique Lycaones armis.
The Seræ were a nation of Æthiopia near the origin of the Nile, and
also of India between the Indus and Hydaspes: but “the famous Seræ
were a people of Asia, the farthest to the east beyond China towards
Scythia without Imaus,” according to Wase’s geography of Gratius. As
the poet does not record the fame of the Canes Indici under their
usual denomination, we may consider the Seric dog as the redoubted
Indian—“genus intractabilis iræ.”
[Sidenote: Xenophon, de Venat. c. +ix.+]
[Sidenote: Ælian. de Natur. Animal. L. +viii.+ c. 1.]
[Sidenote: Ovid. Metam. L. +iii.+ 140.]
[Sidenote: Polluc. Onom. L. +v.+ c. +v.+ 39.]
[Sidenote: Ælian. de Nat. Animal. L. +iv.+ c. 19.]
[Sidenote: Plutarch. p. 1787. Ed. Steph.]
[Sidenote: Brodæi Annot. in Oppian. p. 43.]
The Indian dog is noticed by Herodotus, Aristotle, Xenophon, Diodorus
Siculus, Strabo, Plutarch, Pollux, Ælian, Athenaeus, Themistius, and
Phile, among the Greeks; and by Pliny, Solinus, and Quintus Curtius,
among the Latins. The size, strength, speed, and courage of this dog
induced Xenophon to recommend him for boar and deer hunting—εἰσὶ
γὰρ ἰσχυραὶ, μεγάλαι, ποδώκεις, οὐκ ἄψυχοι, says this experienced
sportsman; and Ælian adds to his good qualities keenness of sight
or scent in tracking—εὐγενεῖς καὶ ἴχνη καταγνῶναι θηρίων ἀγαθαὶ, κ.
τ. λ. J. Pollux, on the authority of Nicander, derives the Canes
Indici from Actæon’s pack; who, when they had recovered from their
madness, “satiatæ sanguine herili,” passed the Euphrates, and wandered
into India. He particularly distinguishes them from the Hyrcanian,
with which they have been by some historians confounded. Both the
last-mentioned authors, and also Plutarch, would have us believe
that the lion was the only antagonist with whom this courageous dog
would willingly contend:—τῶν δὲ ἄλλων ζώων ὑπερφρονοῦντα πάντων, says
Plutarch; and Ælian affirms his victory over the lion; but Themistius
adds the pard to his chosen antagonists, to the exclusion of inferior
combatants, as wolves and foxes. Fable however and history are so
closely blended in the records of canine biography, that we are
compelled occasionally to doubt. And did we not relieve ourselves by
incredulity, the marvellous tale of patient courage narrated by Ælian,
as manifested by this fierce animal, would make us shudder at the bare
recital. It is found in detail in the first chapter of his eighth book
de Naturâ Animalium,[342] and succinctly copied by Pollux in the fifth
chapter of the fifth book of his Onomasticon.
[Sidenote: Ælian. de Nat. Animal. L. +viii.+ c. 1.]
The cruel experiment, transmitted to us by Dr. Goldsmith, as having
been practised on the British Molossus, is quite eclipsed by this more
barbarous exhibition of the innate fortitude of the dog of India. For
in the latter case, the commencement of the inhuman test of patient
courage was the amputation of the tail, and the conclusion decollation.
The legs of the poor brute were successively cut off, one by one,
without his quitting his hold of the lion, his chosen antagonist:—and
when at last the neck was severed from the body, the teeth still
adhered with the trunkless, but still mordacious head, (_credat
Judæus_,) suspended to the wound. But let the credulous story-teller
speak for himself:—καὶ τελευτῶντες τῆς κεφαλῆς τὸ λοιπὸν σῶμα ἀφεῖλον·
ὀδόντες δὲ ἐκείνῃ ἤρτηντο τῆς ἐξ ἀρχῆς ἀντιλαβῆς, καὶ ἡ κεφαλὴ ἠωρεῖτο
μετέωρος ἐκ τοῦ λέοντος, αὐτοῦ μέντοι τοῦ δακόντος ἐξ ἀρχῆς οὐκ ἔτι
ὄντος. The dog like the British bull-dog was memorable for never
quitting his hold—a feature in his ferocious character remarked by
Phile in his iambic versification of Ælian’s marvellous tale.
[Sidenote: De Animal. Proprietate. De cane Indico. p. 148.]
παντὸς κυνὸς μέγιστος, Ἰνδὸς πᾶς κύων.
ὃς οὐδὲ τὸν λέοντα παρόντα τρέμει,
ἀνθίσταται δὲ, καὶ σφριγᾷ πρὸς τὴν μάχην,
καὶ τοῖς βρυχηθμοῖς ἀνθυλακτεῖ συντόμως,
ἐγκείμενον δὲ καρτερεῖ τὸν αὐθάδη.
καὶ δάκνεται μὲν, ἀντιδάκνει δὲ πλέον.
τέλος δὲ τοῦ τένοντος αὐτὸν ἁρπάσας,
ῥίπτει κατὰ γῆς, καὶ σπαράττει, καὶ θλίβει.
κἄν τις ἐπελθὼν ἀποκόψῃ τὸ σκέλος
τῷ τὸν μέγαν ἄγχοντι, καὶ πρὶν γεννάδαν,
μόλις ὁ νεκρὸς ὑπανήσει τὸ στόμα.
[Sidenote: Venationes Ferarum, &c. pl. +iv.+]
In the scarce plates of Stradan, engraven by Galle, there is a picture
of the Canis Indicus, as I conceive, fighting with the elephant and
lion. The annexed quatrain, by Kilian Dufflæus, sufficiently explains
it, but is not worthy of citation. The following poetical portrait,
however, by a far better scholar, will be read with pleasure, whether
viewed as delineating the Indian, or his congener, the Albanian:
[Sidenote: Hercul. Strozæ Caesar. Borgiæ Ducis Epiced.]
—si aliqua è sylvis sese fera nobilis altis
Offeret, et campo bellum committit aperto,
(Degeneris neque enim lætatur sanguine prædæ)
Vim canis egregiam, atque acres mirabere pugnas.
Vidimus assuetos inter deserta ferarum
Nequicquam immanes irasci in cornua tauros.
Sternere ludus apros, nec totam excandet in iram,
Si rigidis pugnent informes unguibus ursi.
Gaudet atrox magni fremitum si fortè leonis
Audiat, et celeri rapitur per devia cursu,
Ac formidando metuendus obambulat hosti,
Villosæ donec cervici adnisus inhæret,
Sanguineâque feram morientem extendit arenâ.
Acriùs exultans vastos in prælia barros
Provocat, et tantam (dictu mirabile) molem
Sternit; at ingentem procumbens ille ruinam
Per dumosa trahit, garritu tesqua sonoro
Dissultant, gliscitque gravis venantibus horror.
Bodin supposes Oppian to allude to the Canis Indicus in his 1st
Cynegetic, vs. 413.; but as the poet does not mention any name, and
particularly specifies a want of speed in the dogs he describes, I
should rather refer his sketch to the Molossian or true Epirote, (if it
must have a particular application,) than to the Indian or Albanian.
I have no doubt, however, that it is, as already stated, a general
description of the pugnacious type, and therefore includes both Indian
and Molossian.
[Sidenote: Hist. Natur. L. +viii.+ c. +xl.+]
[Sidenote: Strabo L. +xv.+]
[Sidenote: C. J. Solini Polyhistor. c. +xv.+]
[Sidenote: Vide Bodini Comment. in Oppian. p. 63.]
[Sidenote: Strabo L. +xi.+]
Many of the anecdotes of the Indian dog are promiscuously told of
the Albanian, Iberian, and Hyrcanian; and it certainly is difficult
to point out any distinctive characters between them. Of the latter
I shall presently speak, in the rotation in which he is recorded
by Gratius. The Albanian and Iberian are undoubtedly consimilars,
strongly impregnated with the Molossian cast—natives of the Asiatic
district indifferently called Iberia and Albania. They are celebrated
by modern travellers as much as by classic historical and cynegetical
writers. Pliny does not name the country of the dog “inusitatæ
magnitudinis” given to Alexander by a king of Albania;[343] though it
would be a fair conclusion that the dog was of the same country as
the king. Yet Strabo, notwithstanding he commemorates the prowess of
the Albanian race of dogs, particularly notes that those presented to
the king of Macedonia were Indian; and he is supported by Plutarch,
Diodorus Siculus, and Julius Pollux, differing somewhat in the
historical detail. Solinus, for the most part a copyist of Pliny and
Strabo, is, on this occasion, it may be, mistaken in assigning to
them an Albanian origin. Speaking of the Albanese, he says: “Apud
hos populos nati canes feris anteponuntur, frangunt tauros, leones
premunt, detinent quid-quid objectum: quibus ex causis meruerunt etiam
annalibus tradi. Legimus petenti Indiam Alexandro, à rege Albaniæ
dono duos missos,” &c.—and again, “Hoc genus canes crescunt ad formam
amplissimam, terrificis latratibus ultra rugitus insonantes.” May we
not reconcile these statements by considering the Albanese dogs of the
Latin historians—Pliny, Solinus, and Curtius—the Indians of the Greek
authors—Strabo, Plutarch, Diodorus, Ælian, and Pollux—and the Albania
of the former, the India of the latter? The inhabitants of Albania and
India were both excessively addicted to hunting—θηρευτικοί τε καὶ αὐτοὶ
καὶ οἱ κύνες αὐτῶν εἰς ὑπερβολήν.
The Iberian dog is mentioned by Julius Pollux, Oppian, and Nemesian—the
latter poet merely saying the breed is not to be despised by sportsmen;
[Sidenote: Nemesian. Cyneg. vs. 126.]
Nec tibi Pannonicæ stirpis temnatur origo,
Nec quorum proles de sanguine manat Ibero;
and the former recommending it to be crossed with Sarmatian blood,
[Sidenote: Oppian. Cyneg. L. +i.+ 397.]
Σαρματικόν τε πόσιν φορέοις πρὸς Ἰβηρίδα νύμφην.
Darcius records the strength, courage, and velocity of the Albanian
breed;
[Sidenote: Darcii Venusini Canes.]
Adde etiam Albanos, qui quantum viribus apris
Occursare valent, fulvosque æquare leones,
Et vasto indomitos certamine frangere tauros,
Aligeras tantum cursu prævertere damas;
[Sidenote: Brodæi Annotationes in Oppian.]
[Sidenote: Jones’s Oppian’s Halieutics.]
and two lines below mentions the dogs, “quos dives Iberia pascit,”
as if distinct from the Albanese—which, if Asiatic, they certainly
resembled. It is, however, possible, that Darcius may allude to
European Iberia, or Spain. Indeed, the geographical appropriation
of Oppian’s Iberian dogs is doubtful in the opinion of commentators.
Brodæus assigns the Iberian horse of Oppian (Cyn. +i.+ vs. 284.) to
Asia; but the people mentioned by the poet under the same name, in
connexion with the Celts, in the episode at the conclusion of his
second Halieutic, are evidently inhabitants of Western Europe. And
again—his description of the tunnies “rushing from th’ Atlantic deep,”
into the Mediterranean, and of their subsequent capture along its
shores, places the Iberians a second time in the West:
[Sidenote: Oppian. Halieut. L. +iii.+ 623.]
τούσδ’ ἤτοι πρῶτον μὲν Ἰβηρίδος ἔνδοθεν ἄλμης
ἀνέρες ἀγρώσσουσι βίῃ κομόωντες Ἴβηρες.
δεύτερα δὲ Ῥοδανοῖο παρὰ στόμα θηρητῆρες
Κελτοὶ, κ. τ. λ.
however, whether Asiatic or European, it is sufficient for our
classification that the dogs were of the pugnacious class.
The modern representative of the classical Albanese occupies a more
extensive district than his ferocious prototype, who was confined to
the region between Colchos and Armenia; whereas his descendant is found
in Macedonia, Illyria, Chaonia, and Epirus.
Of the classical Albanian, in his character of a dog of war, Valerius
Flaccus has left us the following very animated description:
[Sidenote: Valerii Flacci Argonaut. L. +vi.+ 107.]
Insequitur Drangæa phalanx, claustrisque profusi
Caspiadæ; queîs turba canum non segnius acres
Exilit ad lituos, pugnasque capessit heriles:
Inde etiam par mortis honos; tumulisque recepti
Inter avos, positusque virûm: nam pectora ferro
Terribilesque innexa jubas ruit agmine nigro
Latratuque cohors: quanto sonat horrida Ditis
Janua, vel superas Hecates comitatus ad auras.
And the fame of his tribe, as spread over these countries at large, is
celebrated by the chaste poet of Barga in his 5th Cynegeticon, with the
same song, _decies repetita_, of leonine and elephantine quarry:
[Sidenote: P. Angelii Bargæi Cyneg. L. +v.+]
Quid! tibi si, quarum concursu exhorruit Argo,
Cœruleis sparsas adeam Symplegadas undis,
Cappadocumque oras, et inhospita Colchidos arva,
Atque iter ad duros contendam pergere Iberos:
Caspiaque Albanis quondam regnata tyrannis
Littora? et extremi prætervehar ostia Sarni:
O quales, quantosque canes, quàm fortia bello
Pectora, quàm certâ prolem virtute valentem
Inde legam? sola illa uros, sola illa leones
Invadit, sola aggreditur dignata elephantos.
[Sidenote: Vulgar Errors. B. +i.+]
[Sidenote: Scaliger.]
Opportunity offers, in introducing the dog of Arcadia to the reader’s
notice, of speaking of the semiferous race of lupine dogs, the
demi-wolves of the ancient Cynegetica.[344] The cross of the wolf and
dog is of considerable antiquity; indeed the belief of its existence
may be traced very generally through the popular works of the classic
ages. Under the Spartan dog, in the second class, I shall again allude
to hybrid dogs, and refer to Mr. Hunter’s paper on the subject in the
Transactions of the Royal Society of London. At present, it may be
stated that the cross of the wolf and domestic dog is an established
one, and that the breed, so obtained, has been carried forward for
many generations. Aristotle, I believe, first remarked the sexual
intercourse of these congeners in Cyrene; and, from the fact as
stated by him, Cardan (“a great inquirer after truth, but too greedy
a receiver of it,” according to Sir Thomas Brown,) inferred the
gradual degeneration of wolves into the canine type.[345] “Ut lupos
et canes,” says Brodæus in Oppianum, “mutuò coire fatear, Diodori,
Ovidii, (‘Deque lupo concepta Nape,’) ac complurium facit auctoritas.”
As the mule is born from the horse and ass, remarks Galen, so a mixed
breed may be generated from the wolf and dog.[346] The race of old
reported to have been sprung from the latter connexion was that
of Arcadia, the Lycaonian; thence called, peradventure, _Lycas_ by
Simonides, and _Lycisca_ by Virgil and Ovid—“Mista lupo canis est
signatâ voce _Lycisca_.”[347] That the Lycas of the canine epitaph was
of lupine origin, we may conjecture from the name; but the Cean poet
specifying other localities as the scenes of his hound’s exploits in
life, and Pollux calling her Λυκάδα τὴν Θεττάλην, some other kennel
may put forward a claim, instead of that of Arcadia, for the honour
of the breed; or the name may be merely an appellative distinction,
unconnected with lineage;—still the monumental elegy is deserving of
citation:
[Sidenote: Simonides emendatus, ex Polluc. Onom. L. +v.+ 47.]
ἠ σεῦ καὶ φθιμένας, λεῦκ’ ὀστέα τῶδ’ ἐνι τύμβῳ
ἴσκω ἔτι τρομέειν θῆρας, ἄγρωσσα Λυκάς.
τὰν δ’ ἀρετὰν οἶδεν μέγα Πήλιον, ἅτ’ ἀρίδηλος
Ὄσσα Κιθαιρῶνος οἰονόμοι σκοπιαί.
Gratius contrasts the docility of Lycaonian dogs, the Τεγεῆται of
Oppian, with the intractability of the Indian,
[Sidenote: Cyneg. vs. 160.]
At contrà faciles magnique Lycaones armis.
[Sidenote: Ovid. Metam. L. +i.+ 198.]
[Sidenote: Vide Pausan. in Arcad. c. +ii.+]
The breed of the northern part of Peloponnesus, having been of
great note, and the son of Pelasgus (“notus feritate Lycaon”)
having been converted into a wolf—the first subject, it may be, of
_lycanthropy_—the dogs indifferently called Arcadian and Lycaonian,
were probably, says C. Wase, “heirs of his own body naturally
begotten.” Many Arcadian hounds are found in the Ovidian pack, among
the mistaken pursuers of the unfortunate son of Aristæus—
[Sidenote: Euripidis Bacchæ.]
(ὃν ὠμοσίτοι σκύλακες, ἃς ἐθρέψατο,
διεσπάσαντο κρείσσον’ ἐν κυνηγίαις,)
possessed of great speed and resolution:
[Sidenote: Ovid. Metam. L. +iii.+ 209.]
Inde ruunt alii rapidâ velociùs aurâ,
Pamphagus, et Dorceus, et Oribasus, Arcades omnes,
Nebrophonosque valens, et trux cum Lælape Theron,
Et pedibus Pterelas, et naribus utilis Agre,
Hylæusque fero nuper percussus ab apro,
Deque lupo concepta Nape, pecudesque secuta
Pœmenis, et natis comitata Harpyia duobus,
Et substricta gerens Sicyonius ilia Ladon;
Et Dromas, et Canace, Sticteque, et Tigris, et Alce,
Et niveis Leucon, et villis Asbolus atris,
Prævalidusque Lacon, et cursu fortis Aëllo,
Et Thous, et Cyprio velox cum fratre Lycisca.
The poet elsewhere bestows on the hound of Arcadia the local epithet of
Mænalian, from Mount Mænalus—
[Sidenote: Artis Amator. L. +i.+]
Mænalius lepori det sua terga canis.
Is it not probable that some of the hounds of chase, bestowed by the
Arcadian God on the Goddess of hunting, were culled by his goatish
majesty from the kennels of the country of Lycaon, where Pan himself
gratified his sporting ardour?—the brace of pie-balled—the leash of
long-eared—and the spotted hound?
[Sidenote: Callimach. H. in Dian. vs. 90.]
τὶν δ’ ὁ γενειήτης δύο μὲν κύνας ἥμισυ πηγοὺς,
τρεῖς δὲ πόρ’ οὐατίους, ἕνα δ’ αἰόλον· οἵ ῥα λέοντας
αὐτοὺς αὖ ἐρύοντες, ὅτε δράξαιντο δεράων,
εἷλκον ἔτι ζώοντας ἐπ’ αὐλίον.
The other seven which Pan contributed to Dian’s pack, being θάσσονες
αὐράων, and destined for more timid quarry, are placed under the
Spartan family, of which they were the fleetest members.
[Sidenote: Golding’s Ovid’s Metam. B. +iii.+]
Whether all the dogs “of Arcas kinde,” as sings Sir Arthur Golding
in his “worke very pleasant and delectable,” were demi-wolves, and
“gaunt as any grewnd,” I cannot take on myself to decide; but it is a
fair inference, from the evidence adduced, that lupi-canine crosses
predominated, in all their ferocity, in the kennels of Arcadia—not
indeed to the exclusion of canine _indigenæ_ of pure blood, but enough
to give a ferine character to the general type.[348]
The Hyrcanian, savage as he was, is reported to have increased his
natural ferocity by engendering with the tiger:
[Sidenote: Gratii Cyneg. vs. 159.]
Sed non Hyrcanæ satis est vehementia genti
Tanta; suis petiêre ultrò fera semina sylvis.
Dat Venus accessus, et blando fœdere jungit.
Tunc et mansuetis tutò ferus errat adulter
In stabulis, ultròque gravis succedere tigrim
Ausa canis, majore tulit de sanguine fœtum.
And to the subsequent generations of this cross Bargæus gives speed in
pursuit, and courage in attack:
[Sidenote: P. A. Bargæi Cyneg. L. +v.+]
Sic itaque immanes duxêre è tigride mores
Hyrcani, quibus exuti post deinde nepotes
Sive ursos, sive illi apros vidêre minaces,
Accurrunt celeres, et aperto marte lacessunt.
[Sidenote: The Governour. B. +i.+ c. +xi.+]
[Sidenote: Aristot. Hist. Animal. L. +viii.+ c. 28.]
[Sidenote: Deipnosoph. L. +v.+ c. 8.]
[Sidenote: Pollucis Onomast. L. +v.+ c. +v.+ 39.]
The breed of Hyrcania, having escaped the notice of Aristotle and his
copyist Pliny, is of course omitted by Solinus, (whose work entitled
_Polyhistor_, however “mervaylous delectable” in the opinion of Sir
Thomas Elyot, is a mere breviary of the twice-told tales of the too
credulous Roman naturalist,) but the same fabulous union with the tiger
is recorded by them as the parent stock of the Indian dog. May not
the Indian and Hyrcanian, though separated by Athenæus and Pollux,
have been deemed identical by the Stagirite?[349]—To the tiger-cross
of Irak, the compound epithet λεοντομιγεῖς is applied by the learned
grammarian just cited, as if the “fera semina” of the first connexion
were leonine. The ferocity of the breed, contrasted with the timidity
of the stag, affords an argument to Lucretius against the Pythagorean
doctrine of a promiscuous transmigration of souls:
[Sidenote: Lucretii L. +iii.+ 748.]
Quod si immortalis foret, et mutare soleret
Corpora, permistis animantes moribus essent:
Effugeret canis Hyrcano de semine sæpè
Cornigeri incursum cervi, &c.
By the archbishop of Thessalonica the Canes Hyrcani are mentioned
amongst the ἐπίσημα κυνῶν γένη of his commentary on Homer (ad Iliad.
ρʹ.) but they are not found in either of the poems; nor, indeed, do I
remember in the Iliad or Odyssey any dogs distinctively marked by their
geographical appellations.
The plaintive wailing of the old nurse, Carmé, over her daughter, the
nymph Britomartis,
[Sidenote: H. in Dian. vs. 190.]
ἐλλοφόνον Βριτόμαρτιν, ἐΰσκοπον· ἧς ποτὲ Μίνως
πτοιηθεὶς ὑπ’ ἔρωτι κατέδραμεν οὔρεα Κρήτης,
in one of Virgil’s minor poems, amended by Heyne, refers very
pathetically to the companionship of the Hyrcanian dog in the
mountainous chase—
[Sidenote: Titus Andronicus Act +ii.+ sc. +ii.+]
to climb the highest promontory top—
though associates from a Cretan kennel would have been more in place—
[Sidenote: Ciris vs. 307.]
Nunquam ego te summo volitantem in vertice montis
Hyrcanos interque canes agmenque ferarum
Conspiciam, nec te redeuntem amplexa tenebo.
[Sidenote: De Venat. c. +x.+ 1.]
[Sidenote: Oppian. Cyneg. L. +i.+ 374.]
The Locrian dog, much esteemed by Grecian sportsmen, is particularly
employed by Xenophon in the boar-chase; but I know not to which of the
territories called Locris he should be appropriated, nor whether common
to all. Nor do I find in him properties sufficiently characteristic of
the family of _bellicosi_ to place him here with confidence—and yet
I no where see him used in pursuit of timid fugacious quarry.[350]
Oppian (no authority for classification) introduces him between the
Egyptian and Molossian—here then let him stand—βουκολίων οὖροι, Λοκροὶ
χαροποί τε Μολοσσοί. The following beautiful little epitaph of Anyta is
admitted, merely because its subject, the fleetest of musical hounds,
bears the name of Locris—
[Sidenote: Anyta Epidauria, apud Scriptores Græcos Minores. Oxford,
1829.]
ὤλεο δήποτε καὶ σὺ πολύῤῥιζον παρὰ θάμνον,
Λοκρὶ φιλοφθόγγων ὠκυτάτα σκυλάκων,
τοῖον ἐλαφρίζοντι τεῷ ἐγκάτθετο κώλῳ
ἴον ἀμείλικτον ποικιλόδειρος ἔχις.
for I am by no means convinced that the title is any thing more than
an individual appellative (unconnected with locality) bestowed by a
Grecian lady, perhaps, on a valued pet. Darcius of Venusium places the
Locrian with the Arcadian, and others of the pugnacious class.
[Sidenote: Joan. Darcii Venusini Canes.]
Sunt et Locrenses catuli, sunt Arcades, atque
Cypria quos Salamis, quos dives Iberia pascit.
The Carthaginian poet alone has commemorated the “acres catuli” of
Libya, his native country,
[Sidenote: Nemesian. Cyneg. vs. 128.]
Quinetiam siccæ Libyes in finibus acres
Gignuntur catuli, quorum non spreveris usum:
and from him probably, Fracastorius (a learned physician of Verona, who
wrote a short poem of some merit, “de curâ canum,” eleven centuries
later,) may have derived the Canes Libyci of his Alcon, recommended for
the savage chase.
[Sidenote: H. Fracastorii Alcon.]
Nam rabidas si fortè feras te cura tenebit
Venari, et variis caput objectare perîclis;
Spartanâ de stirpe tibi, de stirpe Molossâ
Quære canes, Libycos illis, acresque Britannos
Pannoniosque truces, et amantes prælia Celtas
Adde, nec Hyrcanos, nec Seras sperne feroces.
[Sidenote: De Venatione L. +i.+]
[Sidenote: Ælian. de Nat. Animal. L. +vi.+ c. 53.]
[Sidenote: Polyhistor. c. +xv.+]
It cannot be granted to Conrad Gesner that the Libyan of the African
poet is the Metagon of Gratius; nor is the resemblance between the
former and the Egyptian of Oppian sufficiently clear to justify an
inference of identity. Indeed our materials for forming a judgment
are far too scanty. We know no more of the “Incola arundiferi Nili”
of Natalis Comes than we cull from the credulous historians of the
Egyptian dog, Ælian and Solinus, relative to his fear of crocodiles.
The former naturalist reports οἱ μὲν ἄλλοι κύνες καὶ ἑλεῖν, καὶ
ἀνιχνεῦσαι τὰ θηρία σοφοί· οἱ δὲ Αἰγύπτιοι φυγεῖν δεινότατοι, κ. τ. λ.
“E Nilo nunquam nisi currentes lambitant, dum à crocodilis insidias
cavent,” adds the author of the Polyhistor.
The Pannonian breed of Canes _bellicosi_, of high courage, were
employed in actual war, as well as its mimicry the chase. Παίονες stand
at the head of Oppian’s long catalogue, and, upon his principle of
omnifarious commixture, are recommended to be crossed with sagacious
Cretans—
[Sidenote: Oppian. Cyneg. L. +i.+ 395.]
ἐπιμίσγεο Παίοσι Κρῆτας.
The Veronese poet makes a twofold distinction of the dogs of Pannonia
in his cynegetical effusion, entitled Alcon. In the first class, he
places the Pannonii _truces_, as already cited, adapted for the chase
of fierce prey; in the second, Pannonii _agiles_, for timid, innoxious
quarry:
[Sidenote: H. Fracastorii Alcon.]
Si verò parvos lepores, capreasque fugaces
Malueris, timidosque sequi per devia cervos,
Delige Pannonios agiles, volucresque Sicambros.
The Pannonii _truces_ are noticed by Julius Pollux, and also their
consimilars of Magnesia—both evidently of the Epirote breed. The former
are also mentioned by Nemesian, Cyneg. v. 126.
[Sidenote: Ælian. Var. Hist. L. +xiv.+ c. 46.]
Ælian characterizes the Magnesian war-hounds as φοβεροί τε, καὶ ἄγριοι,
καὶ ἐντυχεῖν ἀμείλικτοι; and states that the horsemen of Magnesia,[351]
in the Ephesian war, were each accompanied to the field with a Canis
Venaticus, the dogs collectively first assaulting the enemy, backed
by the pedestrian soldiers, and lastly by the cavalry; who did not
charge till the canine warriors προπηδῶντες ἐτάραττον τὴν παρεμβολήν.
The Μάγνητες are merely named by the poet of Anazarbus, in his first
Cynegetic, vs. 372.