Cuique nimis molles fluitent in cursibus aures—

of the Carthaginian poet.

[86]

[Sidenote: Oppian. Cyneg. +i.+ 405.]

δειρὴ μηκεδανὴ, καὶ στήθεα νέρθε κραταιὰ,

εὐρέα.

[Sidenote: =Mayster of Game.= c. +xv.+ fol. 66.]

[Sidenote: Belisar. Aquiv. Aragoneus de Venatione.]

[Sidenote: Booke of Hawkyng, &c.]

On the necessity of a long neck all the Cynegetica, ancient and

modern, are agreed; but there is a difference of opinion on the

formation of the chest. “The neke,” according to De Langley, should

be “grete and longe, bowed as a swannes nek.” “Pectore acuto,” says

Belisarius, “costis inferiùs longis, et ad ima paululùm trahentibus:

præcordiis lateribusque ita amplis, ut sine difficultate canes spiritum

trahant. Nam quò facilior respiratio fuerit, tantò expeditiores ad

cursum erunt.” Albertus agrees with him in all points of importance.

Juliana’s portrait is “neckyd lyke a drake:” Markham’s, “a long neck, a

little bending, with a loose hanging wezand; a broad breast, straight

fore-legs, and side-hollow ribs.”

[Sidenote: Hist. of Four-footed Beasts, &c. 1657.]

[Sidenote: Vulgar Errors. B. +i.+]

Topsel translates from Albertus an invention “to make a greyhound have

a long neck,” far too ridiculous to be extracted. Indeed, this worthy

Bishop of Ratisbon fully merits the character given of him by Sir Thos.

Brown, “that he hath delivered most conceits, with strict enquiry into

few:” and the Rector of St. Botolph’s, Aldersgate, is a close copyist

of all his absurdities.

[87] The following lines complete the accurate portrait of the Cilician

poet:

[Sidenote: Oppian. Cyneg. +i.+ 406.]

τὼ πρόσθεν δέ τ’ ὀλιζοτέρω πόδε ἔστων,

ὀρθοτενεῖς κώλων ταναοὶ δολιχήρεες ἱστοὶ,

εὐρέες ὠμοπλάται, πλευρῶν ἐπικάρσια ταρσὰ,

ὀσφύες εὔσαρκοι, μὴ πίονες· αὐτὰρ ὄπισθε

στριφνή τ’ ἐκτάδιός τε πέλοι δολιχόσκιος οὐρή.

τοῖοι μὲν ταναοῖσιν ἐφοπλίζοιντο δρόμοισι

δόρκοις, ἠδ’ ἐλάφοισιν, ἀελλόποδί τε λαγωῷ.

Nemesian is brief, but highly illustrative:

[Sidenote: Nemesian. Cyneg. 106.]

Elige tunc cursu facilem, facilemque recursu,

Seu Lacedæmonio natam, seu rure Molosso,

Non humili de gente canem. Sit cruribus altis,

Sit rigidis, multamque gerat sub pectore lato

Costarum, sub fine decenter prona, carinam,

Quæ sensim sursùs siccâ se colligat alvo,

Renibus ampla satis vadis, diductaque coxas,

Cuique nimis molles fluitent in cursibus aures.

[Sidenote: Alcon.]

Fracastorius’s canine portrait, “Sint armi lati, sint æquè pectora

lata,” &c. are of doubtful application.

[Sidenote: Onomasticon. L. +v.+ c. +x.+]

Pollux adds to the perfection of the fore-legs by saying they should be

μὴ προὔχοντα κατὰ τοὺς ἀγκῶνας—“not out at the elbows:” and Xenophon

would have the Spartan dog straight both in the leg and at the elbow.

[Sidenote: Belisarius de Venatione.]

“Ilia sint angusta et compressa: venter exilis, nam crassus currentem

gravat. Crura alta, brachia non æquè, ne leporis capturam impediant.

Anteriores pedes, ut in fele, rotundi potius quàm longi.”

[88] The terms λαγόνες and κενεῶνες are often confounded as synonymous.

Arrian and the elder Xenophon use the term λαγόνες to designate

(speaking anatomically) that part of the lumbar region, behind the last

or short ribs, where the kidneys are situate, the upper and anterior

part of the flanks: κενεῶνες, the lower and posterior part of the

flanks.

[Sidenote: Aristot. Physiognom. c. +vi.+]

Aristotle observes that the best Canes Venatici are well tucked-up in

the flanks ἴδοι δ’ ἄν τις καὶ τῶν κυνῶν τοὺς φιλοθηροτάτους εὐζώνους

ὄντας. Such was the Ovidian Ladon,

[Sidenote: Metam. L. +iii.+]

Substricta gerens Sicyonius ilia Ladon.

[Sidenote: =Chap.= +xv.+ =fol.= 66.]

The Mayster of Game is here peculiarly illustrative of the text,

fashioning the greyhound to perfection: “her shuldres as a roobuk.

The for legges streght and greet ynow and nought to hie legges, the

feet straught and rounde as a catte and greet clees,—the boone and the

joyntes of the chyne greet and hard as the chyne of an hert. Eke be

reson his chynne shuld be a litel hie, for it is better than it were

flatt, &c. &c.—the thyes grete and squarred as an hare, the houghes

streight and not crompyng as of an oxe, a cattes tayle makyng a ryng

at eende and not to hie, the to boonys of the chyne behynd brode of a

large pame or more. Also ther byne many greihoundes with longe tailles

ryght swift,” &c.

[Sidenote: Book of Hawkyng, &c. 1486.]

Fotyd lyke a catte:

Tayllyd lyke a ratte:

Syded lyke a teme,

And chynyd lyke a beme—

finishes the doggerel of the Sopewell portrait.

[89]

[Sidenote: Skinner Etymolog.]

Εὐπαγἢ—well-filleted? Fillet, “musculosior pars femoris sic dicta,

quia eò loci magni et validi tendines et nervi insignes, qui propter

longitudinem, filorum speciem exhibent, occurrunt.”

[Sidenote: Countrey Contentments. B. +i.+ p. 48.]

[Sidenote: The Countrey Farme. c. +xxii.+]

So Markham: “a straight square and flat back, short and strong fillets;

a broad space between the hips; a strong stern or tail, and a round

foot, and good large clefts.” Elsewhere, he says: “a long, broad, and

square beame back, with high round fillets”—“hee must be deepe swine

sided, with hollow bended ribs, and a full brest; he must have rush

growne limbes before, and sickell houghs behind; a fine, round, full

cat’s foot, with strong cleyes and tough soles, and an even growne long

rat’s tail, round turning at the lower end from the leash ward; and hee

must bee full set on betweene the buttockes,” &c.

[90] The Cynosophium has the same remarks on the relative length of the

fore and hind legs; see sect. +iv.+ p. 262.

[91]

[Sidenote: Oppian. Cyneg. +iv.+ v. 425.]

χρειὼ δὲ σκοπέλου μὲν ἀνάντεος ἠδὲ πάγοιο

σεύεσθαι προθέοντα ποδωκέα φῦλα λαγωῶν,

πρὸς δὲ κάταντα σοφῇσι προμηθείῃσιν ἐλαύνειν.

αὐτίκα γὰρ σκύλακάς τε καὶ ἀνέρας ἀθρήσαντες

πρὸς λόφον ἰθύουσιν, ἐπεὶ μάλα γινώσκουσιν

ὅττι πάροιθεν ἔασιν ὀλιζότεροι πόδες αὐτοῖς.

τοὔνεκα ῥηΐδιαι πτώκεσσι πέλουσι κολῶναι,

ῥηΐδιαι πτώκεσσι, δυσάντεες ἱππελάτῃσι.

[Sidenote: Lib. +xiii.+ c. 14.]

And Ælian, De Naturâ Animalium, states the advantage and disadvantage

of this shape to the hare: τὰ δὲ ἀνάντη μὲν καὶ ὑψηλὰ οἱ λαγῲ ἀναθέουσι

ῥᾷστα· τὰ γάρ τοι κατόπιν κῶλα μακρότερα ἔχουσι τῶν ἔμπροσθεν, καὶ

καταθέουσιν οὐκ ὁμοίως, λυπεῖ γὰρ αὐτοὺς τῶν ποδῶν τὸ ἐναντίον:—a

circumstance well known to every courser, and not forgotten in the

“Questions” of Dame Juliana’s poetical manual,

[Sidenote: The Booke of Hunting, &c. Edmund Allde. 1586.]

Tell me, maister, (quoth the man) what dooth it skill

Why the hare would so faine runne against the hil?

Quoth the maister, for her leggs be shorter before,

And therfore she desireth to run that way evermore.

[92]

[Sidenote: De Venat. c. +iii.+]

[Sidenote: Illustrations of Gratius.]

Bad-footed hounds, however high-couraged, are unable to bear work,

according to Xenophon, on account of the pain they endure in running,

διὰ τὸ ἄλγος τῶν ποδῶν. No cynegeticon omits the essential feature

of a well-formed foot; which, in Wase’s words, should be “round,

high-knuckled, and well-clawed, with a dry hard soal.”

[Sidenote: Gratii Cyneg. 276.]

Effuge qui latâ pandit vestigia plantâ,

Mollis in officio, siccis ego dura lacertis

Crura velim, et solidos hæc in certamina calces.

Fracastorius,

[Sidenote: Alcon.]

Ima pedum parvâ signent vestigia plantâ.

[Sidenote: De Venatione.]

Tardif explains the cat-like foot, “pedes parvi, digitis duris, et aptè

conjunctis, ne quid terræ aut luti in vià admittant:” and Savary of

Caen,

[Sidenote: Album Dianæ Leporicidæ. L. +ii.+]

——brevemque pedes glomerentur in orbem

Parvaque compactis digitis vestigia forment.

[93] Compare Xenophon de Venat. c. +iv.+ Arrian very rationally combats

the notion of a greyhound’s excellence being at all dependent on so

variable a distinction as colour. Oppian, more credulous on this point,

reprobates white and black dogs, as impatient of heat and cold, and

gives a preference to such as are red, russet, or fawn:

[Sidenote: Oppian. Cyneg. +i.+ 429.]

κεῖνοι δ’ ἐν πάντεσσιν ἀριστεύουσι κύνεσσι,

τοῖς ἴκελοι μορφαὶ μάλα θήρεσιν ὠμηστῇσι,

μηλοφόνοισι λύκοις, ἢ τίγρεσιν ἠνεμοέσσαις,

ἢ καὶ ἀλωπεκέεσσι, θοαῖσί τε πορδαλίεσσιν,

ἢ ὁπόσοι δήμητρι πανείκελον εἶδος ἔχουσι

σιτόχροοι· μάλα γάρ τε θοοὶ κρατεροί τε πέλονται.

[Sidenote: Sect. +iv.+ p. 262.]

The Cynosophium recommends such as are παραπλήσιοι λέουσι, πάρδοις,

λύκοις: and adds to its Materia Medica (p. 275.) amongst other

ridiculous nostrums, a formula by which the colour of the hair may be

changed from white to black—_credat Judæus!_

In accordance with the general prejudice which bestowed superior virtue

on parti-coloured, (for such was Xenophon’s opinion,) Pan confers on

the Goddess of the Chase pie-bald and mottled hounds:

[Sidenote: II. in Dian. vs. 90.]

τὶν δ’ ὁ γενείητης δύο μὲν κύνας ἥμισυ πηγοὺς,

τρεῖς δὲ πόρ’ οὐατίους, ἕνα δ’ αἰόλον.

[Sidenote: Onomast. L. +v.+ c. +xi.+]

Pollux would mix a little variety of colour, ἑκάστῳ παραμεμίχθω τι καὶ

ἑτέρας χρόας.

The modern Cynegetica are as fickle and capricious as to colour as

their ancient models:

[Sidenote: Nat. Comes de Venat.]

——color est deterrimus albo,

Nec placeat niveis maculis signatus et atris;

Aut longis nimium villis, fuscove colore—

[Sidenote: Album Dianæ, &c.]

[Sidenote: La Vénerie de Fouilloux. p. 4.]

according to the canine canons of Natalis Comes:—whereas Savary gives

the preference to a white hound, “nunc est in pretio et reliquos

supereminet albus;” and is supported by Fouilloux and his copyist

Turbervile, who praise those of one homogeneous colour—white, fallow,

dun, and black; the latter being the valued breed of St. Hubert, (les

chiens courans,) “qui estoit veneur avec S. Eustache, dont est à

conjecturer, que les bons veneurs les ensuysront en Paradis avec la

grace de Dieu.”

[Sidenote: =Mayster of Game.= c. +xv.+ fol. 66.]

“Of alle manere of greihoundes there byn,” says De Langley, “both good

and evel. Natheless the best hewe is rede falow with a blak moselle.”

[Sidenote: The Countrey Farme. c. +xxii.+]

After citing so many, and such conflicting opinions, I leave the reader

to draw his own conclusion on this most unimportant point; bidding

him remember that Markham supports our author, that “colours have (as

touching any particular goodnesse) no preheminence one above the other,

but are all equal—many good and famous dogs having been of all the

several colours; onely the white is esteemed the most beautifull and

best for the eie, the black and fallow hardest to endure labour, and

the dunne and brended best for the poachers and nightmen, who delight

to have all their pleasures performed in darknesse.” Backed by the

compiler of “The Countrey Farme,” let him give to Arrian the weight he

is entitled to, as a practical courser. My own conviction accords with

that of Tardif, “ex colore nihil certi ferè pronunciatur: sæpius enim

turpi colore canes, pulchrioribus præstant:” and with the poet of Caen,

[Sidenote: Album Dianæ, &c.]

——nullus virtutibus obstat,

Aut prodest color: hunc habeas quicunque placebit;

[Sidenote: Sir Tristrem Fytte +iii.+ 10.]

I object to no dog merely on account of his colour, though he may rival

in variety of tint the renowned Triamour’s marvellous Peticrewe.

[94] εἴτε οὖν τοῦ δασέος γένους, εἴτε τοῦ ψιλοῦ τύχοιεν οἱ κύνες. These

two varieties still exist; but the rough, or wire-haired variety of

greyhound is banished from the kennel of modern coursers; for though

this δασὺ γένος may show some fire and speed in a short course in

an enclosed country, it is always beaten by the ψιλὸν γένος over a

champaign country, where the duration of the contest defies ignoble

competition.

[Sidenote: Hist. Natur. tom. v. 241.]

Buffon derives the wiry hair from commixture with the spaniel, “le poil

long de certains lévriers vient du mélange des espagneuls:” but if such

be its origin, the text proves it to have been of remote antiquity.

[Sidenote: De Canibus Britannicis Libellus.]

[Sidenote: De Quad. Digit. Vivip. L. +iii.+]

“Est strigosum genus,” says Caius, “in quo alii majores sunt, alii

minores; alii pilo sessili, alii hirto.” And Ulysses Aldrovandus

has left us rude sketches of the two varieties under the titles of

“C. leporarius hirsutus albus,” and “C. leporarius alter ferruginei

coloris.” See also “The Countrey Farme,” c. +xxii.+ Schneider quotes

Synesius Laud. Calvit. p. 67. ἐκεῖναι σοφώταται τῶν κυνῶν, κ. τ. λ.:

see the passage in his note on the Greek text. It does not appear to

what variety of dog the author alludes.

[95]

[Sidenote: Sect. +iv.+ p. 262.]

So also the Cynosophium of Demetrius of Constantinople, καλὸν εἰ τῷ

μεγέθει τοῦ σώματος ἡ θήλη προσήκειται ἄῤῥενι. But I do not remember to

have seen these remarks of Arrian on the dog partaking of the bitch’s

form, and the bitch of the dog’s, in any of the more ancient Cynegetica

of Greece and Rome. The Byzantine physician doubtless derived the hint

from our author.

[96]

[Sidenote: Aristotelis Physiognom.]

Aristotle admits the possibility of distinguishing by outward

manifestations the innate qualities and tempers of animals; such

discrimination is the result of particular experience: τῶν ἄλλων ζώων

οἱ περὶ ἕκαστον ἐπιστήμονες ἐκ τῆς ἰδίας διαθέσεως δύνανται θεωρεῖν,

ἱππικοί τε ἵππους, καὶ κυνηγέται κύνας.

[97] τῷ δὲ ἀνατρέφοντι προσφιλεῖς. Oppian would have hounds friendly to

all men alike:

[Sidenote: Oppian. Cyneg. +i.+ v. 445.]

ἵπποισι κρατεροῖσι δ’ ὁμήθεες ἀγρευτῆρες

ἐξέτι νηπιάχων ἔστων, μερόπεσσί τε πᾶσιν

ἠθάδιοι φίλιοί τε, μόνοισι δὲ θήρεσιν ἐχθροί.

[98] κράτισται δὲ αἱ φιλανθρωπόταται—the best greyhounds are the most

kindly-affectioned. Martial’s Lydia was gentle at home, but savage in

the wood,

[Sidenote: Epigram. L. +ii.+]

Venatrix sylvis aspera, blanda domi:

[Sidenote: =Mayster of Game.= c. +xv.+ fol. 66.]

and De Langley’s greyhound, “curtaise and nought to felle, wel folowyng

his maister and doyng whatever he hym commaundeth. He shuld be good and

kyndly and clene, glad and joyful and playeing wel willyng, and goodly

to alle maner folkes, save to wilde beestis, upon whom he shuld be

felle spitous and egre.”

[99] Ὑπὸ ψόφου ἐκπλήττονται.

[Sidenote: Tickell’s Fragment on Hunting.]

Start at the starting prey or rustling wind.

[100]

[Sidenote: Xenophon. Memorabil. L. +iv.+ c. +i.+]

All these particulars are, for the most part, matters of education

and discipline; but are partially dependent on innate disposition.

Education, however, is very important, operating on a good subject.

Τῶν κυνῶν, says Socrates, τῶν εὐφυεστάτων, φιλοπόνων τε οὐσῶν, καὶ

ἐπιθετικῶν τοῖς θηρίοις, τὰς μὲν καλῶς ἀχθείσας, ἀρίστας γίγνεσθαι πρὸς

τὰς θήρας, καὶ χρησιμωτάτας· ἀναγώγους δὲ γιγνομένας, ματαίους τε καὶ

μανίωδεις καὶ δυσπειθεστάτας.

[101] The canes Gallici should resemble the Gallic mules of Claudian’s

epigram,

[Sidenote: De Mulabus Gallicis.]

Exutæ laqueis, sub ditione tamen.

[102] Ὑποκατακλίνονται, μὴ ὑπὸ δέους, ἀλλὰ φιλοφρονούμεναι, &c.

[Sidenote: Paradise Lost. B. +viii.+ 351.]

Cowering low

With blandishment.

The greyhound’s posture is peculiarly graceful, when fondly crouching

before his master or keeper; and may be well likened to the ταπεινότης

(Arr. Exped. Alex. L. +iv.+ c. +xi.+) of the Persian, performing his

salaam to the King of kings.

[103]

[Sidenote: Spelman’s Translation of Xenophon’s Anabasis. Note.]

Οἱ προσκυνοῦντες. From what Callisthenes says to Alexander (Arrian.

Exped. Alexand. L. +iv.+ c. +xi.+) it appears that Cyrus, the founder

of the Persian empire, was the first person to whom adoration was paid

on earth by his fellow-men; and it was continued and enjoined to his

successors, as a political homage. The ordinary compliments of the

modern Greeks are called προσκυνήματα. See Arrian’s account of the

προσκυνήσις, loco citato; and Xenophon, Cyropædia, L. +viii.+ for the

first occasion of it, πρόσθεν δὲ Περσῶν οὐδεὶς Κῦρον προσεκύνει.

[104] The king of Persia was called μέγας βασιλεὺς, according to

Suidas, διὰ τὸ πλείονι δυνάμει χρῆσθαι τῇ Περσικῇ· τοῖς δὲ ἄλλοις

προσετίθεσαν καὶ τῶν ἀρχομένων ὀνόματα, οἷον Λακεδαιμονίων, Μακεδόνων.

The title still exists in “Le Grand Seigneur.”

[105] Οὐδὲ τὸ ἵστασθαι δὲ ἐν πεδίῳ λυθεῖσαν ἀγαθόν. Constant

confinement with chain and collar, made the youthful Celtic hound

start from couples with fire, when taken into the field for sport

or exercise; not so, however, the aged, whose privileged rest is

beautifully touched by our classic poet of the chase, and readily

yielded by Arrian as no blemish to his character:

[Sidenote: Somerville. B. +i.+]

Now grown stiff with age,

And many a painful chase, the wise old hound,

Regardless of the frolic pack, attends

His master’s side, &c.

[106] Ἐπισκύνιον—_supercilii ruga, frontis ruga_: very prominent in our

highland breed:

[Sidenote: Iliad. p. 136.]

πᾶν δέ τ’ ἐπισκύνιον κάτω ἕλκεται ὄσσε καλύπτων.

[107]

[Sidenote: Systema Naturæ. Canis.]

Ἄκρον. So the Paris and Amsterdam editions, quasi ἐπ’ ἄκρων ὀνύχων.

Schneider reads ἁβρὸν, a delicate tread, a light tread; but the

signification is nearly the same. Linnæus’s definition corresponds with

Arrian’s as to the dog’s gait: “obliquè currit, incedit supra digitos,”

μεταβάλλουσι τὰς πλευρὰς, “tranversis incedunt lateribus.”

[108] Λαμπρύνωσιν. “De equo altiùs progrediente,” Zeune. See Xen. de Re

Equestri, c. +x.+

[Sidenote: Appollon. Rhod.]

κυδιόων ὀρθοῖσιν ἐπ’ οὔασιν αὐχέν’ ἀείρει.

Xenophon uses the term γαυριᾶσθαι, perhaps, with the same meaning. I

take λαμπρύνω (magnificè me ostento) to signify the artificial posture

in which the horse is placed by a skilful rider, with the aid of rein,

whip, spur, &c. as described by Xenophon in the chapter referred to.

To this graceful attitude of the well-disciplined war-horse, we may

suppose our author to liken that of the Celtic hound in the strictest

propriety:

[Sidenote: Gay’s Rural Sports.]

Now I behold the steed curvet and bound,

And paw with restless hoof the smoking ground.

[109]

[Sidenote: Ælian. de Naturâ Animal. L. +vii.+ c. 19.]

The watchful eye of the Veltrarius is required at the time of feeding:

indeed it is best for each hound to have his separate allotment of

food; so difficult is it to check the voracious, and encourage the

delicate, when placed at the same trough. Τροφῆς δὲ τὴν κοινωνίαν

ἥκιστα ἐνδέχονται κύνες· πολλάκις γοῦν καὶ ὑπὲρ ὀστέου ἀλλήλους

σπαράττουσιν ὡσπεροῦν ὁ Μενέλεως καὶ ὁ Πάρις ὑπὲρ τῆς Ἑλένης.

[110] Τὸ κόσμιον γενναιότερον τοῦ ἀκόσμου. I never knew a very

gross-feeding dog to possess any excellence.

[111]

[Sidenote: Cynosophium. p. 270.]

Ἄρτῳ. Demetrius devotes a few sections to the subject of feeding,

recommending “milk to be gradually added to bread (the dog’s usual

diet) when it is wished to raise him in flesh, until it becomes his

only nutriment, morning and evening. From this he is to be again

weaned, by the gradual abstraction of the milk, when we desire to

reduce him. In the former case, he is not to have his liberty; in the

latter, he is to be daily exercised. A second kind of nutritious food

consists of oatmeal gruel with fat; and a third, of bean flour, oil,

and fat bacon.” Wheaten bread or biscuit, with gruel made from the

farina of oats, is the best nutriment for all hounds.

[Sidenote: Markham’s Countrey Contentments. B. +i.+ p. 49. See also pp.

50, 51.]

“When you have a perfect and well-shapt greyhound, your next rule is to

apply yourselfe to the dyetting and ordering of him, for the pleasure

to which you keepe him, that bringing him to the uttermost height or

strength of winde, you may know the uttermost goodnesse that is within

him, which disorderly and foule keeping will conceale, and you lose a

jewell, for want of knowledge of the value. Dyetting then of greyhounds

consisteth in four especiall things, viz. foode, exercise, ayring, and

kennelling; the first nourishing the body, the second the limbes, the

third the winde, and the last the spirits.”

[112] Ἄμεινον δὲ εἰ καὶ ξηρᾷ τῇ τροφῇ χαίροιεν. Hounds readily

support themselves with dry oat or wheat meal. _Maza_ is variously

interpreted—flour mixed with oil and water, and flour beat up with milk:

[Sidenote: Savary Alb. Dianæ Leporicid. L. +iii.+ p. 31.]

Hordea quotidiana illis sint pabula; avenam

Si mediam addideris, sic sponte resolvitur alvus.

In panem coquit ille, cavo hic in robore caldâ

Digerit in pultem, lambendaque cœna paratur.

Nec durum sit sæpe tibi, quâ luce quietem

Artemidi debes, illos recreare calenti

Jure, minutatim scissis è vilibus extis:

Currentem, ilignisve bibant in vasibus undam.

[113] Καμούσῃ δὲ ἐμβάλλειν ἢ ὕδωρ, &c. Arrian says nothing on the

treatment of canine disease beyond this hint on diet.

[114] The Cynosophium substitutes the lungs for the liver of a bullock,

as nutriment for puppies, when deprived of milk—εἰ γάλα μὴ ἔχεις. See

Cynosoph. p. 271.

On the feeding of puppies Nemesian observes, that it should be

regulated by the season of the year, atmospheric temperature, &c.

[Sidenote: Cynegeticus v. 161.]

Interdumque cibo Cererem cum lacte ministra,

Fortibus ut succis teneras complere medullas

Possint, et validas jam tunc promittere vires:

but during the intense heat of summer the puppies are to be kept on

lighter food, and then again on meal and whey,

[Sidenote: Ejusdem v. 182.]

Tunc rursus miscere sero Cerealia dona

Conveniet, fortemque dari de frugibus escam.

[115]

[Sidenote: Cynosoph. p. 267.]

Ἀγαθὸν δὲ καὶ ἡ ἀσιτία καμνούσῃ. Arrian probably wrote τῇ ἀσιτίᾳ

καμνούσῃ: “prodest etiam lac quando cibi fastidio laborat canis.” The

remedy suggested by Demetrius of Constantinople for _anorexis_, “bad

feeding,” I should consider more likely to increase, than cure the

disease; ἐὰν ἀνορεκτῇ κύων, κόπριαν ἀνθρωπίαν δίδου φαγεῖν, κ. τ. λ.

[116]

[Sidenote: Cynosoph. p. 263.]

A short section of the Cynosophium is given to kennel management—κύνας

μετὰ ἀνθρώπων κοιμᾶσθαι καλόν· πραεῖς γὰρ ἐκ τούτου γίνονται, καὶ

φιλάνθρωποι, καὶ εὐκόλως καλοῦνται—a practical allurement of canine

affection heretofore more common than at present. Modern refinement

would ill bear the intimate association recommended by Arrian and

Demetrius, and practised by James V. of Scotland, with his favourite

Bagsche, who was wont

[Sidenote: Sir D. Lyndsay’s Complaynt of Bagsche.]

To lap upon the king is bed,

With claith of gold thoch it were spred.

Indeed, we rarely see the high-bred and elegant Celtic hound within

the vestibule of a modern dwelling; though heretofore, in the hall of

banquet,

[Sidenote: Lay of the Last Minstrel.]

The stag-hounds, weary of the chase,

Lay stretch’d upon the rushy floor,

And urged in dreams the forest race

From Teviot-stone to Eskdale-moor.

[Sidenote: =Mayster of Game.= c. +xx.+ fol. 71.]

Whether the Duke of York’s “childe” lay _with_ the hounds, I know not;

but it seems that he did, though not with the intention specified by

our author: “alway bi nyght and bi day I wil that some childe lye or be

in the kenel with the houndes for to kepe hem from fyghteng,” &c.

[Sidenote: Encyc. Méthod. Les chasses. p. 434.]

I no where find the close cutaneous contact of man and dog, enjoined in

the text, recommended in the ancient Cynegetica; but Xenophon advises

an intimate acquaintance between the parties in the kennel at the hours

of feeding, &c.: if the hounds be fed by the huntsman, they become

attached to his person, τὸν διδόντα στέργουσιν, &c. (c. +vi.+): and so

if the Veltrarii (“les valets de lévriers, qui exercent les lévriers,

et qui les lâchent à la courre”) superintend the feeding their charge,

the attachment thereby produced will render actual cohabitation

unnecessary.

[Sidenote: Natalis Comes de Venatione. L. +i.+]

Quod superest, celeris catuli cui credita cura,

Nutriat illecebris hunc, et sibi jungat amore.

Sic facilè et noto domino parere jubenti

Disceret, acceptisque sequi vestigia signis.

[117] Εἰ γὰρ ἀγρυπνήσειεν, ἐξάγειν ἐπὶ θήραν οὐκ ἀσφαλές. We find in

the Hieracosophium, undisturbed sleep is deemed necessary for the hawk

the night preceding a flight, ἀταράχου ὕπνου μετεχέτω.

[118] Ἐπιστάξειε—the common reading being probably corrupt, I have

received the emendation of Zeune in his Index Græcitatis, ἐπιστενάξειε.

[119] Οὐδ’ εἴ τι ἀπεμέσειε τῶν σιτίων. Such rejection of food by

vomiting is an indication of indigestion; and the latter, of course, of

unfitness for the chase.

Xenophon forbids hounds to be taken out hunting unless they feed

heartily; for bad feeding is an indication of bad health. De Venat. c.

+vi.+ 2.

[120] Ψώρας ἐμπίπλασθαι. Mange is a chronic inflammation of the skin,

constitutional in some dogs, in others infectious, and in a few cases I

have known it hereditary.

Ancient sportsmen had great dread of mange in their kennels. Gratius,

the only one who has entered much into canine pathology amongst the

cynegetical writers, recommends that the first dog affected with mange

should be destroyed, to prevent others from catching so loathsome a

disease—a radical cure!

[Sidenote: Gratii Cyneg. v. 408.]

At si deformi lacerum dulcedine corpus

Persequitur scabies, longi via pessima lethi,

In primo accessu tristis medicina; sed unà

Pernicies redimenda animâ, quæ prima sequaci

Sparsa malo est, ne dira trahant contagia vulgi.

If, however, the disease be of a mild type and slow in its progress, it

is curable, he says, with an ointment which he prescribes, but which I

do not introduce here, as the cutaneous detergents of the scientific

Delabere Blaine will be found by the reader far more efficacious.

Venesection and purgation, as recommended by Savary, are most important

auxiliaries to inunction:

[Sidenote: Album Dianæ Leporicidæ. L. +vi.+ p. 79.]

Altera latrantum pestis, commercia quæ per

Vicina insinuans sese, diffunditur agmen

In totum, tenerosque brevi depascitur artus,

Deformis scabies, hoc potu ventre soluto,

Victa fugit, si vena die sit aperta sequenti:

Atque malum bini post intervalla diei,

Toto, quod docuit Fulloxius, unguine cures.

[Sidenote: =Mayster of Game.= c. +xix.+ fol. 70.]

[Sidenote: c. +xiii.+ fol. 56.]

De Langley’s instructions to the kennel-man are excellent: “I wyll hym

lerne that onys in the day he voyde the kenel and make it al clene,

and remeve her strawe, and putt agayn ffressh new straw, a greet dele

and ryght thikke; and ther as he leith it the houndes shall lye, and

the place there as thei shuld lye shuld be made of tree a foot hie fro

the erthe, and than the strawe should be leide upon, bi cause that

the moystnesse of the erthe shuld not make hem morfound, ne engender

other siknesse bi the which thei myght be the wors for huntyng,” &c.

And before, he says: “The skabbe cometh to hem whan thei abiden in her

kenel to longe and gon not on huntyng, or ellis her litter and couche

is unclene kept, or ellis the strawe is not remevid and hur water not

fressh; and shortly the hound is unclene, I hold, and evel kept or long

waterles, havyn comonly this mamewe.”

[121] The courser will not fail to observe Arrian’s intimate knowledge

and experience of his subject. The minute instructions communicated

in this chapter on rubbing and dressing the Celtic hound, “in cute

curandâ,” prove the great care paid by ancient coursers to the

condition of the skin in running animals; without which, indeed, no

greyhound can compete with an upland champaign hare.

[122] The effect of friction with the hand, or hair-cloth, or

flesh-brush, is farther illustrated by Nemesian, on grooming the horse:

[Sidenote: Cyneget. v. 294.]

Pulvere quinetiam puras secernere fruges

Cura sit, atque toros manibus percurrere equorum,

Gaudeat ut plausu sonipes, lætumque relaxet

Corpus, et altores rapiat per viscera succos.

Id curent famuli, comitumque animosa juventus.

[123] Τὴν τρίχα μαλθακὴν ἐργάζεται, &c. This is partially effected in

modern days by body-clothes. The clothing of greyhounds, as at present

practised by coursers, is of more remote antiquity than the days of

Michael Angelo Biondi; having its probable origin in the στελμονίαι of

Xenophon, who describes, in the 6th chapter of his Cynegeticus, all the

accoutrements of his hunting pack. These consisted of collars, δέραια,

soft and broad, so as not to rub off the dog’s hair; leading-thongs

or straps, ἱμάντες, independent of the collar, with a handle attached

to them; and sur-cingles or body-clothes, στελμονίαι, with straps

sufficiently broad not to gall the bellies of the animals. Such was the

Athenian’s κυνῶν κόσμος: and it is probable that the latter, though

used for the protection of the hound from injury during the chase, and

not merely, as at present, against cold, may have been the type of the

modern application.

[Sidenote: H. in Dian. v. 17. De Canibus et Venatione Libellus.]

[Sidenote: Hist. of Inventions.]

The θοαὶ κύνες were certainly clothed in parti-coloured habiliments

in the age of Blondus, and their feet were also protected with

shoes: “Canibus venaticis dorsum integunt pannis diversorum colorum,

adversus frigoris injuriam, præcipuè leporariis; et pedibus adhibent

calceamenta, quò faciliùs illæsi cursum exerceant.” Beckman states

that the dogs of Kamschatka are furnished with shoes, so ingeniously

made, that their claws project through small apertures—a plausible

contrivance for heavy dogs of draught; but how a greyhound is to

exhibit his speed on the coursing plain with such incumbrances, I know

not.

[124] Arrian recommends confinement for full-grown dogs; but we must

not suppose that the same treatment is suited to puppies. They, on the

contrary, should have their entire liberty, as Nemesian remarks:

[Sidenote: Cyneget. v. 172.]

Sed neque conclusos teneas, neque vincula collo

Impatiens circumdederis, noceasque futuris

Cursibus imprudens.

This freedom from restraint is to be continued until they are eight

months old, when they should be put into couples, and habituated to

confinement:

[Sidenote: Cyneget. v. 184.]

Libera tunc primùm consuescant colla ligari,

Concordes et ferre gradus, clausique teneri.

The whole of this department of kennel discipline is elegantly

explained by the classic poet of Barga:

[Sidenote: Petr. Angel. Bargæi Cyneget. L. +v.+]

Ergo age duro

Assuescant victu catuli, imperioque magistri

Unius addiscant parere, atque unius omnes

Nutus observare, et jussa facessere læti,

Collaque præduris ultrò præbere capistris,

Cum primùm teneros artus duraverit ætas,

Et se jam sua per vestigia volverit annus.

Antè autem cave imprudens concluseris usquam

Aut loris vinctum, aut angusti pariete septi.

Namque urent tenerum circumdata vincula collum,

Impatiensque moræ sese conatibus anget:

Ostiaque arrodens denteis obtundet, et ungues.

[Sidenote: Blondus de Canibus &c. Libellus.]

“Dùm non venatur, loris in stabulo vinciendus est; et siccis potiùs

eduliis alendus quàm pinguibus jusculentis: hæc enim graviorem reddunt.

Educendus tamen nonnunquam est è stabulo vinctus, in vicos tantùm,

ut excrementis se exoneret promptiùs; mox iterum coercendus usque ad

tempus venationis.”

“Now for the kennelling of greyhounds,” says Gervase Markham, “it is a

right necessary action and must be performed with all diligence; for

it breeds in the dog lust, spirit, and nimbleness, prevents divers

mischances, and keeps the powers from spending till time of necessity:

and therefore you shall by no means suffer your dog to be out of the

kennel, but in the hours of feeding, walking, coursing, or when you

have other necessary business to do about him.” But Arrian means more

than mere confinement within the walls of a kennel by the term δεδέσθαι.

The greyhounds are to be actually fastened with a collar and strap

or chain; and such, I am informed, is the customary restraint of the

boar-hound of continental Europe. The dogs are chained along the walls

of their kennel equidistant from each other, a row on each side of the

sleeping-room.

A celebrated modern courser adheres very strictly to the system of

restraint alternated with exercise, as recommended in this chapter, and

appears to have found it conducive to his success at public meetings.

Vide Sport. Mag. Vol. 71. p. 256.—Hounds accustomed to such privation

of liberty, are said to start from the slips with great fire and speed:

[Sidenote: Fracastorii Alcon.]

Ita demùm libera colla,

Cum res ipsa, ususque vocat, majore feruntur

Impete.

[Sidenote: p. 41.]

According to the old proverb, cited by Rittershusius in his Commentary

on Oppian,

Difficile est canem vetulum assuescere loro.

[125] Ἐσθίειν δὲ ἀνάγκη λελυμένην κύνα πᾶν τὸ ἐμπεσόν.

[Sidenote: Oppian. Halieut. +i.+ v. 250.]

πάντη δὲ πλάζονται, ὄπη γένυς, ἔνθα κελεύει

γαστὴρ, καὶ λαίμαργος ἔρως ἀκόρητος ἐδωδῆς.

[126] Compare Xenophon de Venatione c. +iv.+ 9. on exercising hounds.

[Sidenote: =Mayster of Game.= c. +xxi.+ fol. 72.]

“The child shuld lede the houndes to scombre twies in the day, in the

mornyng and in the evenyng, so that the sonne be up, specially in

wynter. Than shuld he lat hem renne and play longe in a faire medew in

the sonne, and than kembe every hounde after other, and wipe hem with a

grette wispe of straw; and thus shal he do every mornyng.”

[Sidenote: Countrey Content. B. +i.+ p. 52.]

These simple instructions of Duke Edmund are amplified by old Gervase:

“Touching ayring or walking of greyhounds, which is a great nourisher

and increaser of winde, it must be dewly done every morning before

sun-rise, and every evening before or after sunne-set in this manner;

as soone as you have opened your kennel and rub’d your dogge over with

a cleane haire cloath, you shall let him play a little about you before

the kennel dore, then take him up into your leashe, and walke him forth

into the fields, where for the most parte are no sheepe or other smal

cattell, which they may out of wantonness indaunger, and there let him

loose, and give him leave to play and scope about you, so that he may

skummer and emptie his body; which when he hath done sufficiently, you

shall then take him up in your leash againe, and so walk him home and

kennell him; this you shall doe after the same manner in the evening;

and also if your dogge bee stronge and lustie, at night after supper,

and then bringing him home, bring him to the fire, and there let him

stretch and beake themselves, and with your hand grope and cleanse them

from ticks and other filth, which done leade them to the kennell, and

shut them up for all night.”

[127] Ἐμπίπτουσαι γὰρ ἀλλήλαις ἔστιν ὅτε μεγάλα κακὰ ἐργάζονται.

[Sidenote: Apollon. Rhod. L. +iii.+ 1372.]

——θοοὶ κύνες ἀμφιθορόντες

Ἀλλήλους βρυχηδὸν ἐδήϊον.

[Sidenote: Somerville’s Chace. B. +i.+]

For oft in sport

Begun, combat ensues; growling they snarl,

Then on their haunches rear’d, rampant they seize

Each other’s throats; with teeth and claws in gore

Besmear’d, they wound, they tear, till on the ground

Panting, half dead the conquer’d champion lies, &c.

[128] Blancard’s reading of φίλαι is adopted instead of that of the

first edition of Paris, ἄφιλαι.

[129] Arrian has already spoken on the subject of feeding, as an

indication of good blood, in c. +viii.+

[Sidenote: Blondi Libellus, &c.]

“Adulti siccis vescantur edulibus: pane videlicet et ossibus, et hoc

fiat digestis horis, ut concoctio peragatur, et potiùs famescant

paululùm, quàm non exactis horis pascantur.”

[Sidenote: Countrey Content. B. +i.+ p. 51.]

[Sidenote: p. 52.]

It is occasionally necessary to administer food twice a day to delicate

hounds: but the more usual practice accords with the text. Gervase

Markham, however, recommends the courser to feed twice a day on his

prescribed diet-bread, “to wit, halfe an houre after sunne-rise, and

halfe an houre before sun-set, when he comes from walking or ayring his

dogge, and it will bring him to exceeding great strength of body and

purenesse of winde.”—“Upon his coursing days you must by no means give

him any meat more than a white bread toast and butter, or a toast and

oil,” &c.

[Sidenote: Tardivus de Venatione.]

Tardif, a French writer cited by Conrad Gesner, agrees with Arrian on

the utility of a second meal in summer: “Canis æstate frequentiùs quàm

hyeme cibandus est, ut æstivis diebus longis et calidis durare possit.

Infringatur ei panis in aquam. Si tamen sæpiùs quàm par est cibetur,

ventriculus ei subvertitur, lac aut panis lacte madidus optimè alunt.”

[130] Θέρους δὲ ἀγαθὸν καὶ ἄρτου ὀλίγον δοῦναι ἐμφαγεῖν—as a morning

meal, a breakfast.

[131]

[Sidenote: Hierozoicon L. +ii.+ c. +iv.+]

Στέαρ ταριχευόμενον—salted suet or fat. Στέαρ appears from Pollux, L.

+ii.+ c. +v.+ 3. to be the same as πιμελὴ, white adipose substance

adherent to the membranes of the abdomen and viscera of men and

animals: but if Hesychius be correct in his explanation of ἀπομαγδαλία

as στέαρ ἐν ᾧ τὰς χεῖρας ἀπεμάττοντο ἐν τοῖς δείπνοις· βαλόντες δὲ τοῖς

κυσὶν ἀναλύοντες ἀπὸ τῶν δείπνων, it must have possessed saponaceous

qualities of detergency; for if it were pure fat, with Bochart we

might well ask “unde abstergantur, qui inde absterguntur?” For the

distinctive difference between πιμελὴ and στέαρ, see Aristot. Hist.

Animal. L. +iii.+ c. +xvii.+ The properties of each are evidently

distinct.

[132]

[Sidenote: Columel. de R. R. +vi.+ 4. 2.]

[Sidenote: Historia Quadruped. &c.]

“Sæpè etiam languor et nausea discutitur, si integrum gallinaceum ovum

jejunis faucibus inferas,” &c. So also Tardif, as cited by Gesner, “si

canis inter venandum nimiâ siti laboret, duo aut tria ova confracta in

gulam ei immittes: sic enim sitim extingues, et à periculo hecticæ vel

marasmi canem liberabis.”

[133] Ancient sportsmen were accustomed to follow their field sports

through the whole year; and often prolonged the chase till midnight.

Hor. L. +i.+ od. +i.+

[Sidenote: Oppian. Cyneg. +i.+ 112.]

ποτὲ δ’ ἑσπερίου, ποτὲ αὖτε καὶ ὄρφνῃ

θῆρας ὑπ’ ἀκτίνεσσι σεληναίης ἐδάμασσαν.

But the more humane of modern days have abridged this perpetuity

of warfare with the animals of the field and forest by legislative

enactment.

Nemesian alone, of all the cynegetical writers of Greece and Rome,

enjoins us to commence coursing at the period usually adopted:

[Sidenote: Cyneget. v. 321.]

Hiemis sub tempus aquosæ

Incipe veloces catulos immittere pratis,

Incipe cornipedes latos agitare per agros.

Dame Juliana, seemingly careless of the “her-hounde’s” impatience of

heat, held on till Midsummer;

[Sidenote: Book of St. Albans.]

At myghelmas begynneth huntynge of the haare:

And lastyth tyll mydsomer there wyll no man it spare.

Natalis Comes allows us to sport during the whole spring, preferring

that season for the reasons stated in the text—

[Sidenote: De Venat. L. +i.+]

Nam neque tunc horrent torpentia frigora brumæ,

Nec nimio uruntur florentia prata calore.

but the prudent and humane courser will not slip his greyhound later

than the month of February.

[134] Θέρους δὲ ὀλιγάκις. It is not customary with British sportsmen to

course in summer.

[Sidenote: Oppian. Cyneg. +i.+ 133.]

ἐν δὲ θέρει, χρειὼ φυγέειν φλογόεσσαν ἐνιπὴν

ἄζαν τ’ ἠελίου.

[135] The Paris and Amsterdam editions read διαπνίγονται, for which

Schneider substitutes διαλείποντα (χρόνον)—an emendation which I have

adopted in the translation.

[136] Ἀπεπνίγησαν ὑπὸ τοῦ ἄσθματος. Such accidents usually happen from

running greyhounds when out of wind, and condition. The state of the

muscular and respiratory systems are always in fault—

[Sidenote: Oppian. Cyneg. +i.+ 86.]

τῷ μὴ πιαλέοι θήρης ἐπὶ μῶλον ἴοιεν

μηδέ τε λεπταλέοι.

But the safest plan is to leave the greyhounds in a cool and shady

kennel during the intense heat of a midsummer day—if exercised at all,

the earlier they have their airing, the better.

[Sidenote: Petr. Lotich. Secund. Ecl. +ii.+ Viburnus Venator.]

+Lyc.+ Ad fluvium duc, Daphni, canes, (vocat æstus in umbram,)

Nec catulos virides sine lascivire per herbas.

Eja agedum, requiesce Lacon, requiesce Lycarba,

Fervidus Hesperias dum sol declinet in undas.

[137] Ἀποκναίονται, (radendo vulnerare ἀποκναίειν,)—a preferable

reading to the conjectural one of Schneider, ἀποκαίονται—founded on

Xenoph. de Venat. c. +viii.+ 2. a passage scarce applicable to the

Celtic hound. No wise Veltrarius would think of coursing his greyhounds

during severe frost.

[Sidenote: Savary Album Dianæ, &c. L. +iii.+ p. 33.]

Cum fluidos gelidâ sisti torpedine rivos

Videris, extantesque pedi non cedere glebas,

Ne campis immitte canes: nam nulla laborum

Præmia; et avulsos vanis conatibus ungues

Sæpè diù, melior pars turmæ clauda, dolebit.

[138] Against this havock from frost, Natalis Comes suggests a guard

in the use of shoes, so formed according to Ruscellius (Schol. in

Nat. Com. L. +i.+) as to let the nails pass through the _calceamenta

coriacea_:

[Sidenote: De Venat. L. +i.+]

Ast ubi jam Boreas invadit frigidus arva,

Et glacialis hyems currentia flumina sistit,

Arcendæ à plantis concretæ frigore crustæ,

Atque armandus erit pes, ne mala frigora lædant,

Et tellus concreta gelu, spinæque rigentes.

But should this guard be insufficient, or inapplicable, and the loss

of a nail ensue, the poetical physician of Verona supplies a simple

restorative:

[Sidenote: Fracastorii Alcon.]

Quid? taceam nimio cum decidit ungula cursu?

Frangere namque juvat pallentis grana cumini

Dentibus, admotâque pedem lenire salivâ:

Incipientque novi subcrescere protinùs ungues.”

The Cynosophium of Demetrius gives its earlier sanction to the efficacy

of this remedy; and yet it is probable that any of the gum-resins

dissolved in spirit of wine will be found more curative.

[139] Δασεῖς ἔχει τοὺς πόδας καὶ μαλθακούς. So Oppian,

[Sidenote: Martini Lexicon Philologicum.]

οὐδ’ αὐτοῖς δειλοῖς λασιοκνημοῖσι λαγωοῖς.

Lepus δασύπους vocatur, quòd hirsutos habeat pedes.

[140] In the first and second editions of the Cynegeticus, a chapter is

here introduced _On the Manner and Time of Coursing among the Celts_;

but which is more correctly placed by Schneider after the nineteenth

chapter. Following his example, I have omitted it here, and shall

introduce it into that part of the treatise to which it naturally

belongs.

[141]

[Sidenote: Vide Stephani Schediasm. L. +v.+ c. +xvi.+]

Ὅστις κύνας ἀγαθὰς ἔχει—_whoever has good hounds_: greyhounds;

elsewhere called κύνας ὠκείας.

[142] The laws of the leash in England, subscribed by Thomas Duke of

Norfolk, in the reign of Elizabeth, speak to these points:

“That not above one brace of greyhounds do course a hare at one instant.

“That the fewterer shall give the hare twelve score law, ere he loose

the greyhounds, except it be in danger of losing sight.”

[Sidenote: The Booke of Venerie, &c. p. 249.]

[Sidenote: Iliad. L. +xx.+ v. 360.]

Turberville, however, gives a little more licence as to number of dogs:

“If the greyhounds be but yong or slowe, you may course with a lease at

one hare, but that is seldome seene, and a brase of dogges is ynow for

such a poore beast.” No fair courser would slip more than a brace of

tried and swift dogs (δύω κύνε, εἰδότε θήρης) after a hare.

As to the distance at which the hounds are to be slipped to the hare,

which in the ancient English Cynegetica is called _law_, “it should

be,” says Turberville, “+xii+ score yardes or more, according to the

ground and country where she sitteth.” So Ben Jonson, in the _Sad

Shepherd_,

[Sidenote: Act +ii.+ sc. 8.]

But you must give her law: and you shall see her

Make twenty leaps and doubles, &c.

[143]

[Sidenote: Aristot. de Rhetoricâ L. +i.+ c. +v.+]

Δρομικὸς—a racer. Ὁ δυνάμενος τὰ σκέλη ῥιπτεῖν πως, καὶ κινεῖν ταχὺ,

καὶ πόῤῥω, δρομικός: a definition equally applicable to man and beast.

See the final note to this chapter.

[144]

[Sidenote: Onomast. L. +v.+ c. +x.+ 61.]

[Sidenote: Hist. Animal. L. +xiii.+ c. 14.]

Διαῤῥίψαντες τὰ μέλη—_having tossed about their limbs; capered about_.

Arrian means to express the anxiety and joy of the greyhound when the

hare is just on the start. With the same signification Xenophon uses

διαῤῥίμμα, the τὸ πηδήμα τοῦ σώματος &c. of Pollux. Σκιρτᾷ γοῦν, says

Ælian of the hare’s start, τὰ πρῶτα ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς, καὶ πηδᾷ: and Pollux

calls her ἁλτικὸν καὶ πηδητικὸν τὸ ζῶον.

[145] The rush of the greyhound from slips is splendidly described in

the Ovidia Lælaps:

[Sidenote: Metamorph. L. +vii.+ vs. 772.]

jamdudum vincula pugnat

Exuere ipse sibi, colloque morantia tendit.

Vix bene missus erat; nec jam poteramus, ubi esset,

Scire; pedum calidus vestigia pulvis habebat:

Ipse oculis ereptus erat. Non ocyor illo

Hasta, nec excussæ contorto verbere glandes,

Nec Gortyniaco calamus levis exit ab arcu.

Many of the coursing terms employed in the present, the 19th, and 20th

chapters, on the Celtic mode of following the sport, are illustrated by

Michael Drayton’s prosaic muse:

[Sidenote: Polyolbion. Song +xxiii.+]

In the proper terms the Muse doth thus report—

The man whose vacant mind prepares him to the sport,

The finder sendeth out, to seek out nimble Wat,

Which crosseth in the field, each furlong, every flat,

Till he this pretty beast upon the form hath found;

Then viewing for the course, which is the fairest ground,

The greyhounds forth are brought, for coursing then in case,

And choicely in the slip, one leading forth a brace;

The finder puts her up, and gives her courser’s law.

And whilst the eager dogs upon the start do draw,

She riseth from her seat, as though on earth she flew,

Forced by some yelping cute to give the greyhounds view,

Which are at length let slip, when gunning out they go,

As in respect of them the swiftest wind were slow;

When each man runs his horse, with fixed eyes, and notes

Which dog first turns the hare, which first the other coats:

They wrench her once or twice, ere she a turn will take,

What’s offer’d by the first, the other good doth make;

And turn for turn again with equal speed they ply,

Bestirring their swift feet with strange agility:

A harden’d ridge or way, when if the hare do win,

Then as shot from a bow she from the dogs doth spin,

That strive to put her off, but when he cannot reach her,

This giving him a coat, about again doth fetch her

To him that comes behind, which seems the hare to bear;

But with a nimble turn she casts them both arrear:

Till oft for want of breath to fall to ground they make her,

The greyhounds both so spent that they want breath to take her.

[Sidenote: =Mayster of Game.= c. +iii.+ fol. 19.]

For the indications of speed, and strength of course, in the hare, see

L’Ecole de la Chasse, c. +iv.+ “Lièvre vigoureux, bon à chasser,” &c.

“The hare that renneth,” says De Langley, “w^t. right stondyng eeres is

but litel a ferd and is strong; and zit whan she holdeth that oone eere

upryght stondyng and that other y leyde lowe upon her ryge, she fereth

but litel the houndes. An hare that crompes hure tayle upon hure rumpe

whan she sterteth out of here forme, as a conyng, it is token she is

stronge and wele rennyng.”

[146]

[Sidenote: De Venat. c. +v.+]

[Sidenote: De Naturâ Animal. L. +xiii.+ c. 14.]

Xenophon enters most fully into the description of the hare, her

habits, haunts, &c.—ποδωκέστατοι μὲν οὖν εἰσὶν οἱ ὄρειοι, οἱ πεδινοὶ δὲ

ἧττον, βραδύτατοι δὲ οἱ ἕλειοι. And so also Ælian, with some difference

as to the speed of the mountain and plain hares—Λαγῲ δὲ ὄρειοι οὐκ

οὕτως ταχεῖς ὡσπεροῦν οἱ τοῖς πεδίοις ἐνοικοῦντες, εἰ μή ποτε ἄρα

κἀκεῖνοι πεδίον ἔχοιεν ὑποκείμενον, ἐν ᾧ κατίοντες διαθέουσι. See also

Polluc. Onomast. L. +v.+ c. +xii.+ and varr. de r. r. l. +iii.+ c.

+xii.+ Much of Xenophon’s description is versified by Oppian:

[Sidenote: Cyneget. L. +iii.+ vs. 504.]

πτῶκας ἀείδωμεν, θήρης ἐρίδωρον ὀπώρην·

σῶμα πέλει τυτθὸν, λάσιον· δολιχώτατον οὖας·

βαιὸν ὕπερθε κάρη, βαιοὶ πόδες, οὐκ ἴσα κῶλα, κ. τ. λ.

[Sidenote: =Mayster of Game.= c. +iii.+ fol. 20.]

“Of hares soom goon faster and ben stronger than other, as of men and

of other beestis. And also the pasture and the contre wher thei abiden

helpeth moche thereto; ffor whan an hare abideth and formeth in a playn

contre ther as no busshes be, suche hares ben comonly strengest and wel

rennyng. And also whan thei pasture of too herbes, that oon is clepyd

sorpol and that other pulegium, thei be stronge and fast rennyng.”

[Sidenote: C. F. Paullini Lagograph. Curios. S. +iv.+]

[Sidenote: Quadripartit. Botanicum.]

This superiority of the upland over the lowland hare continues,

according to Paullini, after death. The flavour of its flesh on the

table is as superior in the former to what it is in the latter, as the

prowess of the one during life surpassed that of the other—“Lumbi et

clunes, seu coxæ,” says the credulous epicure of Eisenach, “gratissimum

præbent alimentum et pulmentum, imprimis marium, qui femellis in cibatu

meritò præferuntur, præsertim si montium fuerint incolæ planorumque

locorum, serpyllo, pulegio, et similibus herbis vescentes. Qui enim in

palustribus locis degunt, vilioris conditionis sunt carnis et succi

deterioris.” The cause of the inferiority of the latter is furnished

by Simon Paulli, “quia illorum intercus et excrementitia humiditas,

quæ carnem reddit manu contumacem, non attenuata et consumpta est, uti

horum, qui fugati sunt.”

[147]

[Sidenote: Book of Venerie p. 248.]

Turberville observes a hare will take to the open country, if the

horsemen stand on the covert-side, “then peradventure when shee ryseth,

shee will take towards the champayne;” but I have often seen a hare

voluntarily start directly away from the covert, without any such

obstacle existing to her nearer escape.

[148]

[Sidenote: Ælian. de Natur. Animal. L. +xiii.+ c. 14.]

Οὐ μὴν ἀναλίσκει τὴν ἑαυτοῦ δύναμιν ἀταμιεύτως, τηρεῖ δὲ τοῦ διώκοντος

τὴν ὁρμήν· καὶ ἐὰν μὲν ᾖ νωθὴς, οὐ πάνυ ἀνῆκε τὸ ἑαυτοῦ τάχος· ἀλλὰ

καί τι καὶ ἀνέστειλεν, ὡς προεκθεῖν μὲν τοῦ κυνὸς, οὐ μὴν ἀπαγορεῦσαι

ὑπὸ τοῦ συντόνου τοῦ δρόμου αὐτός. Οἶδε γὰρ ἀμείνων ὢν, καὶ ὁρᾷ εἰς

τὸ μὴ ὑπερπονεῖσθαι οἱ τὸν καιρὸν ὄντα. Ἐὰν δὲ καὶ ὁ κύων ᾖ ὤκιστος,

τηνικαῦτα ὁ λαγὼς φέρεται θέων ᾗ ποδῶν ἔχει, κ. τ. λ.

[149] Οὐ γάρ τοι ἐπὶ τῷ ἁλῶναι τὸ θηρίον ἐξάγουσι τὰς κύνας, ἀλλὰ ἐς

ἀγῶνα δρόμου καὶ ἅμιλλαν κ. τ. λ. With the fine feelings of a genuine

courser, the author considers the pleasure of the sport as arising

solely from the struggle for victory between the hare and dog;—a trial

of the former’s speed, its distinctive excellence, (so elegantly

alluded to by Anacreon in his complimentary ode to the ladies,

[Sidenote: Anacreon. Od. +ii.+ 1.]

φύσις κέρατα ταύροις,

ὁπλὰς δ’ ἔδωκεν ἵπποις,

ποδωκίην λαγωοῖς)

against that of the latter, whose shape marks its natural designation

for such a competition. Coursing does not seem to have been otherwise

practised as an emulative sport in the classic ages; nor indeed till a

very modern period of its annals.

[150] Καὶ καταφυγόντα ἐς ἀκάνθας ἔστιν ὅτε ὀλίγας οἵδε καὶ ἰδόντες

ἐπτηχότα κ. τ. λ.—A noble paragraph! conceived and penned in the true

spirit of an enlightened sportsman—Read it all ye who dare calumniate,

with Savary and Somerville,

[Sidenote: The Chace.]

The mean, murderous, coursing crew, intent

On blood and spoil!

[151] Zeune would read διαγωνίσαιτο, as referring to the hare, whose

life is spared for having run well. Such a reading, if tenable, (which,

I fear, for the reasons given by Schneider, it is not,) would add much

to the beauty of the passage.

[152]

[Sidenote: De Venat. c. +vi.+]

How different the sentiments of the Bithynian courser from those of

the Sciluntian huntsman: like a modern thistle-whipper or pot-hunter,

Xenophon bids us search every hiding-place for the worn-out hare, that

we may catch her at force, κατὰ πόδας, or drive her into the snares!

while Arrian rejoices in her safety and grieves over her accidental

capture and destruction.

[153] Ἔπαισα τὴν κεφαλήν. Blane supposes Arrian to strike the

greyhound’s head as a chastisement for having killed the hare: but this

interpretation is too absurd to be admitted. Many are the examples of

the custom of striking the head with the hand, in indication of sudden

grief and vexation. Priam is fearfully apprehensive of Hector’s death,

and strikes his head with sorrow:

[Sidenote: Iliad. +xxii.+]

————κεφαλήν δ’ ὅγε κόψατο χερσὶν

ὕψοσ’ ἀνασχόμενος.

[Sidenote: Herodot. Thalia.]

Psammetichus expresses his grief in the same way over the rich Egyptian

monarch, reduced to mendicancy in his old age, ἐπλήξατο τὴν κεφαλὴν—and

Plutarch tells us that Solon began παίειν τὴν κεφαλὴν καὶ τ’ ἄλλα

ποιεῖν καὶ λέγειν, ἃ συμβαίνει τοῖς περιπαθοῦσι, as soon as he heard of

the death of his son.

[154] The joys of the hare-chase have been celebrated, in prose and

verse, by the successors of the Athenian, in even higher strains than

by himself:

[Sidenote: Natalis Comes de Venat. L. +ii.+]

Tantus amor lepores venandi, gaudia tanta!

Hîc mens, hîc animus, hîc est et tota voluntas!

Præponunt reliquis una hæc solatia cunctis!

[Sidenote: =Mayster of Game.= fol. 17. 18.]

“The hare is a good lityl beest and moch good sport and lyking is the

huntyng of hur more than in eny othere beest that eny man knoweth, &c.”

“the sechyns for the hare is a wel faire thing, and the enchasyng of

the hare is a wel faire thing, and the sleyng of hym with strength is a

faire thing,” &c.

The latter, it is singular, are the very sentiments of Xenophon,

reprobated by Arrian; and the passage affords one of many proofs of De

Langley’s acquaintance with the Grecian Cynegeticus. See Markham C. C.

B. +i.+ p. 33. and Somerville’s Chace.

[155] See Xenophon Cyneg. v. 33. Arrian has spoken throughout his

treatise with the greatest respect of his predecessor’s opinions; but

ventures to differ from him in this place, as to the feelings which the

poor hare, when caught, should excite—

[Sidenote: Sophoclis Ajax. 1011.]

ὦ τῶν ἁπάντων δὴ θεαμάτων ἐμοὶ

ἄλγιστον, ὧν προσεῖδον ὀφθαλμοῖς ἐγώ—

and yet he almost immediately palliates Xenophon’s contrary sentiments,

and excuses them on account of his ignorance of the Celtic greyhound.

[156]

[Sidenote: Clio.]

[Sidenote: C. J. Solini Polyhistor. c. +i.+]

See Herodot. L. +i.+ sect. 85. ὁ δὲ παῖς οὗτος ὁ ἄφωνος, ὡς εἶδε

ἐπίοντα τὸν Πέρσην, ὑπὸ δέους τε καὶ κακοῦ ἔῤῥηξε φωνήν· εἶπε δὲ,

Ὤνθρωπε, μὴ κτεῖνε Κροῖσον. The tale of the father of history is

somewhat differently told by Solinus:—Atys, filius regis, mutus ad id

locorum, in vocem erupit vi timoris: exclamâsse enim dicitur: “Parce

patri meo, Cyre, et hominem te esse, vel casibus disce nostris.”

[157] Xenophon de Venat. c. +vi.+ 9. ἀναβοᾷν εὖγε, εὖγε ὦ κύνες,

ἕπεσθε ὦ κύνες. He gives a different cheer at different parts of the

chase. Pollux explains the whistling halloo by the significant verb

ἐπισίξαι—jubilationibus solitis canes cohortari et feris immittere—

[Sidenote: Ovid. Metam. L. +iii.+]

At comites rabidum solitis hortatibus agmen

Ignari instigant.

So Venus in pursuit of her beloved Adonis,

[Sidenote: Ovid. Metam. L. +x.+ 535.]

Per juga, per silvas, dumosaque saxa vagatur

Nuda genu, vestem ritu succincta Dianæ;

Hortaturque canes, &c.

[Sidenote: Propert. L. +ii.+ El. +xviii.+ ad Cynthiam.]

Incipiam captare feras, et reddere pinu

Cornua, et audaces ipse monere canes.

Nemesian approaches nearer to the text, in his probable allusion to the

same variety of sound;

[Sidenote: Cyneget. v. 196.]

Necnon consuetæ norint hortamina vocis,

Seu cursus revocent, jubeant seu tendere cursus.

But Arrian means more than is expressed in either of these passages:

by ὀνομαστὶ ἐπιλέγειν we are to understand _speaking to, and cheering

the hounds by name_; as in the following chapter—εὖγε ὦ Κιῤῥὰ, εὖγε ὦ

Βόννα, καλῶς γε ὦ Ὁρμὴ—

[158] ὁ ἀγὼν λαγωῷ καὶ κυνί—accurately and beautifully described in the

Ovidian simile;

[Sidenote: Metamorph. L. +i.+ 533.]

Ut canis in vacuo leporem cum Gallicus arvo

Vidit; et hic prædam pedibus petit, ille salutem:

Alter inhæsuro similis, jam jamque tenere

Sperat, et extento stringit vestigia rostro;

Alter in ambiguo est, an sit deprensus, et ipsis

Morsibus eripitur; tangentiaque ora relinquit.

and in the fable of Cephalus and Procris, the Teumesian fox being

substituted for the hare;

[Sidenote: Metamorph. L. +vii.+ 781.]

Tollor eò capioque novi spectacula cursûs:

Quà modo deprendi, modo se subducere ab ipso

Vulnere visa fera est: nec limite callida recto,

In spatiumque fugit; sed decipit ora sequentis,

Et redit in gyrum, ne sit suus impetus hosti.

Imminet hic sequiturque parem: similisque tenenti

Non tenet, et vacuos exercet in aëra morsus.

When reading these and other splendid fables of this poet, and his

similes illustrative of terror and rapidity of flight, and eagerness

of pursuit, in the parties represented, it strikes us as probable that

he was a practical courser, “Apollinis et Dianæ utriusque sectator,”

and derived his imagery from experience in the field. To the tales of

“Cephalus and his greyhound Lælaps,” and of “Daphne in Laurum” with

its cited accompaniment, we may add much of the poetical ornament of

Arethusa’s plaintive and terrified flight from the lustful Alpheus,

[Sidenote: Metamorph. L. +v.+ 604.]

Sic ego currebam; sic me ferus ille premebat, ... &c.

in which the classic courser will discover many allusions to his

favourite sport:

[Sidenote: Ejusdem v. 609.]

Nec me velocior ille,

Sed tolerare diu cursus ego viribus impar

Non poteram: longi patiens erat ille laboris.

Per tamen et campos, per opertos arbore montes,

Saxa quoque et rupes, et quà via nulla, cucurri.

Sol erat à tergo: vidi præcedere longam

Ante pedes umbram: nisi si timor illa videbat.

Sed certè sonituque pedum terrebar; et ingens

Crinales vittas afflabat anhelitus oris.

And when the affrighted nymph is rescued by the interposition of a

cloud from her pursuer’s grasp, and hears the cry “Io Arethusa, Io

Arethusa,” the poet compares her to a hare in a brake under similar

terror,

[Sidenote: Ejusdem v. 627.]

Lepori, qui vepre latens hostilia cernit

Ora canum, nullosque audet dare corpore motus:

as if the chase of this little animal had supplied him with the outline

of his picture.

[159]

[Sidenote: De Naturâ Animal. L. +xiii.+ c. 14.]

Ὁ μὲν ἐξελίξας τὸν δρόμον &c. So Ælian, δρόμον δὲ ἕνα καὶ ἰθὺν οὐ θεῖ,

δεῦρο δὲ καὶ ἐκεῖσε παρακλίνει, καὶ ἐξελίττει τῇ καὶ τῇ, ἐκπλήττων τοὺς

κύνας καὶ ἀπατῶν.

[160] Apollonius Rhodius has well expressed the κύνες δεδαημένοι ἄγρης

straining after the game with open jaws;

[Sidenote: Argonaut. L. +ii.+ 280.]

τυτθὸν δὲ τιταινόμενοι μετόπισθεν

ἄκρῃς ἐν γενύεσσι μάτην ἀράβησαν ὀδόντας.

and Virgil in the simile of the “vividus Umber;” copying, probably, the

poet of the Argonauts,

[Sidenote: Æneid. L. +xii.+ 754.]

Hæret hians, jam jamque tenet, similisque tenenti

Increpuit malis, morsuque elusus inani est.

The hare under pursuit has a peculiar sensibility of sounds behind her.

To this excellence she owes her preservation from the danger of her

pursuers. By this faculty she often outstrips the fleetest brace of

greyhounds, attentive to the noise of every stretch, and sound of every

pant:

[Sidenote: Statii Theb. L. v. 168.]

Præcipitat suspensa fugam; jam jamque teneri

Credit, et elusos audit concurrere morsus.

[Sidenote: The Booke of Venerie. p. 248.]

[Sidenote: Bacon, of Discourse, Essay +xxxii.+]

“It is a gallant sport,” says Turberville, “to see how the hare will

turne and wind to save herselfe out of the dogges mouth. So that

sometimes even when you thinke that your greyhound doth (as it were)

gape to take her, she will turne and cast them a good way behind her:

and so saveth herselfe by turning, wrenching, and winding, until she

reach some covert and so save her life.” And a far greater than this

translator of Fouilloux has remarked: “We see in beasts, that those

that are weakest in the course, are yet nimblest in the turne; as it is

betwixt the greyhound and the hare.”

Scarce inferior to his poetical predecessor of Venusium, the classic

Darcius slips his swift-footed Pterelas after the started hare, in a

sketch which places the course before the reader’s eyes:

[Sidenote: Darcii Venusini Canes.]

Ocyus insequitur Pterelas, cursuque citato

Intervalla facit lati decrescere campi.

Jam propior propiorque micat, jam captat hianti

Summa pedum rostro, jam terga fugacia stringit.

Ille pavet, flexoque obliquat tramite cursus,

Et dubiâ trepidans formidine, jamque teneri

Se putat, et rursùm tangentis ab ore recedit,

Fataque momento sibi prorogat, æmula donec

Rostra levis mergat miserando in corpore victor,

Fulmineus victor, gemino cui tramite lumbos

Spina subit graciles, et castigata coercet

Ilia substrictus venter, stant crura volantem

Præteritura notum, longo internodia ductu

Pes gerit, in cœlum tolluntur acumine bino

Auriculæ, flexoque in lævia tergora gyro

Erectæ redeunt falcata volumina caudæ.

Mr. Gay’s “Rural Sports,” Canto 2nd, afford the only poetical

description of a hare-course in the English language, with which I am

acquainted, in addition to that already cited from the Polyolbion of

Michael Drayton:

[Sidenote: Canto +ii.+ v. 289.]

Yet if for sylvan spurts thy bosom glow,

Let thy fleet greyhound urge his flying foe.

With what delight the rapid course I view!

How does my eye the circling race pursue!

He snaps deceitful air with empty jaws,

The subtle hare darts swift beneath his paws:

She flies, he stretches: now with nimble bound

Eager he presses on, but overshoots his ground:

She turns, he winds, and soon regains the way,

Then tears with gory mouth the screaming prey.

[161] Οἱ φελλεῶνες. I have not met with this word elsewhere. Xenophon

has τὰ φέλλια, chap. +v.+ De Ven., to signify the same kind of stony

ground. The Scholia on the Acharnenses of Aristophanes, Act +ii.+

sc. +ii.+ explains φελλεὺς as rocky ground, stony beneath, with a

superficial covering of earth—such as we see on the slopes of hills,

perhaps. Φελλὸς occurs in Hesychius: σκληρὸς τόπος καὶ δυσεργὴς, καὶ ἐξ

ἐπιπολῆς πετρώδης. Possibly the English term “fell” may be derived from

the Greek φελλὸς or φελλεύς.

[162]

[Sidenote: Xenophon. de Venat. c. +v.+]

Πόδας τοὺς πρόσθεν ἄκρως ὑγροὺς, στενοὺς, ὀρθούς· τοὺς δὲ ὄπισθεν

στερεοὺς, πλατεῖς· πάντας δὲ οὐδενὸς τραχέος φροντίζοντας.

[Sidenote: Ælian. de Nat. Animal. L. +xiii.+ 14.]

[Sidenote: Franc. Junii Etymol. Anglican. à Lye. 1743.]

Πέφυκε γὰρ δασὺς τοὺς πόδας καὶ δὴ καὶ τῶν τραχέων ἀνέχεται. The term

δασύπους is evidently derived from the woolly covering of the hare’s

feet; originally an adjective expressive of this peculiarity, but

subsequently used to designate the hare herself. To the same origin

Junius refers the English term _rabbet_—“cuniculus:” “Quotquot unquam

observarunt Anglos, in linguæ vernaculæ pronuntiatione, _o_ sonare ut

_a_, facilè mecum credent olim fuisse _robbet_, quod nunc _rabbet_

pronuntiant et scribunt. Atque ita _robbet_ illud fortasse corruptum

fuerint ex _roughfet_, quod exprimit Gr. δασύπους.”

The English word _hare_ is derived by the same Etymologist from the

Anglo-Saxon _hara_. “A. S. _hara_ videtur esse ab _hær_, pilus;

quoniam, ut est apud Plinium, ‘villosissimum animalium lepus.’”

[163] Let him be made to feel in the words of Ovid,

non tam

Turpe fuit vinci, quàm contendisse decorum.

It is a great point to encourage a young hound, whether he kill or not.

Plutarch remarks in his treatise on the Comparative Instinct of Land

and Water Animals, that the Canes Venatici, generally, tear their game

and lick up the blood greedily, when they kill it themselves; but if

the animal, of which they are in pursuit, expire from exhaustion,

before they reach it, they merely wag their tails, and do not lacerate

it; showing thereby that the contest was not for the flesh of the

animal, but rather for the glory of victory.

[164] Κιῤῥὰ—derived probably from the red colour of the dog.

[165] Βόννα—the derivation of this canine name is unknown to me.

[166] Ὁρμὴ—Arrian’s own much-valued hound: to the same kennel perhaps

belonged Cirras and Bonnas.

[167]

[Sidenote: Ælian. de Nat. Animal. L. +viii.+ c. +ii.+]

ἔοικε δὲ ἔχειν τι καὶ φιλοτιμίας ἐν ἑαυτῷ φυσικῆς· μὴ γὰρ δεῖσθαι

κρεῶν, ἀλλὰ νίκης ἐρᾷν.

“Trahimur omnes laudis studio,” says Cicero, “et optimus quisque maximè

glorià ducitur.”

[168] Pliny also makes the same remark, “Canes à cursu volutatio juvat,

ut veterina à jugo.”

[169] In the Paris edition of 1644, in Blancard’s of 1683, and in

Zeune’s, this Chapter stands after Chap. +xiv.+; but, on the authority

of Schneider, it is more appropriately introduced in this place. Indeed

the present, and two following chapters, treat of the different modes

of coursing among the Celts, and might all be united under one title.

[170] Ὅσοι μὲν πλουτοῦσιν αὐτῶν καὶ τρυφῶσιν—the superior class of

Celtic gentry, nobility, &c.

[171]

[Sidenote: Encyc. Méthod. Les Chasses. p. 439.]

Τοὺς κατοπτεύσοντας—finders to look over, &c. The French say, “aller à

la vue.”—“c’est découvrir s’il y a dans le pays des bêtes courables.”

[172]

[Sidenote: De Venat. c. +v.+ 10.]

Ἀναπαυόμενος λαγώς. No description can surpass in accuracy and elegance

that of the hare in her form by the elder Xenophon: Κατακλίνεται δὲ

ὑποθεὶς τὰ ὑποκώλια ὑπὸ τὰς λαγόνας, τὰ δὲ πρόσθεν σκέλη τὰ πλεῖστα

συνθεὶς καὶ ἐκτείνας, ἐπ’ ἄκρους δὲ τοὺς πόδας τὴν γένυν καταθεὶς, τὰ

δὲ ὦτα ἐπιπετάσας ἐπὶ τὰς ὠμοπλάτας· εἶτα δὲ ὑποστέγει τὰ ὑγρά· ἔχει δὲ

καὶ τὴν τρίχα στεγανήν· πυκνὴ γὰρ καὶ μαλακή.

[173] The example of the Celtic nobility of Arrian’s days was followed

by those of a later date. Bruyerinus relates (de Re Cib. c. 24.)

“Gallia omnis leporibus scatet, ideoque horum venatio peculiaris est

mediocri nobilitati et primariæ non invisa.” And Baptista Guarinus

notes of the Veronese territory, that it abounds with hares, and

affords opportunities for long courses:

Namque hic si studeas lepores agitare fugaces,

Cursibus effusis æquora longa patent.

[174]

[Sidenote: Schediasm. L. +v.+ c. +xvi.+]

[Sidenote: Cyneg. +i.+ v. 148.]

Αὐτουργοὶ κυνηγεσίων. Upon this expression Henry Stephens merely

remarks, “quod loquendi genus observatione dignum est,”—offering no

explanation: Zeune interprets “qui pedites venantur, studio rei capti:”

Holsten, “qui ipsi per se venationis studio incumbunt:”—those who have

to do with the practical part of the sport, as the slippers, leaders of

the hounds, &c. the actual workmen. Such were the ἐργοπόνοι κρατεροὶ of

Oppian, the bearers of the hunting gear to the covert, &c.

[175]

[Sidenote: Turberville’s Booke of Hunting, &c.]

Ἐκπεριΐασι δὲ ἐπὶ μετώπου ταχθέντες. We here see the military

tactician: after the lapse of nearly seventeen centuries, no

improvement has taken place in the mode of beating for a hare. One of

our best English manuals of coursing, whose author was probably as

expert in the field as his predecessor of Bithynia, thus describes the

plan adopted in the days of good Queen Bess: “To course y^e. hare you

must send either hare-finders before you to find some hare sitting,

or els yourself w^h. your company may range and beat over the fields

until you either find a hare sitting, or start her. I have marked y^e.

hare-finders in their seeking of a hare in Northamptonshyre, and they

will never beat but one end of a furlong: and that shall be the end

which is downe the wind or from the wind; for they hold opinion that

a hare will not (by her wil) sit with her head into the wind. He that

will seeke a hare must go overthwart the lands; and every land that he

passeth over, let him beginne with his eye at his foot, and so looke

downe the land to the furlong’s end, first on the one side and then on

the other; and so shall he find y^e. hare sitting in her forme: assoone

as he espyeth her he must cry _Sa how_. Then they which lead the

greyhounds may come neare: and you may appoynt which greyhounds shall

course. Then let him which found the hare, go towards her and say, _Up,

pusse, up!_ untill she rise out of her forme.”

[176] Ἄρχοντα—“the judge expert in coursing” of Turberville, p. 249.

It appears to me from this passage that the Celts coursed with

each hound held in a single slip and collar, and started probably

simultaneously with his appointed compeer, held in juxta-position by

a second person. Some commentators, however, are of opinion, from

the term _συν_δυαζέτω, that the dogs were held in double collars, or

couples; but if so, we must still suppose, from the words σὺ καὶ σὺ

ἐπιλύειν, that two persons were appointed to let the dogs loose at the

same time:

[Sidenote: Ovid. Met. L. +vii.+ 769.]

Copula detrahitur canibus.

[Sidenote: De Venat. c. +vi.+]

Xenophon particularly enjoins, in his instructions on hare-hunting,

that the Spartan hounds should be held in separate collars at the

covert-side: ἑκάστην χωρὶς, (each apart) ὅπως ἂν εὔλυτοι ὦσι.

[Sidenote: See the lithograph of Chrysis and Aura.]

The ancient slip or slippe (ab elabendo Vlit. p. 94.) was formed by a

leading thong or lyam, passed through the ring of the dog’s collar, the

two ends being held in the hand of the slipper, or keeper. When the dog

was loosed, the slipper let go one end of the thong, and drew the other

with his hand from the eye of the collar, whereby the dog was liberated

with the collar on his neck, the lyam remaining in the slipper’s hand.

(See Xenophon, Pollux, and Conrad Gesner, on these accoutrements: the

latter is copious on the subject in his Hist. Quadrup. “Canis.”) Such a

representation of greyhounds coursing, with collars on their necks, we

have in Montfaucon, Tom. +iii.+ liv. +iv.+ pl. 176. (Chasse au Lièvre.)

Nor are the incumbrances, which envelop the necks of Chrysis and Aura

in this beautiful gem, got rid of in the coursing plates of “The

Gentleman’s Recreations,”—so few are the improvements in the practical

department of the leash, from the days of Arrian till those of Richard

Blome. The modern method of slipping a brace of greyhounds, at the same

instant of time, from double spring or wedge collars, is of recent

introduction; having its origin, probably, at the institution of public

coursing meetings.

[177]

[Sidenote: Arriani Tactic. 71. Ed. Blancard.]

Οἱ δὲ ἐμπεδούντων τὸ ταχθέν. Obedience to the orders of the ἄρχων or

ἀγωνοθέτης, in a coursing field, is an essential point of discipline:

indeed, we could not select any more important for the regulation of

such an assemblage than the brief and emphatic injunction of our author

in his Tactics, “silence and attention to orders”—σίγα καὶ πρόσεχε τῷ

παραγγελλομένῳ.

[178]

[Sidenote: =Mayster of Game.= c. +xxxv.+ fol. 99.]

This method of coursing was practised in England in the days of Edmund

De Langley (A. D. 1380). From the instructions which he gives relative

to it, it appears that the greyhounds were placed, as amongst the

Celts, on the outside of the covert. So also in the beautiful poetry of

Scott:

[Sidenote: Marmion. Introduction to Canto +ii.+]

And foresters in greenwood trim

Lead in the leash the gazehounds grim,

Attentive as the brachet’s bay

From the dark covert drove the prey

To slip them as he drove away.

The startled quarry bounds amain,

As fast the gallant greyhounds strain.

[Sidenote: De Canibus et Venatione Libellus.]

“Nos autem vidimus,” says Blondus, “venantes in capiendis leporibus

hunc modum servare insidiandi. Divisi ac sparsi venatores per inculta

frequentiùs quàm per culta, arte quâdam incedunt laqueis canem

leporarium detinentes: spineta et sentes, sive dumeta, saltusve potiùs

celebrantes quàm nemora. Nonnunquam etiam præmittunt odorum canem qui

è latebris pellat timidum leporem, post quem è laqueis mittunt canem

fugacem, altis clamoribus persequentes, qui sunt exhortationes fugacium

canum.”

[Sidenote: U. Aldrovand. de Quad. Digit. Vivip. L. +ii.+]

“In montosis locis (agri Bononiensis) ob rubetorum frequentiam, canibus

sagacibus ad lepores excitandos utuntur, deinde visis leporibus canes

leporarios solvunt,” &c.

The classic poet of Barga, although we look in vain for a description

of the hare-course throughout his varied and copious Cynegeticon, has

left us the following counterpart in the machinery of the fox-chase

with swift-footed hounds:

[Sidenote: P. Angel. Barg. Cyneg. L. +vi.+]

Intereà juvenes quà sunt asperrima campi

Dumeta, et spinis clivus consurgit acutis,

Obsedêre vias, alii quà mane tepenti

Flamine in adversos auras fert Eurus odoras,

Veloces tenuere canes: turbamque sagacem

Immisêre, premant patulis, quæ naribus hostem

Obscenam, et dumis sese occultare parantem,

Conantemque animam tristi subducere letho.

Quam postquam certo latratu ursere propinquam,

Solvuntur canibus curracia vincla Lacænis:

and this is again followed by other chases, wherein the wolf and stag

are the greyhound’s quarry.

[Sidenote: Vénerie Normande. c. +vii.+]

See also L’Ecole de la Chasse, (Rouen, 1788,) “Manière de prendre les

loups avec les lévriers.”

[179] Ὅπως ἄν τοι προχωρῇ. “Quâcunque ratione fieri potest,” Ind. Græc.

Z. “When she is going off,” Blane.

[180] Καὶ εἰσὶν αἱ κύνες αὗται, ὅ τι περ αἱ ἄρκυς Ξενοφῶντι ἐκείνῳ.

From some curious Dialogues composed by Elfric, Duke of Mercia,

in Latin, Mr. Turner has shown that our ancestors resembled their

continental neighbours in these field sports.

[Sidenote: Hist. of the Anglo-Saxons.]

“I am a hunter to one of the kings.—How do you exercise your art? I

spread my nets, and set them in a fit place, and instruct my hounds to

pursue the wild deer till they come to the nets unexpectedly, and so

are entangled, and I slay them in the nets.—Cannot you hunt _without_

nets? Yes, with _swift hounds_ I follow the wild deer.—What wild deer

do you chiefly take? Harts, boars, and rein-deer, and goats, and

sometimes hares,” &c.

[181]

[Sidenote: Apollon. Rhod. L. +iii.+ 13.]

[Sidenote: Journey thro’ Albania, &c. Letter +xvii.+]

Ὑπὸ τῆς κλαγγῆς τῶν κυνῶν, &c. Κυνῶν ἐφόβησεν ὁμοκλή: for a practical

exemplification of a course conducted upon the principle of uniting

speed and sagacity in the same pack, see Mr. Hobhouse’s description of

his sport with his host at Votizza. To “four wire-haired Lacouni” were

added “three mongrel pointers, and several curs ... with a large party

of men on foot and horseback, making as much noise as possible.” It is

scarce necessary to state the poor hare was killed “after a short run.”

[Sidenote: Book of Hunting. p. 246.]

This method of coursing (if it deserve the name) was much in use in

France two centuries or more ago. “They use their greyhounds,” says

Turberville, “only to set backsets, or receytes for deare, wolfe, fox,

or such-like. Whereas we here in England do make great account of such

pastime as is to be seen in coursing with greyhounds at deare, hare,

foxe, or such-like, even of themselves, when there are neyther hounds

hunting, nor other meane to help them.”

[Sidenote: c. +xvii.+ fol 69.]

Edmund De Langley, in his =Mayster of Game=, condemns the union of

sagacious and fleet hounds, “spaynels and greihoundes,” in the same

field; for “the spaynel wil make al the ryot and al the harme.” The

latter’s mode of hunting is beautifully described by Darcius of

Venusium:

[Sidenote: Canes.]

Hi si forte levis toto lepus errat in arvo,

Pone legent rostro vestigia nota sagaci:

Et modò transverso, modò recto jugera sulco

Scrutantur, &c.

[182]

[Sidenote: Xenophon. de Venatione. c. +v.+ 14.]

Τὰ μὲν οὖν λίαν νεογνὰ οἱ φιλοκυνηγέται ἀφιᾶσι τῇ Θεῷ. But the same

mercy was not extended to fawns: see Xenoph. de Venat. c. +ix.+ 1.

[183] Τῇ Θεῷ. Diana ἀγροτέρα, or Venatrix.

[Sidenote: Homer. Iliad. φʹ.]

——πότνια θηρῶν

Ἄρτεμις ἀγροτέρη.

[Sidenote: Homer. Hymn. in Dian.]

ἡ κατ’ ὄρη σκιόεντα καὶ ἄκριας ἠνεμόεσσας

ἀγρῇ τερπομένη παγχρύσεα τόξα τιταίνει.

So, in the Anacreontic Λιτανεία,

γουνοῦμαι σ’ ἐλαφηβόλε,

Ξανθὴ, παὶ Διὸς, ἀγρίων

δέσποιν’, Ἄρτεμι, θηρῶν.

[Sidenote: Polluc. Onom. L. +v.+ c. +i.+ 13.]

By Pollux the worshipful goddess is variously called ἀγροτέρα, καὶ

κυνηγέτις, καὶ φιλόθηρος, καὶ ὀρεία. For the popular belief respecting

her many vocations, see Callimach. H. in Dian. How graphically is she

decked out, in all her sylvan trim, by Nemesian, in the following

address to her, to aid, with her many sporting associates, the essay of

his Cynegetical Muse!

[Sidenote: Nemesian. Cyneg. 86.]

Tu modo quæ saltus placidos silvasque pererras

Latonæ, Phœbe, magnum decus, eja age suetos

Sume habitus, arcumque manu: pictamque pharetram

Suspende ex humeris: sint aurea tela, sagittæ:

Candida puniceis aptentur crura cothurnis:

Sit chlamys aurato multum sub tegmine lusa,

Corrugesque sinus gemmatis baltheus arctet

Nexibus: implicibus cohibe diademate crines.

Tecum Naiades faciles, viridique juventâ

Pubentes Dryades, Nymphæque, unde amnibus humor,

Adsint, et docilis decantet Oreadas Echo.

Duc age, Diva, tuum frondosa per avia vatem.

Te sequimur: tu pande domos et lustra ferarum.

See Lucian’s Deorum Dialogi, Venus et Cupido, for the pursuits of

Diana; and for several elegant representations of her in her sporting

attire, see Montfaucon, Tom. +i.+ perrier, tab. 64. goltzii numismata

græciæ, &c. tab. +vii.+ f. 1. Insular Medals, Tab. +xvii.+ f. 1.

morell. tab. +xv.+ passerii tom. +iii.+ Tab. 88. &c. A few of the most

classic gems and medals have been faithfully copied in outline by Mr.

Haghe from the antique, and annexed to this work; they are taken from

Montfaucon, who had previously borrowed them from La Chausse and Beger.

The translation of Mr. Blane does not extend beyond this Chapter.

[184] Xenophon De Venat. c. +ix.+ recommends Indian dogs for

deer-hunting, as they are strong, large, swift-footed, and resolute.

In the ancient field sports of Britain we find the deer, the wolf, and

the fox, and even sometimes the wild cat, (of which last the =Mayster

of Game= c. +x.+ reports, “he hath the Devyllis spyryt,”) coursed with

greyhounds: but at present these diversions are discontinued, and the

hare alone deemed worthy of the honourable distinction of competing in

speed with the Celtic hound:

[Sidenote: Book of St. Alban’s.]

And where that ye come in playne or in place,

I shall you tell whyche ben bestys of enchace:

One of theym is the bucke: a nother is the doo:

The foxe and the marteron: and the wylde roo.

The coursing of deer was a recreation of high repute, and was divided

into two sorts; _the paddock_, and _the forest_ or _purlieu_. See

Daniel’s Rural Sports. But a better authority, Turberville, in “a short

observation set downe by the Translatour, concerning coursing with

greyhoundes,” attached to “The Booke of Hunting,” has given us his

remarks on coursing deer, and the method of doing it in the olden time

with “_teasers_,” (“to start the deare from the whole heard, or make a

low deare strain,”) “_side laies_,” (“to way-lay him by the midway,”)

and “_back-sets_, or _receits_,” (to meet him “full in the face—to the

end they may the more amase him.”) See Turberville’s Appendix to his

translation of Fouilloux, and “The Governour,” B. +i.+ c. 17.

[185]

[Sidenote: Hist. Naturelle.]

Μέγα τε γὰρ τὸ θηρίον, &c. “He is of all beasts,” says Gervase Markham,

“the goodliest, stateliest, and most manly:” and Buffon, after

describing the stag with his wonted eloquence, concludes, “sa grandeur,

sa légèreté, sa force le distinguent assez des autres habitans des

bois: et comme il est le plus noble d’entre eux, il ne sert aussi

qu’aux plaisirs des plus nobles des hommes; il a, dans tous les temps,

occupé le loisir des héros.”

[Sidenote: Booke of Hunting. p. 247.]

“A red deare will beare sometimes foure or five brase of greyhounds

before they can pull him downe: such wonderfull force he is of, and can

so easily shake off a greyhound when he pincheth him.”

[186]

[Sidenote: p. 247.]

Ὁ κίνδυνος οὐ σμικρὸς, &c. “He that hath a good hare greyhound, shal do

very evill to course a deare with him, for it wil both bruse him and

make him lyther: and the course at the hare is much the nobler pastime.”

Oppian denies that deer butt with their horns, and thereby endanger the

dogs:

[Sidenote: Cynegeticus +ii.+ 184.]

οὔποτε γὰρ κεφαλῇφιν ἐναντία δηρίσαιντο,

οὐ θηρσὶ κρατεροῖς, οὐκ ἀργαλέοισι κύνεσσι:

[Sidenote: De Venat. c. +ix.+]

but Xenophon, a practical authority, affirms it—τοῖς κέρασι παίει καὶ

τοῖς ποσίν. The thrust from the tynes, or branches, of the stag’s

horns, were accounted far more dangerous to a human being than those of

the boar’s tusk:

If thou be hurt with horn of stag, it brings thee to thy bier:

But barber’s hand shall boar’s hurt heal; thereof have thou no fear.

[187]

[Sidenote: Hippolyt. Act. +i.+ 71.]

Ἔνθα τὰ πεδία εὐήλατα. The Homeric scholar will remember the Nomade

tribes of this champaign region, on whom Jupiter cast his eyes in

looking from Mount Ida towards Thrace. The Mysians were of the number:

[Sidenote: Iliad. νʹ. 3.]

——αὐτὸς δὲ πάλιν τρέπεν ὄσσε φαεινὼ,

νόσφιν ἐφ’ ἱπποπόλων Θρῃκῶν καθορώμενος αἶαν,

Μυσῶν τ’ ἀγχιμάχων, καὶ ἀγαυῶν Ἱππημολγῶν, &c.

[Sidenote: De +iv.+ Consul. Honorii.]

Seneca speaks of the “Vacuisque vagus Sarmata campis,”—Claudian, of the

“gens exercita campo,”—and an earlier poet, the exiled Ovid, in one of

his mournful elegies, commemorates the Scythian’s skill in horsemanship:

[Sidenote: Tristium L. +iii.+ El. x.]

Protinùs æquato siccis aquilonibus Istro,

Invehitur celeri barbarus hostis equo:

Hostis equo pollens longèque volante sagittâ

Vicinam latè depopulatur humum.

[Sidenote: Hist. of Rome. vol. +iv.+ c. +xxvi.+]

Strabo notices the hunting propensities of the inhabitants of the

Scythian and Sarmatian plains (L. +xvii.+); and the eloquent historian

of the Decline and Fall enlarges on the vigour and patience both of the

men and horses in the continual exercise of the chase. From the way in

which these pastoral tribes of the Scythian plains are introduced by

Arrian in connexion with the Celtic coursing, we may conclude that they

were Celto-Scythians.

[188]

[Sidenote: Cyneg. +i.+ 272.]

The highest praise is bestowed by Oppian on Sicilian horses, ὠκύτατοι

Σικελοί: but fleeter than these are the Armenians and Parthians; and

fleetest of all, the Iberians.

[189] Ὁ δὲ ἐς τοσοῦτον ἄρα ἀντέχει.

[Sidenote: P. Angelii Bargæi Cyneg. L. +v.+]

——non illum unquam genibusve labantem

Videris, aut animam fessum vix ore trahentem.

Verùm importuno potuit superesse labori

Acrior, atque novas currendo acquirere vires,

Velocem quandoque fugâ prævertere cervum,

Et premere immanes animis optavimus apros.

[190] Ἔξεστιν ἤδη, εἰ μὲν βούλοιο, ἀκοντίσαι ἐγγύθεν ὡς πεπεδημένην.

[Sidenote: Virgil. Georg. L. +iii.+ v. 374.]

Cominùs obtruncant ferro, graviterque rudentes

Cædunt, et magno læti clamore reportant.

Xenophon gives a full description of the mode of ensnaring deer in a

variety of trap called ποδοστράβη, and adds: ἁλίσκονται δὲ καὶ ἄνευ

ποδοστράβης διωκόμεναι, ὅταν ᾖ ἡ ὥρα θερινὴ, ἀπαγορεύουσι γὰρ σφόδρα,

ὥστε ἑστῶσαι ἀκοντίζονται.

[Sidenote: Oppian. Cyneg. +iv.+ 54.]

ξυνὸν ἀκοντίζειν δὲ καὶ ἀντία τοξάζεσθαι

θῆρας ἀρειοτέρους.

[191] Βρόχον—a noose-rope. Such ropes were generally used by rude

nations in battle as well as the chase. For a clever representation of

this mode of catching deer, see the Venationes Ferarum of Stradanus and

Galle, and the accompanying quatrain of Kilian Dufflæus.

[192]

[Sidenote: De Nat. Anim. L. +ii.+ c. +ii.+]

Ælian mentions these horses in his second book of Animal History:

ὤκιστοι μέν εἰσιν ἵππων καμάτου δὲ δή τι αἴσθονται οὐδέν· λεπτοὶ δὲ,

καὶ οὐκ εὔσαρκοι, ἐπιτήδειοί γε μὴν καὶ φέρειν ὀλιγωρίαν δεσπότου

εἰσίν:—and Oppian in his first Cynegetic:

[Sidenote: Cyneg. +i.+ v. 289.]

Μαύρων δ’ αἰόλα φῦλα πολὺ προφέρουσιν ἁπάντων

ἀμφὶ δρόμους ταναούς τε, καὶ ἀμφὶ πόνους ἀλεγεινούς·

καὶ Λίβυες μετὰ τοὺς δολιχὸν δρόμον ἐκτελέουσιν.

[193]

[Sidenote: Cyneg. +ii.+ v. 293.]

Ἐλάφους ἢ δορκάδας. I take ἐλάφος to be the red deer, the cervus

elaphus of naturalists; and δόρκας the roe deer, cervus capreolus, the

chevreuil of France. To these the poet of Anazarbus adds the fallow

deer, under the name of εὐρυκέρωτες.

[194]

[Sidenote: Cyneg. +ii.+ v. 315.]

[Sidenote: =Mayster of Game.= c. +v.+ fol. 32.]

From hence it would appear that it was no great exploit to take a

red or roe deer, in Arrian’s opinion; but the latter was deemed very

fleet by the last-cited poet, ὠκυτάτων δόρκων ἀρίδηλα γένεθλα: and his

opinion is supported by the high authority of the Mayster of Game, who

affirms that “he rennyth wondir fast, and some tyme, at the partyng

from his leyre, he shal out goo a brace of good greye houndes.”

[195] The wild ass, or Koulan, is an animal of the greatest speed and

beauty. He is elegantly and correctly described by Oppian:

[Sidenote: Cyneget. +iii.+ 183.]

——εὔσφορον, ἠνεμόεντα,

κραιπνὸν, ἀελλοπόδην, κρατερώνυχον, αἰπὺν ὄναγρον,

ὅστε πέλει φαιδρὸς, δέμας ἄρκιος, εὐρὺς ἰδέσθαι,

ἀργύφεος χροιὴν, δολιχούατος, ὀξύτατος θεῖν.

[Sidenote: Epigr. L. +xiii.+ 100.]

See also the Book of Job, c. +xxxix.+ vs. 5. et seqq. plin. hist. nat.

l. +viii.+ c. 44. Varro de R. R. L. +ii.+ c. 6. and the veterinarian

apsyrtus, geopon. l. +xvi.+ c. 21. Martial records his beauty, “Pulcher

adest onager.” Spelman is mistaken in identifying the onager and zebra,

and referring to the stuffed specimen of _our college_ for his example

of the former under the type of the latter.

[196] Μέγαν βασιλέα. This is the title given by all Greek authors to

the king of Persia; and it is preserved to the successors of Mahomet

in that of the Grand Seignor. Cyrus was the youngest son of Darius

by Parysatis, and brother to Artaxerxes. His father, therefore, and

brother, were both called, κατ’ ἐξοχὴν, “the great king.”

[197] Xenophon. Anabas. L. +i.+ 5. 2.

[198] The inhabitants of this part of Arabia are denominated Σκηνίται

Ἄραβες by Strabo; a vagabond people, living by depredation. “Nomades,

infestioresque Chaldæorum, Scenitæ,” says Pliny, “à tabernaculis

cognominati;” afterwards Saracens.

[199] Ἐπὶ γυμνῶν τῶν ἵππων.

[Sidenote: Lucret. L. +iv.+]

Gens quæ nudo residens Massylia dorso

Ora levi flectit frænorum nescia virgâ.

The allusions to the tractable and fleet Numidian horse, and his expert

rider, are too numerous in the authors of antiquity for citation of

more than a few. The barbs, in the language of our great dramatist,

will follow where the game

Makes way, and run like swallows o’er the plain.

[Sidenote: Livii L. +v.+ Decad. +iv.+]

In the army of Hannibal, the “equi hominesque paululi, discinctus et

inermis eques, equi sine frænis,” are eulogized by the Roman historian:

and Strabo notices the docility of the African little steeds to be such

ὥς τ’ ἀπὸ ῥαβδίου οἰακίζεσθαι.

Virgil speaks of the “Numidæ infræni,” (Æneid. L. +iv.+ 41.): Silius

Italicus of the

velocior Euris

Et doctus virgæ sonipes:—L. +iii.+

and again, in the first book of his Punic War:

Hic passim exultant Numidæ gens inscia fræni,

Queîs inter geminas per ludum nobilis aures

Quadrupedem flectit non cedens virga lupatis.

But the poets of the chase, Oppian and Nemesian, have left us in detail

their shape and qualifications:

[Sidenote: Oppian. Cyneg. +iv.+ 45.]

——ὁππότε δ’ αὖτε

καὶ μούνοις ἵπποισι κυνῶν ἄτερ ἰθὺς ἐλαύνειν·

ἵπποισιν κείνοισιν ὅσοι περὶ Μαυρίδα γαῖαν

φέρβοντ’, ἢ Λιβύεσσιν, ὅσοι μὴ κάρτεϊ χειρῶν

ἄγχονται ψελίοισι βιαζομένοιο χαλινοῦ,

πείθονται δὲ λύγοισιν, ὅπη βροτὸς ἡγεμονεύει.

τοὔνεκεν ἱππελάται κείνων ἐπιβήτορες ἵππων

ἠδὲ κύνας λείπουσι φίλους, πίσυνοι τ’ ἐλόωσιν

ἵπποις, ἠελίου τε βολῇ, καὶ νόσφιν ἀρωγῶν.

[Sidenote: Nemesian. Cyneg. vs. 261.]

Quemque coloratus Mazax deserta per arva

Pavit, et assiduos docuit tolerare labores.

Nec pigeat quod turpe caput, deformis et alvus

Est ollis, quodque infrenes, quod liber uterque,

Quodque jubis pronos cervix diverberet armos.

Nam flecti facilis, lascivaque colla secutus

Paret in obsequium lentæ moderamine virgæ.

Verbera sunt præcepta fugæ, sunt verbera freni.

Quin et promissi spatiosa per æquora campi

Cursibus acquirunt commoto sanguine vires,

Paulatimque avidos comites post terga relinquunt.

[200] The same fact is related by Ælian, in his Natural History of

Animals, L. +xiv.+ c. 10.; and Beckman (Hist. of Inventions, Vol. +iv.+

p. 292.) observes, on the authority of Vancouver, that the βρόχος, or

noose-rope, is still employed by the Hungarians, for the subjugation of

wild horses.

[201] See these instruments of predatory hunting described in the

early part of the Appendix, and accurately represented in the spirited

engravings of the “Venationes Ferarum” of Stradanus and Galle. The

metrical skill of A. C. Kilian Dufflæus, the poet of the annexed

quatrains, is not commensurate with that of the engraver.

[202] Ἐκ τοῦ εὐθέος διαγωνιζόμενοι. Many are the instances recorded

in which the agency of the hound of chase was despised by “the

light-footed sons of Chiron’s school.” The heroes and heroines of old

were all-sufficient for the capture of the fleetest animals of the

forest and plain. This was indeed coursing in good earnest, and is well

illustrated by the simile of the text. In this way Diana furnished her

chariot with deer, her πρωτάγριον, the swiftest beasts of draught—

[Sidenote: Callimach. H. in Dian. vs. 105.]

——πίσυρας δ’ ἕλες ὦκα θέουσα,

νόσφι κυνοδρομίης, ἵνα τοι θοὸν ἅρμα φέρωσι.

In this way, the son of Peleus arrested the attention of her sylvan

ladyship and the goddess Pallas,

[Sidenote: Lee’s Pindar. Nem. Od. +iii.+]

when, if we credit tales believed of old,

His speed subdued the bounding stag, his spoil—

By hounds unaided and the treach’rous toil.

[Sidenote: Justin. II. L. +xxxvii.+ c. +ii.+]

[Sidenote: Description of Britaine. Booke Thirde. c. 7.]

Mithridates, in later days, was wont, during his rustication, “feras

cursu aut fugare, aut persequi, cum quibusdam etiam viribus congredi.”

And in our own annals, “King Henrye the fift,” says Holinshed,

“thought it a mere scoffery to pursue any fallow deare wyth hounds or

greyhounds, but supposed hym selfe alwayes to have done a sufficient

acte, when he had tired them by his own travaile on foote, and so

kylled them wyth hys handes, in the upshot of that exercise and ende of

hys recreation.”

[203] Περὶ Ἀρτεμίσιον.

[Sidenote: Pindar. Fragm. +xl.+ p. 75. edit. Heyne.]

ὅθι παῖδες Ἀθηναί-

ων ἐβάλοντο φαεννὰν

κρηπῖδ’ ἐλευθερίας.

Plato (λόγος ἐπιτάφιος) gives the first and principal honours

(ἀριστεῖα) to the victors of Marathon—τὰ δὲ δευτερεῖα, τοῖς περὶ

Σαλαμῖνα καὶ ἐπ’ Ἀρτεμισίῳ ναυμαχήσασι καὶ νικήσασι. Artemisium was a

northern promontory of the island of Eubœa; Psyttalia, a small, rocky,

and barren isle, off the coast of Attica, and near to Salamis; Cyprus,

an island of the Mediterranean Sea. The naval victories of Themistocles

and Cimon are too well known to need any detail.

[204] Having taken a summary view of the different modes of coursing

amongst the Celts, and elsewhere, he now enters in detail into the

treatment, initiation, &c. of young hounds.

[205] The elder Xenophon mentions an earlier date for entering

puppies—bitches at eight months, dogs at ten months old: but he does

not allude to greyhounds. Pollux would introduce bitches at six months,

and dogs at eight; Onomast. L. +v.+ c. +ix.+ The courser will follow

the example of his Bithynian predecessor, whose instructions, indeed,

are in exact accordance with modern practice.

[206] He recommends a later period for entering dog-puppies; see the

next Chapter. Nemesian makes no distinction between the dog and bitch

on this point:

[Sidenote: Nemesian. Cyneget. vs. 186.]

Jam cum bis denos Phœbe reparaverit ortus,

Incipe non longo catulos producere cursu;

Sed parvæ vallis spatio, septove novali.

His leporem præmitte manu, non viribus æquis,

Nec cursus virtute parem; sed tarda trahentem

Membra; queant jam nunc faciles ut sumere prædas.

Nec semel indulge catulis moderamine cursus;

Sed donec validos etiam prævertere suescant,

Exerceto diu, venandi munere cogens

Discere, et emeritæ laudem virtutis amare.

Necnon consuetæ norint hortamina vocis,

Seu cursus revocent, jubeant seu tendere cursus,

Quinetiam docti victam contingere prædam,

Exanimare velint tantùm, non carpere sumptam.

Less diffuse than the Carthaginian poet, the Veronese physician enters

his “catulus venaticus” in the following lines of his Alcon, without

specifying his age:

[Sidenote: Fracastorii Alcon.]

Illi igitur plenis ubi nondum viribus ætas

Accessit, parvum cursu conscendere collem

Et molli assuescant sese demittere clivo.

Hinc tenerum leporem, vel crura infirma trahentem

Sectari capream, et facilem præcurrere campum

Incipiat, verbisque viri parere morantis.

[207]

[Sidenote: De Venat. c. +vii.+]

[Sidenote: Ælian. de Naturâ Animal. L. +viii.+ c. 2.]

[Sidenote: Aristotelis Ethic. Nicom. L. +iii.+ c. +x.+]

[Sidenote: Plutarchi Utraque animalia, &c.]

Ἁλισκομένου δὲ τοῦ λαγῷ, says the elder Xenophon, διδόναι αὐταῖς

ἀναῤῥηγνύναι. Every sportsman is fully aware of the importance of

blooding young hounds: κύων ἀγρευτικὸς ἅπας αὐτὸς μὲν λαβὼν θηρίον

ἥδεται, καὶ κέχρηται τῇ ἄγρᾳ, ὡς ἄθλῳ, ἐὰν αὐτὸν συγχωρήσῃ ὁ δεσπότης:

and a greater than Xenophon or Ælian has declared that the curée, or

quarry, is to the Spartan hound the object of his chase, οὐδὲ ταῖς

ὀσμαῖς τῶν λαγωῶν αἱ κύνες χαίρουσιν, ἀλλὰ τῇ βρώσει—ὅτι βορὰν ἕξουσιν.

But Plutarch tells us that they will not touch the game, nor lap the

blood of it, unless they kill it themselves; while, in the other case,

ἥδονται διασπῶντες, καὶ τὸ αἷμα λάπτουσι προθύμως, &c.

[Sidenote: Gratii Cyneg. vs. 246.]

Ergo ubi plena suo rediit victoria fine

In partem prædæ veniat comes, et sua norit

Præmia. Sic operi juvet inservîsse benigno.

Hoc ingens meritum est: hæc ultima palma trophæi.

[Sidenote: Onomast. L. +v.+ c. +vi.+]

Julius Pollux advises that puppies be well blooded, ἵνα προσεθίζωνται

τῇ κυνηγετικῇ τροφῇ.

[Sidenote: Albi Dianæ Leporicidæ L. +iv.+]

Atque in parva secant spoliatum segmina corpus,

Adduntque infectum leporino sanguine panem.

[Sidenote: MS. Twety and Giffard.]