Chapter X: Part 10

Huic parilem submitte marem, sic omnia magnum,
Dum superant vires, dum læto flore juventus,
Corporis et venis primævi sanguis abundat.
Namque graves morbi subeunt, segnisque senectus:
Invalidamque dabunt non firmo robore prolem.
Sed diversa magis fœturæ convenit ætas.
Tu bis vicenis plenum jam mensibus acrem
In Venerem permitte marem: sit fœmina, binos
Quæ tulerit soles. Hæc optima cura jugandis.

Gratius would have a general parity of character in both male and female,

[Sidenote: Cyneg. vs. 263.]

Junge pares ergo, et majorum pignore signa
Fœturam.

And Bargæus agrees with him that the similarity should extend to the essential points of age, shape, and bodily powers:

[Sidenote: P. Angelii Bargæi Cyneg. L. +v.+]

——conjunge unà qui corpore, quique
Sint ætate pares, atque iisdem viribus, ut mox
Ipsa tuis votis similis fœtura sequatur.

[Sidenote: De Re Rust. L. +vii.+ c. 9.]

[Sidenote: C. C. Booke +i.+ and Countrey Farme, c. +xxii.+]

Columella is mistaken if he intends his observations on breeding in general, (delivered in his chapter on swine-breeding), to apply to the canine race. “In omni genere quadrupedum,” says he, “species maris diligenter eligitur, quoniam frequenter patri similior est progenies quàm matri.” Markham’s comparative view of the merits of the male and female in breeding for the Celtic kennel will be found more practically correct. See Countrey Contentments, B. +i.+ The dam should be selected with the greatest attention to shape, pedigree, and character in the field; nor should the same points be disregarded in the sire, but they are not so important in the latter. The chances, however, of producing a good litter are greater in the ratio of excellence (γενναιότης) in both parents, their genealogical distinction, the blood of their “proavorum atavi,” &c. for the reasons stated by the philosophic poet:—

[Sidenote: Lucretii L. +iv.+ vs. 1212.]

Fit quoque ut interdum similes existere avorum
Possint, et referant proavorum sæpè figuras,
Proptereà quia multa modis primordia multis
Mista suo celant in corpore sæpè parentes,
Quæ patribus patres tradunt à stirpe profecta, &c.

It is evident from what the elder Xenophon says on the accoutrements of the dog, in the sixth chapter of his Cynegeticus, that the Grecian sportsmen took some pains to preserve the purity of breed of certain varieties of the dog. Sharp spikes were attached to the στελμονίαι or body-clothes; ἐγκατεῤῥαμέναι δὲ ἐγκεντρίδες, ἵνα τὰ γένη φυλάττωσι, to prevent promiscuous connexion.

The remarks of the text are defective on the subject of breeding, leaving much to be supplied by experience and reference to other authorities. Arrian, however, was too good a judge of the importance of purity of blood in the greyhound kennel to attend to the mongrel crosses recommended by other cynegetical writers, whose object seems to have been to induce sportsmen to correct the faults or defects of one species by crossing it with another in which the opposite excellencies abounded. The ancients, before the time of Arrian at least, had no idea of correcting the imperfections of individuals of the same species by selecting from it other individuals in which the same defects were not apparent, but rather “a redundancy of the desired excellency, coveted in the imperfect animal.” Such is the plan of Gratius:

[Sidenote: Gratii Cyneg. 193.]

Idcirco variis miscebo gentibus usum.
Quondam inconsultis mater dabit Umbrica Gallis
Sensum agilem, traxêre animos de patre Gelonæ
Hyrcano, et vanæ tantum Calydonia linguæ
Exibit vitium patre emendata Molosso.
Scilicet ex omni florem virtute capessunt,
Et sequitur natura favens.

[Sidenote: De Re Rust. L. +ii.+ c. +ix.+]

[Sidenote: L. +xix.+ c. +i.+]

Varro, however, speaking of the breed of the shepherd’s dog, says “magni interest ex semine esse canes _eodem_;” by which he means that it should not be crossed with any hunting breed. But in the “Geoponica” we are cautioned against allowing those of the same litter to have sexual connexion with each other, φυλάττεσθαι μή ποτε οἱ ἐκ τῆς αὐτῆς μητρὸς ὄντες κύνες τῇ πρὸς ἀλλήλους μίξει χρήσαιντο—a circumstance the more remarkable, because breeding in and in (φωνᾶντα συνέτοισι) was general in other animals, though not practised in the canine tribe:

[Sidenote: Ovid. Met. L. +x.+]

Coeuntque animalia nullo
Cætera delicto, nec habetur turpe juvencæ
Ferre patrem tergo, fit equo sua filia conjux.

Oppian’s tale to the contrary is not worthy of attention.

The Greek poet of the Chase goes a little farther than his Cynegetical predecessors on the subject of breeding. His concubinage is promiscuous, and he seems indifferent whether the varieties united be both of a mild, or both of a savage disposition, or each different in its type and character. The male and female are to be suited to each other, and of superior excellence—

[Sidenote: Cyneg. +i.+ vs. 392.]

ἅρμενα τ’ ἀλλήλοισιν, ἐοικότα τ’ ἔξοχα φῦλα.

Then uniting the Arcadian with the Elean, the Cretan with the Pannonian, the Carian with the Thracian, the Tuscan with the Spartan, and the Sarmatian with the Iberian, he concludes with a preference of pure blood:

ὥδε μὲν εὖ κεράσειας· ἀτὰρ πολὺ φέρτατα πάντων
φῦλα μένει μονόφυλα, τά τ’ ἔξοχα τεκμῄραντο
ἄνδρες ἐπακτῆρες.

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

gens una tamen felicior unâ
Nascitur ex specie.

[Sidenote: Hist. Quad. L. +i.+ p. 259.]

Belin de Ballu in his “Animadversiones” has evidently mistaken Oppian’s meaning in the latter part of this citation. The poet alludes to an union of the qualities of individuals of the same variety of dog; and not, as supposed by the French critic, to breeding _in and in_, or proximity of blood, in the same family—a practice as degenerative in the canine race, if persevered in for a length of time, as the Stagirite has observed it to be in the human species. See Aristot. de Rhetoricâ L. +ii.+ c. 17. Brodæus very properly explains μονόφυλα by ἰδιόφυλα in his annotations. And Conrad Gesner, with his usual accuracy, says: “Præstantissimi quidem canes in suo quique genere μονόφυλοι sunt, id est, ex unius generis parentibus prognati: verùm superflua venatorum cura miscere etiam diversa genera, quæ quidem innumera sunt, adinvenit.”

[Sidenote: P. Angelii Bargæi Cyneg. L. +v.+]

Ipsa tamen generi sua cuique est maxima virtus.
Et quamvis variis proles genitoribus orta
Testeturque animos, et magnum robur avorum;
Inque uno interdum geminetur pectore duplex
Utilitas; tamen illa alieno protinùs usu
Degenerat, semperque magis producit inertem
Progeniem, et patriâ longè à virtute remotam.

[218]

[Sidenote: Aristotelis Hist. Animal. L. +vi.+ 20.]

Τὰ δὲ καταμήνια ταῖς κυσὶν ἑπτὰ ἡμέραις γίνεται· συμβαίνει δὲ ἅμα καὶ ἔπαρσις αἰδοίου· ἐν δὲ τῷ χρονῷ τουτῷ οὐ προσίενται ὀχείαν, ἀλλ’ ἐν ταῖς μετὰ ταύτας ἑπτὰ ἡμέραις· τὰς γὰρ πάσας δοκεῖ σκυζᾷν ἡμέρας τέτταρας καὶ δέκα ὡς ἐπὶ τὸ πολύ.

[Sidenote: Gratii Cyneg. vs. 163.]

Dat Venus accessus, et blando fœdere jungit.

The son of Gryllus recommends (c. vii.) the same watchful delay to insure fruitful intercourse: ἄγειν δὲ καταπαυομένας, ἵνα θᾶττον ἐγκύμονες γίγνωνται, πρὸς κύνας ἀγαθούς. The term καταπαυομένας here signifies “when their heat is beginning to remit a little,” and not, as rendered by Blane, “in a quiet manner.”

[Sidenote: Fracastorii Alcon.]

Bis quinas tamen antè dies, accensus uterque
In venerem, venere abstineant; sic plena libido
Acrius exstimulat, viresque ad semina præbet.
Hinc major soboles, atque inde valentior exit.

[219] Ἀγαθὴ δὲ τῇ θηλεία ἡλικία, &c. Marvellous tales are on record of periods much later than the seventh year, in which bitches have given birth to numerous progenies; but Arrian has specified a limited time within which a greyhound bitch may be considered as being at the acme of her bodily powers, and likely to yield such a litter as will not disappoint the expectations of the Veltrarius. To Mr. Pope we are indebted, in his endeavour to reconcile with probability the age of the Homeric Argus,—

[Sidenote: Odyssey, B. +xvii.+ vs. 394.]

The dog whom fate had granted to behold
His lord, when twenty tedious years had roll’d,—

[Sidenote: Ælian. Hist. Animal. L. +vii.+ c. 29.]

for the almost incredible case of a gravid bitch of the age of twenty-two years. After which, we may well exclaim in the words of the Greek naturalist, οὔκουν οὐδὲ Ἄργος ὁ κύων μυθοποίημα ἦν, ὦ θεῖε Ὅμηρε, σὸν, οὐδὲ κόμπος ποιητικός!

[220] Xenophon merely says that the dog and bitch should be ἀγαθοὶ, and the Faliscian adds that they be of tried spirit,

[Sidenote: Cyneget. vs. 266.]

Et primum expertos animi, quæ gratia prima est,
In venerem jungunt, &c.

[Sidenote: The Chace. B. +iv.+]

for every longing dame select
Some happy paramour; to him _alone_
In leagues connubial join. Consider well
His lineage; what his fathers did of old,
Chiefs of the pack, &c.

[221] Αἱ γὰρ ἐν τῷ ἐμφανεῖ ὁμιλίαι οὐ γόνιμοι. This ridiculous notion, though doubtfully advanced in the manual, is supported by many of the old Cynegetica.

[Sidenote: Gratii Cyneg. 279.]

Sed frustrà longus properat labor, abdita si non
Altas in latebras, unique inclusa marito
Fœmina, nec patitur veneris sub tempore mœchos
Illa, neque emeritæ servat fastigia laudis.
Primi complexus, dulcissima prima voluptas.
Hunc veneri dedit impatiens natura furorem.

[Sidenote: Cynograph. Curios. p. 54.]

The credulous author of the Cynographia Curiosa adds to the absurdity of the notion by saying, “Si tum videantur canes, venationi inutiles parient,” borrowing the same from the Cynosophium, where such an opinion is said to be the result of long experience. See Cynosoph. c. +ii.+

[222]

[Sidenote: Aristot. Hist. Animal. L. +vi.+]

κυΐσκεταί τε κύων ἐκ μιᾶς ὀχείας· δῆλον δὲ τοῦτο γίνεται μάλιστα ἐν τοῖς κλέπτουσι τὰς ὀχειάς· ἅπαξ γὰρ ἐπιβάντες πληροῦσι, says the Stagirite: and again he remarks, that the Spartan dog and bitch are more inclined to copulate after exercise, a fact well known to sportsmen: πονήσαντες γὰρ μᾶλλον δύνανται ὀχεύειν, ἢ ἀργοῦντες. (See Scaliger’s note on the passage, L. +vi.+ c. +xx.+) This circumstance is also noticed by Ælian and Julius Pollux. Indeed the author of the Onomasticon, in a passage that has escaped the observation of commentators, throws considerable light on the text, which is here rather obscure. See L. +v.+ c. +vi.+ 51. of the Onomasticon.

[Sidenote: P. Angelii Bargæi Cyneg. L. +v.+]

Nec priùs optatam in venerem dimitte volentes,
Quàm rapido quassis cursu, quàm corpora multo
Sole fatigatis vehementior ingruat æstus.
Inde decem noctes, totidemque ex ordine luces
Abde domi, cursusque omnes prohibere memento.

[223]

[Sidenote: Gratii Cyneg. vs. 286.]

A greyhound bitch may be taken out coursing for ten days after having been warded, but not longer—“Da requiem _gravidæ_, solitosque remitte labores.” Walking exercise, however, should be continued till the period of parturition arrive.

[Sidenote: Encyc. Méthod. Sur les Chasses, p. 140.]

“Il est prouvé qu’une lice couverte, qu’on laisse au chenil, s’engraisse et s’appésantit en cessant de travailler, et qu’en cet état elle fait ses chiens avec peine, et souvent même elle meurt dans l’opération”—“on la fait promener de tems en tems dehors, par un valet de chiens,” &c. &c.

The period of uterine gestation is in the Celtic greyhound the same as in other varieties of the canine tribe:

[Sidenote: Nemesian. Cyneg. vs. 130.]

Mox cum se bina formârit lampade Phœbe
Ex quo passa marem genitalia viscera turgent,
Fœcundos aperit partus matura gravedo
Continuò, largâque vides strepere omnia prole!

[Sidenote: Hist. Quadrup. De Cane.]

Conrad Gesner remarks: “observavi in canibus nostris nonnullas catellas gessisse uterum præcisè diebus 60, nonnullas uno insuper aut duobus. Peregrina leporaria nostra excellens tulit uterum diebus 63.”

[224] Τὸν ἄῤῥενα μὴ ἐφίεναι ἐπὶ λαγών. This caution is unnecessary for modern coursers, who rarely use the same hound in the field and kennel, for coursing the hare, and supplying the pack with high-bred successors. But if the same dog be employed for both purposes, the interval specified for the restoration of his powers is not too long. The Cynosophium, however, suggests a shorter period of 30 days, during which nutritious food is to be administered, and then the stallion hound may be again taken out for sport.

[225] Although the rule has its exceptions, (see Brodæus in Oppianum, p. 42.) Aristotle’s observation, that animals in general ὁρμᾶ πρὸς τὸν συνδυασμὸν in the vernal season, will be found correct.

[Sidenote: Virgil. Georg. +iii.+ 272.]

Vere magis, quià vere calor redit ossibus.

[Sidenote: Oppian. Halieut. L. +i.+ vs. 473.]

εἴαρι δὲ γλυκὺς οἶστρος ἀναγκαίης Ἀφροδίτης
καὶ γάμοι ἡβώωσι, καὶ ἀλλήλων φιλότητες
πᾶσιν ὅσοι γαῖάν τε φερέσβιον, αἵ τ’ ἀνὰ κόλπους
ἠέρος, οἵ τ’ ἀνὰ πόντον ἐριβρύχην δονέονται.

[Sidenote: De Venatione. c. +vii.+]

All the Cynegetica agree with Arrian as to the spring being the most fit season for breeding and rearing puppies. Ἡ γὰρ ὥρα πρὸς τὰς αὐξήσεις τῶν κυνῶν κρατίστη αὕτη, says Xenophon; and the same opinion is repeated by the copyists of later date, with little addition. Indeed, the reasons alleged in the text are the best that can be adduced for preferring the spring to any other season:

[Sidenote: Oppian. Cyneg. L. +i.+ v. 375.]

εἰ δὲ νύ τοι κεράσαι φίλον ἔπλετο δῖα γένεθλα,
εἴαρι μὲν πρώτιστα λέχος πόρσυνε κύνεσσιν.

[Sidenote: La Vénerie. p. 9.]

[Sidenote: Countrey Contentments. B. +i.+ p. 26.]

The Cynosophium specifies January and February as the best breeding months. “La droite saison,” says Fouilloux, “en laquelle doivent naistre est en Mars, Avril, et May, que le temps est tempéré, et que les chaleurs ne sont trop véhémentes.” He gives the same reasons as our author for avoiding summer and autumn, and is, of course, followed verbatim by Turberville. Markham would “put them together to ingender and breed, eyther in January, February, or March, according as they shall grow proud; for those are the three most principall monthes in the yeare for hound, bitches, or bratches, to be limed in: not but that they may conceive and bring forth as good whelps in other monthes; but because there will be much losse of time in the entering of them.” He farther enjoins that “the moone be eyther in the signe Aquarius or Gemini; for it is held amongst the best huntsmen of this land, that the whelpes that are ingendred under those two signes, wil never runne mad, and for the most part the litter will have at least double so many dogge whelpes as bitch whelpes.”

[226] Ἄλλως τε καὶ ἀπορίᾳ γάλακτος. The want of this essential article of nutriment renders the winter objectionable for the rearing of whelps; but its abundance in the spring gives to this season an additional claim:

[Sidenote: Nemesian. Cyneg. vs. 158.]

passim nam lactis abundans
Tempus adest, albent plenis et ovilia mulctris.

[227]

[Sidenote: Geoponic. L. +xix.+ c. +ii.+]

[Sidenote: Encyc. Méthod. Les Chasses. p. 139.]

Ὅτι χειμὼν ἐπιλαμβάνει τὰ σκυλάκια. The greyhound puppy is remarkably tender and susceptible of cold; indeed Fronto says that the whelp of the pastoral dog requires to be fostered in warmth, δυσχείμερον γάρ ἐστι τοῦτο τὸ ζῶον: and if an animal, necessarily of a hardy constitution, be, when young, impatient of severe cold, we shall readily acknowledge the importance of such a seasonable birth for the delicate Celtic whelp, as will give him during his period of growth two summers to one winter. “Il faut, autant qu’il est possible, faire couvrir les lices à la fin de l’hiver ou au commencement du printems, par la raison que les jeunes chiens, à qui les froids sont toujours nuisibles, ont pour eux deux étés contre un hiver, et qu’en conséquence ils s’élèvent plus aisément.”

[Sidenote: Geoponic. L. +xix.+ c. +i.+]

It is an essential part of kennel management to support brood bitches with the most nutritious aliment. Varro (in Geoponicis) recommends barley bread, in preference to wheaten, as more nutritious, with mutton broth from bones, &c. poured over the bread, to be given before whelping; and afterwards, barley meal with cow’s or goat’s milk, boiled bones, and water to drink. The same instructions are delivered, almost αὐτολεξεὶ, by Varro, de Re Rusticâ, L. +ii.+ c. +ix.+ In the latter reference, the author expressly says the bitches are more nourished by barley than wheaten bread, “magis eo aluntur, et lactis præbent majorem facultatem.” But the experiments of the late Sir H. Davy on the quantum of nutritious matter contained in the different varieties of bread corn, and the test to which they have been put, in kennel feeding, by practical sportsmen, induce us to believe that the “Scriptores de Re Rusticâ” are mistaken on this point. The farina of wheat is the best food for brood bitches, boiled with milk, or scalded with meat-broth. Of the importance of keeping brood bitches on highly nutritious food, the old huntsman, Pan, “Deus Arcadiæ,” was fully aware; for Diana found him carving a lynx for their repast:

[Sidenote: Callimach. H. in Dian.]

——ἵκεο δ’ αὖλιν
Ἀρκαδικὴν ἐπὶ Πανός· ὁ δὲ κρέα λυγκὸς ἔταμνε
Μαιναλίης, ἵνα οἱ τοκάδες κύνες εἶδαρ ἔδοιεν.

[228]

[Sidenote: Aristotelis Hist. Animal. L. +vi.+ 286.]

[Sidenote: Aldrovandi de Quad. Digit, Vivip. L. +iii.+]

The number of whelps in a litter varies much. The translator’s experience affords instances of twelve at a birth, and of a solitary puppy, from the same Celtic dam. Aristotle states the former number to be the greatest in a canine litter; but Julius Cæsar Scaliger (a celebrated dog-fancier) certifies, in his annotations on the Stagirite’s Animal History, a litter of fourteen whelps, as within his own knowledge: and this is again surpassed by the case of the canis leporaria recorded by Aldrovandus, “Canis leporaria hic Bononiæ, unicâ fœturâ, catulos septenos supra decem enixa est.”

[229]

[Sidenote: De Re Rust. L. +vii.+ c. 12.]

Μὴ ἐᾲν ἐκτρέφειν αὐτήν. Whether the bitch be again required for the field or not, no humane courser will allow her to suckle more than four or five whelps. If she be young, Columella advises that the first litter should be taken from her: “primus effœtæ partus amovendus est, quoniam tiruncula nec rectè nutrit; et educatio totius habitûs aufert incrementum.” Nemesian also destroys the first litter, and the smallest pups of subsequent litters:

[Sidenote: Cyneget. vs. 134.]

Sed quamvis avidus, primos contemnere partus
Malueris, mox non omnes nutrire minores.
Nam tibi si placitum populosos poscere fœtus,
Jam macie tenues, succique videbis inanes,
Pugnantesque diu, quisnam prior ubera lambat,
Distrahere invalidam lassato viscere matrem.

[Sidenote: De Re Rust. L. +ii.+ c. 9.]

[Sidenote: Geoponic. L. +xix.+ c. 2.]

“In nutricatu secundum partum,” says Varro, “si plures sunt, statim eligere oportet quos habere velis, reliquos abjicere: quàm paucissimos reliqueris, tam optimi in alendo fiunt propter copiam lactis.” Fronto also agrees with him, and out of a litter of seven recommends only three or four to be left with the mother; out of three, only two.

Many are the diagnostics, recorded in the ancient Cynegetica, to assist the classic sportsman in selecting the most promising puppies:

[Sidenote: Gratii Cyneget. vs. 287.]

tum deinde monebo,
Ne matrem indocilis natorum turba fatiget,
Percensere notis, jamque inde excernere parvos.
Signa dabunt ipsæ, teneris vix artubus hæret
Ille tuos olim non defecturus honores:
Jamque illum impatiens æquæ vehementia sortis
Extulit, affectat maternâ regna sub alvo.
Ubera tota tenet, à tergo liber aperto,
Dum tepida indulget terris clementia mundi.
Verum ubi Caurino perstrinxit frigore vesper
Ira jacet, turbâque potens operitur inerti.
Illius è manibus vires sit cura futuras
Perpensare: leveis deducet pondere fratres:
Nec me pignoribus, nec te mea carmina fallent.

Nemesian demands our assent to a novel and somewhat cruel mode of ascertaining the best puppies of a numerous litter, and states that it is founded on actual experiment:

[Sidenote: Nemesian. Cyneget. vs. 144.]

quæ prodidit usus
Percipe, et intrepidus spectatis annue dictis.
Pondere nam catuli poteris perpendere vires,
Corporibusque leves gravibus prænoscere cursus.
Quin et flammato ducatur linea longè
Circuitu, signetque habilem vapor igneus orbem.
Impunè in medio possis consistere circo.
Hùc omnes catuli, hùc indiscreta feratur
Turba, dabit mater partus examine honestos,
Judicio natos servans, trepidoque perîclo.
Nam postquam conclusa videt sua germina flammis,
Continuo saltu transcendens fervida zonæ
Vincla, rapit rictu primum, portatque cubili;
Mox alium, mox deinde alium. Sic conscia mater
Segregat egregiam sobolem virtutis amore.

[Sidenote: Cynosoph. c. +iii.+]

[Sidenote: Hist. Quad. L. +i.+ p. 178. De Cane.]

The same diagnostics occur in the Cynosophium of Demetrius, and the Alcon of Fracastorius. The former says, the dam φυσικῷ τινὶ πόθῳ διακρίσει τὰ βελτίονα, καὶ ἐξάγει, and recommends the refuse to be disposed of by sale or gift, after having been placed under foster-parents. The heavier whelps should be placed, according to this writer, under their own dam. But, of course, our diagnostic canons must vary with each variety of dog. Gesner reconciles the conflicting opinions of the Greek and Latin Cynegetica, on the selection of puppies, in these words: “ego ita conciliârim, ut ad robur præferendi sunt graviores; ad celeritatem, leviores.”

[Sidenote: Hist. Nat. L. +viii.+ c. 40.]

“Optimus in fœtu,” says Pliny, “qui novissimè cernere incipit, aut quem fert primum in cubile fœta:” and he is supported by the Virgilian poet of Barga—

[Sidenote: P. Angelii Bargæi Cyneg. L. +v.+]

Namque ea quem secum tulit in stramenta, toroque
Composuit primum, primoque affecit honore,
Ille alios omnes cursuque animisque superbis
Vincet ovans, simul ac loris exire solutis
Quiverit, et saltu transgressus inania campi
Intervalla cito diffugerit ocyus Euro.

He condemns the large and heavy pup as likely to be hereafter deficient in speed:

[Sidenote: Ejusdem L. +v.+]

Continuò cujus subsidunt pondere membra
Atque artus major moles gravat, ille volucri
Insuetus cursu longè post ultima fratrum
Terga relinquetur, frustraque optabit adempta
Præmiaque, et multo perfusam sanguine prædam.

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

“Touching greyhounds,” says the practical author of Countrey Contentments, “when they are puppies or young whelpes, those which are most raw-boned, leane, loose-made, sickle or crooked hought, and generally unknit in every member, are ever likely to make the best dogges, and most shapely: but such as in the first three or foure monthes, are round, and close trust, fat, straight, and as it were full sum’d and knit in every member, never prove good, swift, or comely.”

The courser, in selecting youngsters from a numerous litter, will not be indifferent to

The marks of their renown’d progenitors—
Sure pledge of triumphs yet to come;

but will preserve all such “with joy,” while he casts “the dwindling refuse to the merciless flood,” fearful of overloading “the indulgent mother.”

[230]

[Sidenote: Noct. Attic. L. +xii.+ c. +i.+]

[Sidenote: The Governour. B. +i.+ c. +iv.+]

Τὸ γὰρ τῶν ἀγεννῶν γάλα οὐ ξύμφυλον ταῖς γενναίαις. It is difficult to prove that the quality of the milk of varieties of the same species of animal is absolutely different, and productive of effects, beyond its physical nutriment, upon the innate powers and propensities of the young animal supported by it: and yet such an opinion is too much countenanced by naturalists to make us unhesitatingly condemn it as destitute of all foundation. It was a favourite notion of ancient physiologists, and many moral inferences were drawn from it by Galen and others. “Non frustrà creditum est,” says A. Gellius, on the authority of the philosopher Favorinus, “sicuti valeat ad fingendas corporis atque animi similitudines vis et natura seminis, non secùs ad eandem rem lactis quoque ingenia et proprietates valere; neque in hominibus id solùm, sed in pecudibus quoque animadversum,” &c. Wherefore Sir Thomas Elyot enjoins, when speaking of nutrication, “a nourse shoulde be of no servile condicion, or vyce notable: for as some auncient writers do suppose, oftentymes the chylde sucketh the vyce of hys nouryse with the mylke of her pappe.” See Brathwait’s English Gentleman, p. 94.

[Sidenote: Oppian. Cyneg. +i.+ 435.]

εἰ δὲ νύ τοι πινυτὴ σκυλακοτροφίη μεμέληται,
μή ποτ’ ἀμέλγεσθαι σκύλακας νεοθηλέϊ μαζῷ
αἰγῶν, ἢ προβάτων, μηδ’ οἰκιδίησι κύνεσσιν·
ἦ γάρ τοι νωθροί τε καὶ οὐτιδανοὶ βαρύθοιεν.

[Sidenote: Columel. de R. R. L. +vii.+ c. 12.]

Nec unquam eos quorum generosam volumus indolem conservare, patiemur alienæ nutricis uberibus educari; quoniam semper et lac et spiritus maternus longè magis ingenii atque incrementa corporis augent.

[231]

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

Κράτιστον ἐᾷν ὑπὸ τῇ τεκούσῃ.—Arrian here copies his predecessor almost verbatim; but in addition to the τὸ γάλα ἀγαθὸν καὶ τὸ πνεῦμα of the former, the latter adds καὶ αἱ περιβολαὶ φίλαι. The classic reader will remember the pathetic address of Andromache in the Troades,

[Sidenote: Euripidis Troad. vs. 766.]

ὦ νέον ὑπαγκάλισμα μητρὶ φίλτατον,
ὦ χρωτὸς ἡδὺ πνεῦμα!

[Sidenote: Platonis Menexenus.]

[Sidenote: Encyclopéd. Méthodique. Les Chasses. p. 140.]

[Sidenote: Booke of Hunting, &c. p. 22.]

It is true that a foster-mother may “cherish kind—an alien offspring,” and “pleased” we may “behold her tenderness, and hospitable love,” but instances are, I believe, most rare of greyhound puppies, suckled by alien dams of mongrel blood, repaying the courser for the trouble of rearing them. Πᾶν γὰρ τὸ τεκὸν τροφὴν ἔχει ἐπιτηδείαν ᾧ ἂν τέκῃ: and it is in vain that we make the unnatural attempt, αἱ γὰρ θεραπεῖαι αἱ ἀλλότριαι οὐκ εἰσὶν αὔξιμοι, according to both Xenophons; whereas “les jeunes chiens, nourris par leur propre mère, seroient plus forts et mieux portans que ceux qui sont nourris d’un lait étranger.” “When a bitch hath whelpes,” says Turberville, “let a mastiffe bitch (une matine, Fouilloux) give sucke to one halfe, and you shall find that they will never be so good as those which the damme did bring up.”

[Sidenote: Oppian. Cyneg. +iii.+ 107.]

ἦ ῥα τόσον τέκεών τε, καὶ ἀρτιγόνοιο γενέθλης
φίλτρον ἐνὶ κραδίῃ στάξεν θεός·
τόσσον ῥα φύσις κρατερώτατον ἄλλων.

[232] Χρὴ γάλακτι ἀνατρέφειν αὐτά. See Ch. +viii.+ where he also speaks of milk food; and Xenophon. de Venat. c. +vii.+ 4. The latter recommends milk for the first year: καὶ οἷς μέλλει τὸν ἅπαντα χρόνον βιώσεσθαι, ἄλλο δὲ μηδέν—αἱ γὰρ βαρεῖαι πλησμοναὶ τῶν σκυλακίων διαστρέφουσι σκέλη, σώμασι νόσους ἐμποιοῦσι, καὶ τὰ ἐντὸς ἄδικα γίγνεται.

[Sidenote: Gratii Cyneg. vs. 304.]

tum denique fœtû
Cum desunt, operis fregitque industria matres,
Transeat in catulos omnis tutela relictos.
Lacte novam pubem, facilique tuebere mazâ.
Nec luxus alios avidæque impendia vitæ
Noscant.

[Sidenote: Columella De Re Rust. L. +vii.+ c. 2.]

Columella also, and the Carthaginian poet, administer milk to the young fry, and Pollux with his copyist Paullini adds thereto the blood of the game to which the hounds are to be afterwards entered; “Quod si effœta lacte deficitur, caprinum maximè conveniet præberi catulis, dum fiant mensium quatuor:”

[Sidenote: Nemesian. Cyneg. vs. 161.]

Interdumque cibo cererem cum lacte ministra,
Fortibus ut succis teneras complere medullas
Possint, et validas jam tunc promittere vires.

[Sidenote: Cynograph. Curiosa. p. 33.]

“Probè autem despiciendum,” says the credulous physician of Eisenach, on the authority of Julius Pollux, “cui generi singulos applicare velis, ut eorum animalium, quæ venationi sunt destinata, sanguinem cum offis statim post ablactationem subministres,” &c.

[Sidenote: =Mayster of Game.= c. +xii.+ fol. 51.]

“Thei hav grete nede of hur dame,” according to Duke Edmund, “in to the tyme that thei be ij monethis olde, and than thei shuld be fedde with gootis mylke or with kowes mylk and cromes of brede ymade smale and put there inne; and specially in the morowe and at nyght by cause that y^{e}. nyght is more cold than the day and also men shuld geve hem crommes in fflesh brothe and in this wise men may norfshe hem tyl thei be of half yeere olde.”

[Sidenote: Blondus de Canibus, &c.]

Largus victus solet esse maximo damno.

[Sidenote: Oppian. Halieut. L. +i.+ 719.]

It very rarely happens that the κύων ἀρτιτόκος is deficient in milk for six or eight weeks after the birth of her progeny;

[Sidenote: Lucretii L. +v.+ 805.]

fœmina quæque
Cum peperit dulci repletur lacte, quod omnis
Impetus in mammas convertitur ille alimenti:

but if the puppies do not thrive on the nutriment they derive from their dam, it is probably deficient in quantity, and should be dispensed with altogether as soon as they will lap cow’s milk sufficient for their support.

[Sidenote: P. Angelii Bargæi Cyneg. L. +v.+]

Tum tu adeò (nam tempus erit) jam parce parenti,
Exhaustis parce uberibus. Sed mollia nondum
Subducenda tamen natis alimenta, sed haustu
Pascendi lactis, cujus mulctralia pingues
Implerunt vaccæ, et redeuntes rure capellæ.

[Sidenote: Booke of Hunting, p. 22.]

Turberville says, “the longer they tast of their dammes teat, the more they shall take of her complexion and nature.” And when weaned, “it is best,” he remarks, “to bring them up abroad with milke, bread, and all sorts of pottages, and you shall understand that to bring them up in villages of the country, is much better than to bring them up in a butcherie:” “aux villages, et non aux boucheries,” Fouilloux p. 9.

[Sidenote: Lord Bacon’s Nat. History. Cent. +iv.+]

How close is the analogy “touching the acceleration of growth and stature,” in the human and canine subject! In breeding for the kennel, Lord Bacon’s observations may be turned to some account. “Excess of nourishment,” says he, “is hurtful; for it maketh the child corpulent, and growing in breadth rather than in height.” “The nature of it may not be too dry, and therefore children in dairy countries do wax more tall, than where they feed more upon bread and flesh;” “over-dry nourishment in childhood putteth back stature.” Upon which principle Albertus Magnus orders liquid food for the dog, because his temperament is dry.

[Sidenote: Countrey Contentments. B. +i.+ p. 27.]

It is seldom that the practical courser will differ from the advice of old Gervase Markham; but when he says, “if the house you keep be of great receite, and many servants, you shall let your cooke bring up your whelpes, and your dairy-maide your second best, and the rest you shall put forth amongst your friends or tenants, according unto the love you possesse in the country,” I am inclined to invert the merits of the respective claimants on the litter, placing la cuisinière at the bottom of the list.

[Sidenote: Somerville. The Chace. B. +iv.+]

————unto thy choicest friends
Commit thy valued prize: the rustic dames
Shall at thy kennel wait, and in their laps
Receive thy growing hopes, with many a kiss
Caress, and dignify their little charge
With some great title, and resounding name
Of high import.

[233]

[Sidenote: Columella de Re Rust. L. +vii.+ c. 12.]

See Xenophon de Venat. c. +vii.+ 5. All the names left us by Xenophon, Arrian, and Columella, are dissyllabical. Nominibus autem non longissimis appellandi sunt, quo celeriùs quisque vocatus exaudiat; nec tamen brevioribus, quàm quæ duabus syllabis enuntientur. Oppian names his puppies, while young and tractable, νηπιάχοι:

[Sidenote: Cyneg. +i.+ 443.]

αὐτὰρ νηπιάχοισιν ἐπ’ οὐνόματα σκυλάκεσσι
βαιὰ τίθει, θοὰ πάντα, θοὴν ἵνα βάξιν ἀκούῃ.

By which Gesner supposes the names should be “oxytona.” Natalis Comes agrees with his predecessors:

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

ponantur nomina cuique
Certa cani, teneatque ad summum syllaba bina:
Protinùs ut noscat voces, et verba vocantum.

The indefatigable German naturalist has alphabetically arranged all the classic names of the Greek and Roman kennels that have descended to us. We find in his canine vocabulary, those of Xenophon, Ovid, Columella, and others of ancient days; and some from Blondus (of which Gesner disapproves) of more modern use. Hyginus has a copious list of canine appellatives in his 181st fable, entitled “Diana.” And one of the most chaste poets of the fifteenth century supplies the kennel with

[Sidenote: Hercules Stroza.]

bona naribus Heuresiïchne,
Theragus, Ocypete, Thoissa, Melæna, Cylindus,
Chætodesque hirtus setis, domitorque ferarum
Theridamas, veloxque Lagois, et ocyor illa
Protodomus, longoque legens compendia passu
Macrobates, Leuconque rapaci et cum Harpage Theron.

[234] Εἰ δὲ μή πω ἐθέλοις σκυλακεῦσαι. Schneider is of opinion that Arrian is here cautioning the courser against running a bitch, whom it has been deemed prudent to put aside from taking the dog, and whose milk-vessels are distended towards the close of the period of gestation, as if she were actually pregnant. This interpretation is ingenious, and may be tenable; but as I find no such caution in any ancient author, and have never seen any mischief accrue from running a bitch at the time alluded to, (though her speed is certainly impaired by the constitutional plethora of the period;) and, moreover, as it magnifies a very unimportant circumstance in the physical condition of the bitch, and is, on the whole, rather a far-fetched interpretation, I have followed Blancard and Zeune in the more usual acceptation of the verb σκυλακεύειν, i. e. catulos nutrire. No man in his senses would think of coursing a brood bitch while in the state described in the text.

[235] Καὶ παρίστανται ἤδη ἐς δρόμον. These words commence the 32nd Chapter in all the editions which I have examined; and though Schneider suggests their adaptation to the close of the present Chapter, he does not venture to change their position. Inasmuch, however, as the division into chapters is probably arbitrary, and the words in question are more appropriate here than at the commencement of the ensuing Chapter, they are here introduced.

[236] Κύων θήλεια μὲν ὠκυτέρα ἄῥῤενος. I have already remarked that Arrian and Xenophon invariably use the feminine gender when speaking of the dogs of the chase: and so also the Grecian poets, (as the κυσὶν ταχείαις of Euripides, and σκυλάκεσσι θοαῖς of Oppian,) and in some cases the Latin, (as the “canes montivag_æ_” of Lucretius, “venatic_a_ canis” of Ennius, and “mult_â_ cane” of Horace); as if bitches were more quick-scented, “more fleet of foot, or sure of fang.” Minerva, in the Ajax Flagellifer, compares Ulysses searching for the mad Ajax, to a Spartan bitch; though the verse would have admitted the masculine instead of the feminine gender, and the former would certainly have been more appropriate to the sex of the person represented. The gender is changed by the poet in a marked way:

[Sidenote: Sophoclis Ajax Flagell. vs. 2.]

καὶ νῦν ἐπὶ σκηναῖς σε ναυτικαῖς ὁρῶ
Αἴαντος, ἔνθα τάξιν ἐσχάτην ἔχει,
πάλαι κυνηγετοῦντα, καὶ μετρούμενον
ἴχνη τὰ κείνου νεοχάραχθ’, ὅπως ἴδῃς
εἴτ’ ἔνδον, εἴτ’ οὐκ ἔνδον· εὖ δέ σ’ ἐκφέρει
κυνὸς Λακαίνης ὥς τις εὔρινος βάσις.

[Sidenote: Markham’s Countrey Contentments. B. +i.+ p. 47.]

This opinion, therefore, of the superiority of the bitch over the dog seems to have prevailed in the kennels of antiquity; and such, I believe, is still entertained by sportsmen. “It is an old received opinion,” observes the author of Countrey Contentments, “amongst many men of the leashe, that the greyhound bitch will ever beate the greyhound dogge, by reason of her more nimblenesse, quicknesse, and agillity; and it is sometimes seene that a perfect good bitch indeed, hath much advantage of an ordinary dogge: but if the good dogge meet with the good bitch, there is then no comparison, but the dogge will be her master, inasmuch as he exceedeth her both in lengthe and strengthe, the two maine helpes in coursing; for her nimblenesse is then no helpe, sith a good dogge in the turne will loose as little ground as any bitch whatsoever.” See also The Countrey Farme, c. +xxii.+ by Markham, ed. 1616. The earliest edition, of 1600, does not contain Markham’s additional remarks on coursing, but merely Surflet’s version of “Maison Rustique.”

[237]

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

Ἄῤῥην δὲ θηλείας διαπονεῖσθαι ἀμείνων. Aristotle remarks, in the Spartan tribe of dogs, that the bitches are longer-lived than the dogs, in consequence of the latter working harder than the former, διὰ τὸ πονεῖν τοὺς ἀῤῥένας μᾶλλον. “Wheresoever,” says Markham, “the course shall stand forth long, the good dogge will _beat out_ the good bitch and make her give over.”

[238] Αἱ θήλειαι μὲν ἀγαπητὸν, κ. τ. λ. I am not aware of any difference having been observed by coursers, in the duration of the comparative speed of the dog and bitch. It is not inability to run that disqualifies a greyhound (generally in his third year from the period of entrance) for appearance on the coursing field, but a propensity, acquired by experience, to skulk and run false:

[Sidenote: Sir W. Scott.]

Experience sage the lack of speed supplies,
And in the gap he seeks—his victim dies.

[Sidenote: Merry Wives of Windsor. Act +i.+]

We can rarely, if ever, say of any greyhound, after he has run two seasons, what _Shallow_ says of _Page’s_ fallow greyhound, who “was out-run on Cotsale:”—“He is a _good_ dog, and a _fair_ dog; can there be more said? he is _good_, and _fair_.” So soon does the fleetest dog begin to make up by cunning what he wants in willingness to work.

[239] Ἄῤῥενες δὲ καὶ ἐς δέκατον διαφυλάττουσιν. Our author is here at issue with Juliana Berners, who says of the greyhound in his ninth year,

[Sidenote: Book of St. Alban’s. 1496.]

And whan he is comyn to that yere,
Have hym to the tannere;
For the beste hounde that ever bytche had,
At nynthe yere he is full badde.

Indeed, it is incredible, however great may have been his youthful vigour, that any dog should retain his full speed till the tenth year; a period at which all the bodily powers begin to feel the gradual approach of infirmity, at which many dogs die apparently of natural decay, and all are incapacitated for strenuous exertion. “Canes Laconici,” says Pliny, “vivunt annis denis, fœminæ duodenis, cætera genera quindecim annos, aliquando viginti.” Instances of the latter protracted period are very rare. I never knew a greyhound to reach the memorable age of the Homeric Argus—

[Sidenote: Odyss. +xvii.+ 326.]

Ἄργον δ’ αὖ κατὰ μοῖρ’ ἔλαβεν μέλανος θανάτοιο,
αὐτίκ’ ἰδόντ’ Ὀδυσῆα ἐεικοστῷ ἐνιαυτῷ.

[Sidenote: The Chace. B. +iv.+]

Short is their span; few at the date arrive
Of ancient Argus, in old Homer’s song
So highly honour’d; kind, sagacious brute!

See Ælian de Nat. Animal. Buffon Hist. Natur. and Lord Bacon Hist. Vitæ et Mortis.

[240] Μέγα μοι δοκεῖ τὸ κτῆμα ἄῤῥην κύων τῇ ἀληθείᾳ γενναῖος. Such in the annals of British coursing was Topham’s Snowball, and such Bate Dudley’s Millar!

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

Tu quos ad studium venandi legeris, et quos
Dixeris hinc comites cursûs, cædisque ferarum,
Quære mares: maribus major vis est animusque,
Et melius tolerare valent certamina longa.

[241] Καὶ οὐκ ἄνευ θεῶν τοῦ εὐμενείας, κ. τ. λ. With Schneider’s sanction, I have united the 33rd Chapter of the first and second editions of the Greek text with the 32nd of the German editor, from which chapter the former seems to have been most unnecessarily separated by Holstein, or whoever first divided the Cynegeticus into sections, affixing to each a table of contents.

In accordance with Arrian’s notion, the fabulous greyhound of the suspicious Cephalus is conceived, in the imagination of the poet, to have been bestowed on the virtuous Procris by the Goddess of the Chase, with the high character of pre-eminent speed:

[Sidenote: Ovid. Metam. L. +vii.+ 754.]

quem cum sua traderet illi
Cynthia, ‘currendo superabit,’ dixerat, ‘omnes.’

[242]

[Sidenote: Attic. L. +i.+ c. +xix.+]

Ἀρτέμιδι Ἀγροτέρᾳ. This title of the sylvan goddess is variously derived by etymologists. Scheffer (Ælian. V. H. L. +ii.+ c. 25.) would have her ladyship so called from Agræ in Attica—χωρίον Ἄγραι καλούμενον, the scene of her first essay in hunting on arriving from Delos. Διαβᾶσι δὲ τὸν Εἱλισσὸν, says Pausanias, χωρίον Ἄγραι καλούμενον, καὶ ναὸς Ἀγροτέρας ἐστὶν Ἀρτέμιδος, κ. τ. λ. But Perizonius objects to Scheffer’s derivation, and also to that ἀπὸ τῆς ἄγρας, _à venatione_, considering Ἀγροτέρα rather to signify _rustica, in agris agens_. If ἄγρα, _venatio_, be the root of the title, to the same may probably be referred the titular epithet by which Apollo is connected with the chase, by Pausanias in Atticis, (L. +i.+ c. +xli.+) Ἀγραίος: unless the Attic Agræ would here afford a more ready solution. But the true derivation of Ἀγροτέρα is to be sought in ἀγρός. See Etymologicon Magnum.

From whatever source derived, it is sufficient for our purpose that the epithet is commonly applied to her in the character of “Dea Venatrix,” (Ovid. Met. L. +ii.+ 454.)—“Dea sylvarum,” (Ovid. Met. L. +iii.+ 163.)—“sævis inimica virgo—belluis,” (Hor. Od. +xii.+ l. +i.+ 22.)—as presiding over woods, and delighting in hunting. It is so used in the Thesmophoriazusæ of Aristophanes,

τάν τ’ ἐν ὄρεσι δρυογόνοι-
σι κόραν ἀείσατ’ Ἄρ-
τεμιν Ἀγροτέραν:

and in the Rape of Helen of Coluthus,

[Sidenote: Coluthi Rapt. Helenæ. vs. 32.]

οὐδὲ κασιγνήτη Λητωϊὰς Ἀπόλλωνος
Ἄρτεμις ἠτίμησε, καὶ ἀγροτέρη περ ἐοῦσα.

[Sidenote: Oneirocrit. L. +ii.+ c. +xxxv.+]

To coursers it must be a mighty consolation to know that, by virtue of this distinction, the goddess is ominous of good when seen by them as a night-phantom; at least so says the dream-interpreter of Ephesus, the fortune-telling Artemidorus—κυνηγοῖς μάλιστα συμφέρει διὰ τὴν Ἀγροτέραν.

The Odyssey affords the graphic outline from whence Apelles is supposed to have worked off his finished picture of the Goddess of the Chase as an active toxophilite:

[Sidenote: Homeri Odyss. L. +vi.+ 102.]

Ἄρτεμις εἶσι κατ’ οὔρεος ἰοχέαιρα,
ἢ κατὰ Τηΰγετον περιμήκετον, ἢ Ἐρύμανθον,
τερπομένη κάπροισι καὶ ὠκείῃς ἐλάφοισι·
τῇ δέ θ’ ἅμα Νύμφαι, κοῦραι Διὸς Αἰγιόχοιο,
Ἀγρονόμοι παίζουσι· κ. τ. λ.

The rival copy of Virgil (Æneid. L. +i.+ 502.) will occur to the reader’s recollection; and I need not again exhibit (see c. +xxii.+ note 2.) the elaborate and highly-embellished portrait of the Carthaginian poet, (Nemesian. Cyneg. vs. 86.) Effigies in marble of the Goddess of Hunting are to be seen in almost every collection; alone, with her usual symbols of venation, or accompanied by dogs of chase, or deer—or both, as in an alto-relievo at Wilton House. Temples and altars of Diana Agrotera are mentioned by Pausanias in Atticis c. +xix.+ and c. +xli.+, in eliacis +i.+ c. +xv.+, in Achaicis c. +xxvi.+

For the honour of Diana, in the character of Agrotera, the shows of wild beasts in the Roman Circus and Amphitheatre were generally designed: so Claudian,

[Sidenote: Claudian. De Consul. Mall. Theod. vs. 292.]

Tu juga Taygeti, frondosaque Mænala, Clio,
I Triviæ supplex; non aspernata rogantem
Amphitheatrali faveat Latonia pompæ!... &c.

and for their support in splendid variety, the whole world was ransacked for its rarest and most savage animals:

quodcunque tremendum est
Dentibus, aut insigne jubis, aut nobile cornu,
Aut rigidum setis capitur decus omne timorque
Sylvarum, &c.

[Sidenote: Lucian. Deor. Dial. Juno et Latona.]

No deity amongst the heathens was more terrible than the masculine daughter of Latona, (ἀῤῥενικὴ πέρα τοῦ μέτρου, καὶ ὄρειος, in Juno’s taunting language,) and none less patient of affront—

[Sidenote: Milton’s Comus, vs. 445.]

gods and men
Fear’d her stern frown, and she was queen o’ th’ woods.

The reader will call to recollection the death of the unfortunate son of Autonoë, τὸν Ἀκταίωνος ἄθλιον μόρον, (Euripid. Bacchæ,) and the desolation of the well-cultivated vineyard of Œneus (Homer. Iliad. L. +ix.+) at the hand of Dian,

[Sidenote: Iliad. L. +ix.+ 533.]

καὶ γὰρ τοῖσι κακὸν χρυσόθρονος Ἄρτεμις ὦρσε
χωσαμένη.

[Sidenote: Callimach. H. in Dian. 260.]

It is supposed that the beautiful poetry of Callimachus, in which the anger and favour of the goddess are so feelingly described, (Hymn, in Dian.,) was imitated from the Psalms of David, which the poet, peradventure, had seen at the court of King Ptolemy. See the effects of her wrath, vs. 124. σχέτλιοι οἷς τύνη χαλεπὴν, κ. τ. λ.; with which are contrasted the good luck and happiness of those to whom she is propitious, vs. 129. οὓς δέ κεν εὐμειδής τε καὶ ἵλαος, κ. τ. λ. The conclusion follows, of course, that no man in his right senses should think of slighting the powerful dispenser of so much good and evil—μή τις ἀτιμήσῃ τὴν Ἄρτεμιν.

The reader will find an amusing description of the worshipful Dian in the sulks at the marked insult of Œneus,

[Sidenote: Ovid. Metam. L. +viii.+ 277.]

(solas sine thure relictas
Præteritæ cessasse ferunt Latoïdos aras)—

in Lucian, περὶ Θυσίων: καί μοι δοκεῖ ὁρᾷν αὐτὴν ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ τότε μόνην, says the infidel satirist, τῶν ἄλλων θεῶν ἐν Οἰνέως πεπορευμένων, δεινὰ ποιοῦσαν, καὶ σχετλιάζουσαν οἵας ἑορτῆς ἀπολειφθήσεται.

[243]

[Sidenote: Plaut. Aul. +iii.+ 6. 43.]

Ἀνατιθέναι ἀπαρχὰς τῶν ἁλισκομένων τῇ Θεῷ, καὶ ἀποκαθαίρειν, κ. τ. λ.—as amended by Schneider. “Ac ne degustabant quidem novas fruges, aut vina,” says Pliny (+xviii.+ 2.) “antequam sacerdotes primitias libassent.” And our venerable courser would have his disciples observe with strictness the same religious ceremonies of dedication, purification, &c. The ancients always purified themselves before sacrificing—“Ego, nisi quid me vis, eo lavatum, ut sacrificem:” and Hector tells his mother he is afraid to pour forth even a libation to Jupiter with unwashed hands,

[Sidenote: Iliad. L. +vi.+ 266.]

χερσὶ δ’ ἀνίπτοισιν Διῒ λείβειν αἴθοπα οἶνον
ἅζομαι.

[244] The τοὺς κύνας καὶ τοὺς κυνηγέτας of our author answers to the “tota juventus” of Gratius, hereafter cited; and his ὡς νόμος, to the “lustralis de more sacri” of the Faliscian.

[245]

[Sidenote: Vénerie Normande. _La S. Hubert._]

M. Le Verrier de la Conterie derives the fête of the French Chasseurs called _La S. Hubert_ from this Celtic festival of Diana. As the latter supplanted with her images the unseen divinity of earlier adoration, she in her turn yielded the tutelage of the chase to St. Martin, St. Germain, and St. Hubert. Arrian wrote in the second century, and in the sixth we find Diana still predominant:—“Le père Dom Martin nous assure que vers la fin du sixième siècle, les Gaulois célébroient les mystères de cette divinité avec des chants excessifs, et toutes les débauches que peuvent produire l’amour et le vin, sur une montagne des Ardennes qui est dans le Luxembourg, où ils avoient une idole de Diane fort grande et fort célèbre,” &c.

M. Fleuri (Hist. Ecclesiast. Tom. +viii.+ l. +xxxv.+ n. 22.) relates the destruction of Diana’s image, and the erection of the monastery and church of St. Martin on its site. But neither St. Martin, nor St. Germain, (“évêque d’Auxerre, et chasseur de grande réputation,”) were able to preserve their ascendancy against the superior claims of St. Hubert, (“évêque de Liège, plus fin et plus rusé dans l’art de la chasse,”) who subsequently received the first-fruits of the chase, ἀπαρχὰς τῶν ἁλισκομένων, and a tenth part of the game, as an annual consecration, ἐνιαύσια, from the posterity of the Celts.

[Sidenote: Historie of Scotland. Mainus.]

The worship of Diana Venatrix extended from Celtica to the British Isles, which at an early period were peopled by a Celtic race, (see note 12. at the end of the present chapter). “Amongst other the goddes also,” says Holinshed, “whiche the Scottishmen had in most reverence, Diana was chiefe, whom they accompted as their peculiar patronesse, for that she was taken to be the goddesse of hunting, wherein consisted their chiefest exercise, pastime, and delite.” And at the same period, we find these Scoto-Celts in possession of greyhounds and hounds of chase of the highest repute, during the reign of Dorvadille.

[246] Θησαυρὸς signifies, primarily, “_theca_, ubi res pretiosa deponitur;” and secondarily, “ipsa res condita.” See Martinii Lexicon Philologicum.

[247]

[Sidenote: Pinkerton on Coins. Vol. +i.+ p. 89. and Ainsworth.]

Ἐπὶ μὲν λαγῷ ἁλόντι δύο ὀβολὼ ἐμβάλλουσιν. The game of the modern courser was valued by the Celtic sportsmen, for Dian’s treasury, at about 2½_d._ of British currency. The obolus was a small Greek coin of silver, weighing about 11 grains, in ancient money worth 1½_d._ It was the sixth part of the drachma, which nearly answered to the Roman denarius. The double obolus, or diobolion, exactly hit the value of the hare in the Celtic scale of appreciation.

[248]

[Sidenote: L. +xii.+ c. +ii.+]

[Sidenote: Ælian. de Naturâ Animal. L. +xiii.+ c. +xi.+]

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

Ἐπὶ δὲ ἀλώπεκι δραχμὴν—Anglicè, _ninepence for a fox_. The silver drachma was equal to six oboli, consequently this crafty and destructive felon was estimated at thrice the value of the hare. The reasons of the text for the extra payment must be perfectly satisfactory to the patrons of the leash—ὅτι ἐπίβουλον τὸ χρῆμα, καὶ τοὺς λαγὼς διαφθείρει, κ. τ. λ. “Fraudulentum animal,” says Isidorus, “insidiisque decipiens:” and Ælian, αἱροῦνται δὲ οἱ λαγῲ ὑπὸ ἀλωπέκων ἐνίοτε, οὐκ ἧττον δρόμῳ, ἀλλὰ καὶ μᾶλλον τέχνῃ· σοφὸν γὰρ ἀπατᾷν ἀλώπηξ, καὶ δόλους οἶδεν. Xenophon, too, remarks that foxes are wont to kill not only hares, but leverets, αὐτοὺς καὶ τὰ τέκνα: and is supported by the Cilician poet of the chase, who says of the fox—

[Sidenote: Oppian. Cyneg. L. +iii.+ 459.]

δὴ τότε καὶ θήρῃ πικρὴν ἐπὶ μῆτιν ὑφαίνει
οἰωνούς τε δόλοισιν ἑλεῖν καὶ τέκνα λαγωῶν.

[Sidenote: =Mayster of Game.= c. +viii.+ fol. 43.]

“Foxes done grete harme,” says Duke Edmund, “in wareyns of conynges and of hares, the whiche thei ete, and take hem so gynnously and withe grete malice, and not withe rennyng.”

[249]

[Sidenote: =Mayster of Game.= c. +v.+ fol. 30.]

Ἐπὶ δὲ δορκάδι τέσσαρας δραχμάς. The tetradrachm of silver was worth four drachmas, or three shillings sterling—a high valuation of the roe-deer, an animal of chase, rather scarce in the British Isles, but at all times, I believe, abundant in France. De Langley calls the roe “a good litel beest, and goodly for to hunte to.”

[250]

[Sidenote: L. +vii.+]

[Sidenote: Martial. Epigr. L. +xii.+ Ep. 68.]

[Sidenote: Antiquit. Roman. Tom. +i.+ 662.]

Ὁπόταν γενέθλια ἥκη τῆς Ἀρτέμιδος. The gods of antiquity had their natal days as well as men. “Dies nobis natalitii sunt,” says Arnobius, “et potentias cœlites dies autumant habere natales.” The anniversary of Diana’s birth-day (see Ad. Turnebi Adversar. L. +viii.+ c. +xxvi.+) was celebrated on the 13th of August—“Augustis redit Idibus Diana.” “Feriis suis, emeritos canes, quietosque à venatione, et immunes habere credebatur, et ipsa etiam feriari,” in the words of Pitiscus.

[Sidenote: Statii Sylv. L. +iii.+ l. 57.]

Ipsa coronat
Emeritos Diana canes, et spicula tergit,
Et tutas sinit ire feras.

Pausanias in Achaicis c. +xviii.+ describes a splendid celebration of the sylvan rites of Diana Laphria by the people of Patræ, in costliness and magnificence far surpassing these Celtic ceremonies, but in character somewhat similar. The festival of Patræ was also annual, as in Celtica.

[251] Ἱερεῖον.

[Sidenote: Ovid. Metam. L. +xv.+ 130.]

Victima labe carens, et præstantissima forma,
(Nam placuisse nocet,) vittis præsignis et auro
Sistitur ante aras.

The ancient sacrifice consisted of three principal things—libation, incense, and victim; of which the latter was most important—varying according to the character of the deity to whom it was offered, and that of the persons offering. Perfection of form, as described by Ovid, was essential to acceptance at the altar.

[252] Οἱ μὲν ὄϊν, οἱ δὲ αἶγα. So in Horace’s invitation to Phyllis to attend his banquet on Mæcenas’s natal day,

[Sidenote: Carminum L. +iv.+ c. +xi.+]

ara castis
Vincta verbenis avet immolato
Spargier agno.

The kid of the Celtic hunters is mentioned in the celebration of Diana’s rites by Gratius; see note 10.

[253] Τῶν ἱερείων ἀπαρξάμενοι τῇ Ἀγροτέρᾳ. The first-fruits of the spoil were offered up to Diana Venatrix, (see c. +xxxii.+ n. 8.,) as well as the purchased sacrificial victims. We are told by Plutarch that it was customary to consecrate the horns of the stag to the goddess, and to affix them to her temple; a quiver, too, with bow and arrows, and a canis venaticus, were commonly added.

[Sidenote: Claudian. De Consul. Honor. L. +iv.+ 159.]

Tibi sæpè, Diana,
Mænalios arcus, venatricesque pharetras
Suspendit, puerile decus.

See Symmach. Epist. L. +v.+ Ep. 68. and Pitisci Lexicon Antiquitatum.

[254] Εὐωχοῦνται αὐτοί τε καὶ οἱ κύνες.

[Sidenote: Gratii Cyneget. 483.]

Idcircò aeriis molimur compita lucis
Spicatasque faces (sacrum) ad nemora alta Dianæ
Sistimus, et solito catuli velantur honore;
Ipsaque per flores medio in discrimine luci
Stravêre arma, sacris et pace vacantia festâ.
Tum cadus, et viridi fumantia liba feretro
Præveniunt, tenerâque extrudens cornua fronte
Hœdus, et ad ramos etiamnum hærentia poma,
Lustralis de more sacri, quo tota juventus
Lustraturque Deæ, proque anno reddit honorem.
Ergo impetrato respondet multa favore
Ad partes quâ poscis opem, seu vincere silvas,
Seu tibi fatorum labes exire minasque
Cura prior, tua magna fides tutelaque Virgo.

[Sidenote: De Nugis Curialium L. +i.+ c. +iv.+]

To the hunting jubilations of our early annals (when Dian’s revels were scarce exploded) John of Salisbury alludes in his Policraticus: “Si vero clariore prædâ, cervo fortè vel apro, venantium labor effulserit, fit plausus intolerabilis, exultant venatores, caput prædæ et solemnia quædam spolia triumphantibus præferuntur, regem Cappadocum captum credas. Sic cornicines et tibicines videas victoriæ gloriam declarare.”

[255] Τὰς κύνας δὲ καὶ στεφανοῦσιν. The custom of crowning, or decorating with roses and garlands of ribbon, greyhounds which have distinguished themselves in the coursing field, continues, I believe, at the present day. Such were the rewards bestowed on the fleet horses of the hippodrome:

[Sidenote: Theocriti Idyl. +xvi.+]

τιμὰς δὲ καὶ ὠκέες ἔλλαχον ἵπποι
οἱ σφίσιν ἐξ ἱερῶν στεφανήφοροι ἦνθον ἀγώνων.

[Sidenote: Strabon. Geograph. L. +xiv.+]

See the medal of Diana Pergæa from Montfaucon Antiq. Expliq. Tom. +i.+ p. 44. The goddess holds a spear, or hunting-pole, in her left hand, and a fillet or crown in her right hand, elevated over the head of a canis venaticus, who is wishfully looking up, as if in expectation of the reward of merit. This medal is copied by the learned Father from Beger, and derives its inscription from Perga in Pamphylia, nigh to which city, I find in Strabo, stood on an elevated site the temple of ΑΡΤΕΜΙΣ ΠΕΡΓΑΙΑ, whose rites were there annually celebrated.

[256]

[Sidenote: Illustrations of Shakspeare, and of Ancient Manners, &c. Vol. +i.+ p. 392.]