Chapter III: Part 3

Four times a day, at least, take your dogs out of kennel to a level and open field, and there loose them from couples, to empty themselves, gallop, and run about.[126] But if they have quite ceased coursing, let it be done more frequently. Slip them in pairs, a brace at a time, so that by contending and playing with each other, they may enjoy their pleasure, and take their exercise together. But on no account let many loose at once, as they sometimes do great mischief by falling on each other.[127] Never slip a strong and full-grown dog with a puppy; for the old dog is an overpowering and distressing antagonist for the youngster, easily overtaking him in pursuit, and as readily running away from him, and leaving him behind; whereby the pup must of course be cowed and dispirited, having in either case the worst of the contest. And farther, such as are spiteful towards each other, never give these their liberty at one and the same time, lest they injure one another. For there are dogs, as well as men, with mutual antipathies, and others again with mutual attachments.[128] Those of the same sex are particularly inimical to each other, dogs to dogs, and bitches to bitches; and this generally from spiteful jealousy. These matters are not to be made light of.

[Sidenote: +Chap. XIII.+]

[Sidenote: Feeding in winter and summer.]

In the winter season feed your dogs only once a day,[129] a little before evening; for the days are short, and the greyhounds are to be so managed, that if you need their services for coursing till a late hour, they may be able to bear the necessary fasting. But in summer it is right to give them a little bread in addition,[130] that they may not be exhausted by the length of the day; and if thirsty, they will drink with less detriment after having eaten. To thrust down a dog’s throat a piece of salted suet is also found beneficial.[131] But if the weather be very hot, I would have you take an egg in your hand, open your dog’s mouth, and push it down, that he may swallow it at one gulp. This will be nourishment enough for him, will cherish his wind, and quench his thirst.[132]

[Sidenote: +Chap. XIV.+]

[Sidenote: Seasons of Coursing.]

You may go out coursing frequently in spring and autumn,[133] these seasons being attended with the least risk to your dogs—but rarely in summer,[134] lying by, generally,[135] when the heat is oppressive. For greyhounds are impatient of heat, and often, when pursuing a hare with all their might, have been suffocated from a stoppage of their wind.[136] To guard against which, a courser should carry eggs with him, and administer them entire, if his hound’s breathing be exceedingly distressed. For there is no better refrigerative, nothing that appeases difficulty of breathing so much. It is not unattended with danger for a dog, under these circumstances of distress, to drink immoderately.

For the reasons given, then, be cautious of coursing in hot weather. Never go out in winter when the cold is severe, and, on no account, when the ground is frozen hard. For dogs bruise themselves in frost,[137] lose their nails,[138] lacerate the soles of their feet, and if very high-couraged, break even the bones of their toes against the frozen ground from running with excessive eagerness. Whereas the hare is light, with woolly and soft feet,[139] and trips along without injury in frost.

[Sidenote: +Chap. XV.+[140]]

[Sidenote: Slipping law.]

Whoever courses with greyhounds[141] should neither slip them near the hare, nor more than a brace at a time;[142] for though the hare be remarkably swift-footed, and have often beaten many dogs, yet being just started from her form, she cannot but be fluttered at heart, and terrified at the hallooing, and the hounds pressing close upon her:—and in this way, many a noble hare has often ignobly perished without an effort, showing no diversion worth mentioning.

Let the hare, therefore, creep away from her form as if unperceived, and recover her presence of mind. And then, if she be a racer,[143] she will prick up her ears, and bound away from her seat with long strides; and the greyhounds, having capered about as if they were dancing,[144] will stretch out at full speed after her. And at this time is the spectacle worthy indeed of the pains that must necessarily be bestowed on these dogs.[145]

[Sidenote: +Chap. XVI.+]

[Sidenote: Hares.]

Those are the strongest hares which have their forms in open and exposed places;[146] for, from boldness, they do not conceal themselves, but seem to me to challenge the dogs. When coursed, they do not fly to the woods or groves, however near, for immediate liberation from danger, but stretch away to the open country;[147] and during the contest, if they are pursued by slow hounds, they moderate their own speed according as they are pressed; but if their pursuers are fast, they run with all their might.[148]

Often when they have turned aside to the champaign country, if they perceive a fleet dog following so close as to overshadow them, they throw him off by frequent ricks and turns, and again make for the woods, or wherever they know of a place of refuge; and this should be deemed a proof that the dog has beaten the hare. For coursers, such at least as are true sportsmen, do not take their dogs out for the sake of catching a hare, but for the contest and sport of coursing;[149] and are glad if the hare meet with an escape: if she fly to any thin brake for concealment, though they may see her trembling and in the utmost distress, they will call off their dogs,[150] and more particularly so, when they have run well.[151]

Often, indeed, when following a course on horseback, have I come up to the hare as soon as caught, and myself saved her alive: and then, having taken away my dog, and fastened him up, allowed her to escape.[152] And if I have arrived too late to save her, I have struck my head with sorrow, that the dogs had killed so good an antagonist.[153]

On this point alone I cannot agree with my namesake. I allow indeed that a man may forget every other object of which he is enamoured, when he sees a hare found, and pursued at speed;[154] but to see her taken is, I own, neither a pleasant nor striking spectacle; but disagreeable rather, and not at all likely to make us forgetful of other objects of attachment.[155] And yet we must not blame Xenophon, considering he was ignorant of greyhounds, if even the capture of a hare appeared to him a grand sight.

I am aware, (even if my instructions were opposed to it), how strong the inducement is to halloo, when following a course, and that even a dumb man might break forth, as is related of the son of Crœsus.[156]

[Sidenote: +Chap. XVII.+]

[Sidenote: Cheering greyhounds.]

It is proper sometimes to speak to the greyhounds; for they are pleased at hearing their master’s voice,[157] and have the consciousness of his presence, and of their brilliant running not escaping his notice, as an encouragement and reward for their exertions.

There is no objection to your cheering your hound as often as you like in his first course; but in his second or third, when it is probable that he is fagged, I think it wrong to cheer him very often by name, lest from his ardour, and desire of pleasing his master, he exert himself beyond his strength, and suffer some inward rupture; an accident which has been fatal to many a high-bred greyhound. But he should be allowed to slacken his running as he chooses. For the contest is by no means equal between the hare and greyhound:[158] the hare runs where she likes, and the dog pursues; she shifts her course,[159] throws him off, and darts forward; and if thrown out, the dog is wide of the hare, and must again stretch away after her a-head, and recover what he has lost of the course by overshooting himself.[160]

Moreover, the natural difficulties of the country are more in favour of the hare, than the dog—such as rough and stony grounds,[161] steeps and inequalities of surface—both because she is light, and because her feet, from their woolliness, are not liable to be lacerated by the roughness of the ground;[162] and the running for her life, too, takes away all sense of difficulties.

[Sidenote: +Chap. XVIII.+]

[Sidenote: Praising, &c.]

When the greyhound has caught the hare, or been otherwise victorious in the course,[163] you should dismount from your horse, pat him with your hand and praise him, kissing his head, and stroking his ears, and speaking to him by name—“Well done, Cirras!”[164]—“Well done, Bonnas!”[165]—“Bravo, my Hormé!”[166]—calling each hound by his name; for, like men of generous spirit, they love to be praised:[167] and the dog, if not quite tired out, will come up with joy to caress you. At this time, it is a good sign for him to roll himself on the ground, as we see horses do;[168] for it shows that he is not done up with the course, and, at the same time, rolling refreshes him.

[Sidenote: +Chap. XIX.+[169]]

[Sidenote: Celtic mode of coursing with hare-finders.]

The more opulent Celts,[170] who live in luxury, course in the following manner. They send out hare-finders[171] early in the morning to look over such places as are likely to afford hares in form;[172] and a messenger brings word if they have found any, and what number. They then go out themselves, and having started the hare, slip the dogs after her, and follow on horseback.[173]

[Sidenote: +Chap. XX.+]

[Sidenote: Without hare-finders.]

But others, who have no hare-finders, go out on horseback, collecting a large party of fellow-sportsmen together; and coming to likely lying-ground, when a hare is started, they slip their dogs. While others again, who are more of workmen at the sport, sally forth on foot;[174] and if any one accompanies them on horseback, it is his duty to keep up with the dogs.

[Sidenote: Beating the ground.]

They beat the ground in regular array, with an extended front, proceeding in a straight line to the completion of a certain extent of country; and then, wheeling about in a body, return in the same way by the side of their former track, omitting as far as possible none of the likely lying.[175]

[Sidenote: Steward.]

But it is necessary, if many dogs are taken into the field, that they should not be left at random, and without arrangement. For when the hare is started from her form, not a man would refrain from slipping his hound after her: one from eagerness to see his own dog run, and another from being startled and beside himself at the hallooing; and the hare would be caught, in consequence of the crowd and confusion of the dogs, without a struggle, and the whole value of the spectacle destroyed. On which account a steward should be appointed over the sport,[176] should match the dogs, and give orders to the field:—if the hare start on this side, _you_ and _you_ are to slip, and nobody else; but if on that side, _you_ and _you_: and let strict attention be paid to the orders given.[177]

[Sidenote: +Chap. XXI.+]

[Sidenote: Coursing with sagacious and swift hounds together.]

The Celts sometimes course with a mixture of sagacious and swift-footed hounds;[178] and while the dogs of scent are trying, they stand apart with the greyhounds, leading them in their hands where it is most probable the hare will direct her course, that they may slip them at her when she breaks cover.[179] And here the greyhounds answer the same purpose as Xenophon’s nets.[180] But the courses in this way are irregular and confused, and the hare, however good, is generally so terrified at the barking of the finders, that, unless she get far enough a-head to be able to recover herself, she is easily caught, being frightened out of her wits.[181]

Whoever, therefore, is a good slipper, should not let go his dog while the hare is at all bewildered, (unless he would destroy the sport,) but should allow her to make her first turns, and then slip.

[Sidenote: +Chap. XXII.+]

[Sidenote: Ware Leveret.]

Let it be deemed unlawful to slip to a young hare;[182] but rather, in obedience to my namesake, spare such for the Goddess.[183] If possible, indeed, you should endeavour to call off the dogs on scent; though they are with difficulty checked, being intractable from hunger, and so keen at devouring whatever prey they take, that you can scarce drive them away, even by beating them with sticks.

[Sidenote: +Chap. XXIII.+]

[Sidenote: Stag-coursing.]

You should course the stag, or any game of equal size in the same way, slipping high-couraged hounds;[184] for the animal is large, runs a long while, and is by no means safe to contend with;[185] indeed there is no little danger of a greyhound being destroyed by a stag.[186]

But where the plains are adapted for riding, as in Mysia, Dacia, Scythia, and Illyricum,[187] they are in the habit of coursing deer with Scythian and Illyrian horses; which, though slow at first in pursuit, and utterly despicable, as far as appearance goes, by the side of those of Thessaly, Sicily, or Peloponnesus, hold out to the last under the most severe work.[188] On such occasions you will see the huge, swift, proud-looking horse flagging, and this lean and scrubby little animal at first passing him, then leaving him behind, and at last even driving the stag away from him. He holds on indeed until the stag gives out and stops, gasping with distress;[189] when you may, if you choose, spear him at close quarters as if enfettered,[190] or throw a noose over his neck,[191] and lead him away alive.

[Sidenote: +Chap. XXIV.+]

[Sidenote: African Coursing of Wild Asses.]

In Africa there is a mode of coursing on Libyan horses,[192] called Nomades, on which the sportsmen, mounted, catch not only red and roe deer,[193] (for these are taken with little effort, and the horses are not esteemed good in consequence,[194]) but also wild asses,[195] which excel in speed, and power of holding out for the greatest length of course.

[Sidenote: Arabian Coursing described by Xenophon.]

For when the Greeks marched with Cyrus, the son of Darius, against the great king,[196] (in which expedition Xenophon was engaged, who relates the circumstance,[197]) while they were passing over the plains of Arabia,[198] there appeared herds of wild asses, but not one could be caught by any single horseman, and therefore the Greeks pursued them with relays of horsemen at stated distances; and after the asses had held out for a long while against several, they sunk at last from fatigue. Thus even Cyrus himself, the son of the great king, and the brother of the great king, had not horses good enough for this chase; and yet the Libyan boys, some at eight years of age, and others not much older, mounted on their naked steeds,[199] and guiding them with a switch, as the Greeks employ the rein, press these wild asses so closely in pursuit, that at last they throw a noose around their necks and lead them away quite subdued.[200]

[Sidenote: Comparison of Hunting and Coursing.]

Such are the methods of coursing adopted by those who have fleet hounds and horses: they neither ensnare the animals with toils, nets, or springes;[201] nor employ, in short, any other tricks or wily inventions, but contend with them in a straight-forward trial of speed.[202] And to me, the two spectacles appear nowise akin: the former being like thievish depredation; the latter, like a battle fought out with main strength: the one class of sportsmen resembling pirates in their clandestine attack, while the other are as openly victorious as were the Athenians over the Medes in the naval engagement at Artemisium,[203] or at Salamis and Psyttalia, or again at Cyprus.

[Sidenote: +Chap. XXV.+]

[Sidenote: Age and mode of entering bitch-puppies.]

As to the age at which greyhounds should begin coursing,[204] you may take a bitch out after the eleventh month;[205] or, if she be well set, and not loose-limbed, you may let go a hare from your hand before her, in an open field, a month earlier than this, starting the pup close to the hare, that she may enjoy the sight of her game, and, by seeing it quite close, may work with eagerness.[206] But presently slip another good dog to the hare, that the puppy may not suffer by too long a course, nor flag from over-fatigue; and the second dog turning the hare with ease again and again, will drive her into the puppy’s mouth, when the latter should be allowed to tear her with her teeth till she has killed her.[207]

As soon as the season arrives for taking out your puppies, let them be first walked over such roads as are rough;[208] for this exercise is conducive to forming and strengthening their feet. Then station the man who leads them upon a conspicuous and elevated spot, and be sure that he does not slip a puppy when the hare has got much a-head, and is out of sight; (notwithstanding the elder Xenophon advises it in regard to dogs that are to be practised at running on scent;[209]) for if you slip a greyhound puppy out of sight of her game, she runs wide, and jumps about, and is beside herself and bewildered. And after she is full-grown, if a hare happen to escape her, she is never at rest, neither returning to her keeper, nor obeying his call, but, from eagerness for a course, continuing to run about wildly, like a mad dog, after nothing.[210]

[Sidenote: Ware dead.]

Let the man, then, that holds the puppy stand on such a spot as I have stated,[211] concealed from view at the point where it is most probable the tired hare[212] will come in the course of her turns; and when he sees her quite weary, let him slip the puppy close to her, neither before, nor directly opposite to her; for the bitch rushing right upon her will overshoot herself, and the hare, with a wrench, easily skimming by, will of course leave the bitch far behind; the latter with difficulty turning herself, as gallies sailing briskly a-head cannot readily tack, unless the rowing be much slackened before they are brought about. Let the hare, therefore, just pass by, and then let him slip obliquely after her. Some one should follow up quickly, as soon as the hare is caught, before the dogs are gorged with her blood. Not that the flesh of a hare is to be accounted of much worth by a person who courses for the beauty of the sport;[213] but it is a bad thing to teach a greyhound to eat a hare.[214] Many a dog, too, has been destroyed by gorging himself while out of breath, after a long course, and has died of suffocation.

[Sidenote: +Chap. XXVI.+]

[Sidenote: Age of entering dog-puppies.]

Dog-puppies must not be taken out coursing until they are two years old,[215] for their limbs become set at a much later period than those of bitches. Besides it is attended with no little danger to take them out earlier, many a greyhound having been prematurely destroyed by a severe course before he was full-grown, and especially those of the greatest spirit and highest breeding; for, in consequence of their spirit, they run to the very utmost of their power.

[Sidenote: Age of sexual intercourse.]

The other practical points, already insisted on in reference to bitches, are equally to be attended to in regard to the other sex. Dogs are to be kept from copulation within the age stated; for the seed being not yet matured in them, is generally weak and evanid, καθάπερ ἡ τῶν παίδων.[216] The puppies themselves too are so utterly ruined by it that you can never afterwards, do what you will, remedy the error. The proper and seasonable time for sexual intercourse is from the completion of the third year.[217]

[Sidenote: +Chap. XXVII.+]

[Sidenote: Time of sexual intercourse.]

And it should be thus managed:—watch the opportunity of the bitch being clear of vaginal blood; for if she receive the seed before, it generally is not retained, but is washed out by the blood,[218] καθάπερ ταῖς γυναιξί; and you must here pay her particular attention, as it is only for a short interval of time that she preserves her heat after the vaginal blood has stopped.

[Sidenote: Suitable age in bitches for breeding.]

A bitch’s age may be considered good for the purpose from the second to the seventh year.[219]

[Sidenote: +Chap. XXVIII.+]

[Sidenote: Mode of sexual intercourse.]

It is best for the dog and bitch to be shut up by themselves, and to be out of sight while together.[220] For open and public copulations, if we may believe sportsmen, are not prolific;[221] but such as are effected by dogs in private are reported to succeed.[222]

[Sidenote: Management afterwards.]

Bitches, after being warded, may be led out, as walking about is conducive to their strength;[223] but they must not be slipped again to a hare, for fear of being destroyed by overstraining or excessive fatigue. The dog likewise should not be let loose after a hare until he is recovered from his exhaustion, and invigorated by an interval of at least sixty days’ rest. After which there will be no obstacle to his being coursed.[224]

[Sidenote: +Chap. XXIX.+]

[Sidenote: Breeding season.]

The most favourable season for breeding is the spring of the year,[225] as the temperature is mediate between hot and cold. Winter is not propitious for rearing puppies, more especially on account of the want of milk:[226] and summer is distressing to the dams for suckling. Autumn is worse than spring for this reason, that the winter arrests the whelps before they are thoroughly formed.[227]

[Sidenote: +Chap. XXX.+]

[Sidenote: Management after whelping.]

If you wish a brood-bitch to recover her previous speed,[228] you must not let her suckle her whelps,[229] except merely to lighten any excess of milk,—and then put them to other bitches, selecting such as are well-bred: for the milk of degenerate curs is not congenial to high-bred puppies.[230] If, however, the dam herself appear no longer serviceable for coursing, it is best to leave the whelps with their own mother, and not to put them under a foster-parent.[231] For the growth is stinted by a stranger’s nursing, (as the other Xenophon declares,) but the mother’s milk and breath are cherishing to her puppies.

[Sidenote: +Chap. XXXI.+]

[Sidenote: Food of weaned puppies.]

[Sidenote: Xenophon’s instructions approved.]

When puppies can run about, Xenophon properly recommends that they be fed with milk;[232] for the filling them with heavy food distorts their legs, and occasions diseases in their bodies. And as to giving dogs short names of easy pronunciation,[233] in this we should also attend to him; for the names which he has enumerated, (in part the invention of others, and some of his own creation), are cleverly composed.

[Sidenote: Care of brood-bitches, not allowed to suckle.]

But if you do not as yet wish your bitches to breed up any puppies, you must take the greatest possible care of them while under distress in consequence.[234] For when they have ceased to give suck, their teats become turgid and full of milk, and the parts beneath the belly distended . At which time, it is not safe to loose them after a hare,—for their flanks may be burst asunder: nor should you let them play with another dog, as, by contending and striving with him beyond their strength, they may be placed in equal danger.

It is best to wait till their teats are become flaccid. And you will have a proof that it is safe to take them out, when the hair falls off abundantly, as you stroke it with your hand. They are then, I think, free from the distress they laboured under on account of their milk, and are ready for coursing.[235]

[Sidenote: +Chap. XXXII.+]

[Sidenote: Estimate of Sexes.]

The greyhound bitch is fleeter than the dog,[236] but the dog has more _bottom_ than the bitch;[237] and, because he can run through the whole year, is a much more valuable acquisition: and as good bitches abound, but it is no easy thing to meet with a thorough-good dog, the latter is on this account more precious: and again, it is fortunate if bitches preserve their speed to the fifth year,[238] whereas dogs retain theirs even to the tenth.[239] For all which reasons, in my opinion, a really good, high-bred dog is a great treasure[240]—one that falls not to the lot of a courser without the favour of some god.[241] For such a blessing, then, he should sacrifice to Diana Venatrix.[242] He should sacrifice, too, whenever successful in his sport, dedicate the first-fruits of his spoils to the goddess,[243] and purify his dogs and sportsmen,[244] as regulated by the established rites of the country.

[Sidenote: +Chap. XXXIII.+]

[Sidenote: Celtic hunting rites.]

Some of the Celts have a custom of annually sacrificing to Diana;[245] while others institute a treasury for the goddess,[246]—into which they pay two oboli for every hare that is caught,[247]—a drachma for a fox,[248] (because he is a crafty animal, and destroys hares,)—and four drachmæ for a roe-deer,[249] in consideration of his size, and greater value as game.

When the year comes round, on the return of the nativity of Diana,[250] the treasury is opened, and a victim purchased out of the money collected;[251] either a sheep, or kid,[252] or heifer, according to the amount of the sum: and then, after having sacrificed, and presented the first-offerings of their victims to the Goddess of the chase,[253] according to their respective rites, they give themselves up, with their hounds, to indulgence and recreation,[254]—crowning the latter on this day with garlands,[255] as an indication of the festival being celebrated on their account.[256]

[Sidenote: +Chap. XXXIV.+]

[Sidenote: Injunctions to the observance of religious rites.]

This Celtic custom I follow with my fellow-sportsmen,[257] and declare no human undertaking to have a prosperous issue without the interposition of the Gods.[258] For that Mariners, who regard their safety, supplicate the Gods at embarkation;[259] and, after dangers escaped, offer up sacrifices of gratitude to the sea-deities, Neptune, Amphitrite, and the Nereids.[260] Cultivators of the soil do the same to Ceres, her daughter, and Bacchus;[261] Artificers, to Minerva and Vulcan;[262] Professors of instruction,[263] to the Muses,[264] Apollo Musagetes,[265] Mnemosyne,[266] and Mercury;[267] Lovers, to Venus,[268] Cupid,[269] Suada,[270] and the Graces.[271] And, upon the same principle, Sportsmen should not be neglectful of Diana Venatrix,[272] nor Apollo,[273] nor Pan,[274] nor the Nymphs,[275] nor Mercury,[276] the conductor and president of the highways, nor any other mountain gods[277] that there may be: otherwise their pursuits must turn out abortive, their dogs injured, their horses lamed,[278] and themselves disappointed.[279]

[Sidenote: +Chap. xxxv.+]

[Sidenote: Enforced by examples from Homer.]

[Sidenote: Iliad. L. +xxiii.+ 852. seqq.]

And of this, Homer gives evidence in his poem.[280] Teucer, he says, the best bowman of the Greeks, in the archery-contest hit the cord only, and cut it asunder, because he had offered no vow to Apollo;[281] but that Merion, who was no archer at all, by having invoked Apollo, struck the bird when on the wing.

Again, the posterity of those, who fought against Thebes with Polynices, captured the city,[282]

[Sidenote: Iliad. L. +iv.+ 406. seqq.]

To omens trusting, and the aid of Jove;

whereas their fathers, not at all inferior to them in valour, had perished before it, because they were disobedient to the signs vouchsafed to them by the Gods.

[Sidenote: Iliad. L. +xii.+ 216. seqq.]

And lastly, Hector, inattentive to Polydamas when he objected to an attack on the Grecian fleet,[283] (because the Trojans would not return from it with honour to themselves, as he inferred from a serpent dropped by an eagle,) was soon afterwards taught otherwise by experience, that no good comes of being refractory towards the Deity.[284]

Following these examples, it is right in field-sports, as in every thing else, to begin with adoration of the Gods;[285] and, after having obtained success, to offer thanksgiving-sacrifices[286] and libations,[287] with auspicious words,[288] and crowns,[289] and hymns,[290] and to dedicate the first-fruits of the captured game,[291] as the conqueror does of the spoils of war.[292]

APPENDIX.

SOME ACCOUNT
OF THE
CANES VENATICI
OF
CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY.

——prima illa canum, non ulla per artes
Cura prior, sive indomitos vehementior hostes
Nudo marte premas, seu bellum ex arte ministres.
Mille canum patriæ, ductique ab origine mores
Cuique suâ.

+Gratii Falisci Cyneget.+ vs. 151.

APPENDIX.

In introducing to the reader’s notice the Canes Venatici of the following monograph—wherein the embellishment of fable is often admitted as the language of truth, and amusement is paramount to instruction—it must not be expected that I should carry back the history of the chase to the early period of the world’s annals, when

[Sidenote: Cowper’s Task. B. +vi.+]

harmony, and family accord,
Were driven from Paradise;

and man’s subject creatures revolted from their revolted lord—

[Sidenote: Phil. de Animal. Propriet. vs. 8.]

καὶ θῆρες αἰδοῦς ἀγνοήσαντες νόμους,
ὡς δυσμενῆ φεύγουσι τὸν πρὶν δεσπότην—

[Sidenote: Agrippa de Incert. et Van. Sc. et Art. c. +lxxii.+]

[Sidenote: De Invent. Rerum. L. +iii.+ c. +v.+]

[Sidenote: Euseb. de Præp. Evang. L. +i.+]

the probable date of its institution—(“cum peccato enim animalium noxa simul et persecutio et fuga subintravit, et artes venationum excogitatæ sunt,”)—nor to the later epoch of its Phenician origin, maintained by Polydore Vergil on the authority of Eusebius; nor its more fabulous Theban birth and distribution, the thrice-told tale of John of Salisbury:[293] but rather consider hunting as an art of acquisition and self-defence of remote and undefined antiquity.

On Venation, as a pastime, too much has already been said in the preface to Arrian: and I will at present confine my remarks to a few classical anecdotes of its primitive furniture, its founders, and progressional improvement; premising, by the way, that when men were unacquainted with the blessings of civilization, and had no idea of pleasure beyond the gratification of their appetites—when, in short, they were in a state of nature—hunting was not the by-work of leisure hours, but the call of continual urgency—not the jocund diversion of a day, but the toilsome and perilous occupation of a life. In such early times, the nonage of a fallen world, commenced the war of men with beasts:

[Sidenote: P. A. Bargæi de Aucupio L. +i.+ p. 13.]

Cœpêre in pecudes avidi sævire ferasque,
Et nil tale priùs meritas captare volantes.

The personal safety of himself and those dependent on his protection, and the daily cravings of hunger, dictated to man the necessity of animal slaughter; so that, in seeking his quotidian meal, he originated the art of hunting:

[Sidenote: Oppian. Cyneg. L. +ii.+ 7.]

ἐπιδόρπιον εὕρατο θήρην.

[Sidenote: Tickell’s Miscellanies.]

Rude arts at first, but witty want refined
The huntsman’s wiles, and famine form’d the mind.

The first hostile efforts of the barbarian lords of creation against their biped and quadruped subjects, “joint-tenants of the shade” with themselves, were confined, we may suppose, to manifestations of physical strength and brute courage; by which, under the powerful incentives of self-interest, they procured the vital necessaries of food and clothing:

[Sidenote: Gratii Cyneget. vs. 2.]

priùs omnis in armis[294]
Spes fuit, et nudâ silvas virtute movebant
Inconsulti homines.

[Sidenote: Ovid. Metam. L. +iv.+ 699.]

[Sidenote: Xen. de Venat. c. +i.+]

[Sidenote: Oppian. Cyneg. L. +ii.+ 5.]

And here at the head of rude pedestrian sportsmen we find the human inventor of the science of the chase, that legendary personage, the Gorgon-killing Perseus[295]—“Gorgonis anguicomæ Perseus superator”—(for I would not deprive Latona’s hunting-twins, Apollo and Diana, nor the worshipful race of Centaurs, φῦλα θηρομιγῆ,[296] of their priority of claim, and patent of precedency, in the apotheosis of the chase,) who, when he had performed this redoubted act of courage, as we are told by the poet of Anazarbus:

[Sidenote: Oppian. Cyneg. L. +ii.+ 10.]

ποδῶν κραιπνοῖσιν ἀειρόμενος πτερύγεσσι
καὶ πτῶκας, καὶ θῶας ἐλάζυτο, καὶ γένος αἰγῶν
ἀγροτέρων, δόρκους τε θοοὺς, ὀρύγων τε γένεθλα,
ἠδ’ αὐτῶν ἐλάφων στικτῶν αἰπεινὰ κάρηνα.

[Sidenote: Bedingfield’s Education of Achilles.]

[Sidenote: Callimach. H. in Dian. 105.]

As men in general, however, did not possess the speed of Perseus and Achilles,[297] “To sweep with winged feet along the level plain;” nor the power of catching at force, νόσφι κυνοδρομίης, the fleetest animals of chase, like the goddess Dian; it became necessary to add to their naked powers sundry inartificial implements, auxiliary to the subjugation of some, the destruction and expulsion of other beasts.

[Sidenote: Lucretii L. +v.+ 964.]

Et manuum mirâ freti virtute pedumque
Consectabantur sylvestria sæcla ferarum
Missilibus saxis, et magno pondere clavæ:
Multaque vincebant, vitabant pauca latebris.

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

New and unpolish’d was the huntsman’s art;
No stated rule, his wanton will his guide.
With clubs and stones, rude implements of war,
He arm’d his savage bands, a multitude
Untrain’d; of twining osiers form’d, they pitch
Their artless toils, then range the desert hills,
And scow’r the plains below: the trembling herd
Start at th’ unusual sound, and clam’rous shout
Unheard before; surpriz’d, alas! to find
Man now their foe, whom erst they deem’d their lord,
But mild and gentle, and by whom as yet
Secure they graz’d.

Acquiring knowledge by experience, man advanced in the mechanism and variety of his hunting gear, as in other articles of increasing civilization.

[Sidenote: Gratii Cyneg. vs. 5.]

Post aliâ propiore viâ, meliùsque profecti,
Te sociam, ratio, rebus sumpsêre gerendis.
Hinc omne auxilium vitæ, rectusque reluxit
Ordo: et continuas didicêre ex artibus artes
Proserere; hinc demens cecidit violentia retro.

[Sidenote: Oppian. Cyneg. L. +iv.+ 100.]

Finding, on patient trial, the χάος εὐρὺ περιστεφὲς of Oppian, with its rude accompaniment of fire, &c. insufficient for capturing the more wary creatures—

[Sidenote: Lucretii L. +v.+ 1249.]

Nam foveâ atque igni prius est venarier ortum
Quàm sepire plagis saltum, canibusque ciere;

he had recourse to the various kinds of weapons, snares, and wily inventions of slaughter described by Xenophon, Gratius, Oppian, and Nemesian; and often alluded to by other writers, both sacred and profane:

[Sidenote: Virgil. Georg. L. +i.+ 139.]

Tum laqueis captare feras, et fallere visco
Inventum.

[Sidenote: Ejusdem 140.]

But “short of due perfection” were all the hunter’s wiles, till the dog was tutored to assist in the sylvan pursuit and massacre, and to contribute the acuteness of his senses, his speed and courage, to the service of mankind; who consummated their superiority over the animals of the forest, when they had directed to their chase the adapted powers of this faithful ally, and begun, in the words of the cited poet of the Georgics—“magnos canibus circumdare saltus,”—redeeming thereby their esculent crops and innocuous herds from the ferocious and depredatory aggression of quadruped felons.[298]

[Sidenote: Sophoclis Antigone, 350.]

Κουφονέων τε φῦλον ὀρ-
νίθων ἀμφιβαλὼν ἄγει,
θηρίων τ’ ἀγρίων ἔθνη
πόντου τ’ εἰναλίαν φύσιν
σπείραισι δικτυοκλώστοις
περιφραδὴς ἀνήρ·
κρατεῖ δὲ μηχαναῖς ἀγραύλου
θηρὸς ὀρεσσιβάτα.[299]

The “venandi mille viæ” of the Carthaginian poet have been superseded in the British islands by the superior attraction of the gun:

[Sidenote: Adriani Cardinalis Venatio.]

machinæ,
Mirandæ, horrificæ, minacis, atræ,
Qualem nec Steropes, nec ipse fertur
Pater Lemnius inferis cavernis
Informâsse Jovi, nec ulla in orbe
Per tot secula cogitavit ætas;

[Sidenote: Certaine Illustrations, &c. p. 25.]

and of various eminent breeds of fleet and sagacious dogs, adapted to the chase at force. But as these methods were heretofore employed by our less civilized ancestry,[300] are still in vogue in unreclaimed countries, and many of them yet practised on the continent of Europe—whatever be their “incongruity to our present factions,” as Wase expresses himself—a brief description of the “supellex venandi” will not be unacceptable to the modern reader, by way of introduction to the subject of classic hunting with the ancient varieties of the canine race.

With seeming accuracy Gratius has described the whole of the antique poaching gear;[301] but it must be confessed that neither Xenophon’s, nor the Faliscian’s, nor the hunting technicalities of the other Cynegetical writers, can be fully explained to modern comprehension.

The deities and demi-deities of sylvan life are objects of invocation in the exordium of Gratius:

[Sidenote: Gratii Cyneg. vs. 21.]

His ego præsidibus nostram defendere sortem
Contra mille feras, et non sine carmine, nisus
Carmine, et arma dabo venandi, et persequar artem
Armorum, cassesque, plagarumque ordiar astus.

and then, under their tutelary aid, the poet begins to handle the “arma venandi;” which, as recorded in the Cynegetica generally, consisted of the _linea_ or _formido_, nets of various mesh and size and shape, nooses, springes, and other traps—missile weapons, as darts, arrows, &c.; and those for standing-defence, as the halberd-like boar-spear, &c.: many of these, however, were not of very remote antiquity.[302]

[Sidenote: De Irâ L. +ii.+ c. +xii.+]

The feathered line or _pinnatum_ was called, from its effect, _metus_, _formido_, and δείματα θηρῶν, (Oppian. Cyneg. +iv.+ 389.) “Cum maximos ferarum greges,” says Seneca, “linea pennis distincta contineat, et in insidias agat; ab ipso effectu dicta _formido_.”

[Sidenote: Gratii Cyneg. vs. 75.]

Sunt quibus immundo decerptæ vulture plumæ
Instrumentum operis fuit, et non parva facultas.
Tantum inter nivei jungantur vellera cygni:
Et satis armorum est. Hæc clarâ luce coruscaut,
Terribiles species: ab vulture dirus avaro
Turbat odor silvas, meliusque alterna valet res.

[Sidenote: Wase’s Illustrations, &c. p. 7.]

The line of feathers of various hue, impregnated with artificial odour, “was drawn about the woods (——ὀλίγον γαίης ἐφύπερθεν, Oppian. Cyneg. +iv.+ 386.) in the intermitted spaces where the toyles were pitched, that so the deer (than which no creature is more timorous) might balk them, and be cast upon the net.” The _linea_ thus flanked the δίκτυ or long net, where not extensive enough to enclose the covert; and filled the intervals, between the purse-nets and nooses, when the latter were set independent of the _retia_.

[Sidenote: Gratii Cyneg. vs. 85.]

Hic magis in cervos valuit metus.[303] Ast ubi lentæ
Interdum Libyco fucantur sandice pinnæ,
Lineaque extructis lucent anconibus arma:
Rarum si qua metus eludat bellua falsos.

The Cilician poet has left a graphic description of the _formido_, as employed in the Armenian bear-hunt—a picture so vividly sketched, Cyneg. +iv.+ 380, that I regret its length prevents transcription. A part of it will be found hereafter under the Eastern “Canis _Inductor_”—the Armenian limehound. The fourth Halieutic, in an apposite and beautiful simile, describes the startling effect of the feathered line on timid animals of chase:

[Sidenote: Oppian. Hal. L. +iv.+ 586.]

ὧδε καὶ ἐν ξυλόχοισιν ὀρέστεροι ἀγρευτῆρες
εἷλον ἀναλκείην ἐλάφων εὐαγρέϊ τέχνῃ,
μηρίνθῳ στέψαντες ἅπαν δρίος· ἀμφὶ δὲ κούφων
ὀρνίθων δήσαντο θοὰ πτερά· ταὶ δ’ ἐσορῶσαι
ἠλέματα πτώσσουσι κενὸν φόβον, οὐδὲ πελάσσαι
μαψιδίαις πτερύγεσσιν ἀτυζόμεναι μεμάασιν
εἰσόκε θηρητῆρες ἐπαΐξαντες ἕλωσι.

Many notices of this instrument will occur to the classical reader in the works of the Latin poets, but in none more copiously delineated than in the Cynegeticon of Nemesian; who enumerates the many sources whence the feathers of dissimilar tint are to be culled for decorating the “plumed line:”

[Sidenote: Nemesian. Cyneg. vs. 312.]

Dat tibi pinnarum terrentia millia vultur;
Dat Libye magnarum avium fœcunda creatrix,
Dantque grues, cygnique senes, et candidus anser;
Dant quæ fluminibus crassisque paludibus errant,
Pellitosque pedes stagnanti gurgite tingunt:
Hinc magè Puniceas nativo munere sumes:
Namque illic sine fine greges florentibus alis
Invenies avium, suavique rubescere luto,
Et sparsos passim tergo vernare colores.

If the reader be interested in the minutiæ of Grecian and Roman net-making, and the methods of fixing the ἄρκυες, δίκτυα, and ἐνόδια, the _casses_, _retia_, and _plagæ_, he is referred for the former to the Cynegeticus of the elder Xenophon, and that most extraordinary work of human research, the Onomasticon of Julius Pollux—for the latter, to the Venatio Novantiqua of Janus Vlitius, a scholar of deep erudition, and an experienced sportsman:—a summary view being all that can be rendered by the present writer, professedly epitomising the labours of more experienced workmen.

The ἄρκυες or _casses_ were conical, purse or tunnel-like nets, ending in a point at one end, and having a running noose of entrance at the other, resembling somewhat a hooped calash, or cowl.

[Sidenote: Nemesian. Cyneg. vs. 300.]

The δίκτυα or _retia_ were long sean-like nets for open fields, and for encircling brakes and coverts;——“longoque meantia retia tractu.”

The ἐνόδια or _plagæ_ were nets of much less length, to be placed across roads, game-tracks, paths, and narrow openings between bushes.

The ἄρκυες appear to have been sometimes placed independent of the δίκτυα, but more commonly in the course of the main nets; so that when the animals passed along the _linear_ and _reticular_ barrier, exploring a place of egress, terrified by the _formido_, (which flanked the hayes, and occasionally was drawn along above the net-rope to scare the game from overleaping,) and the meshes of the δίκτυα, (continuous except where the purse-nets were introduced with their slip-knot entrance), on attempting to pass out at the apparent opening of the ἄρκυς, they became by their struggles entangled therein[305]—the purse either spontaneously, or by the agency of the men placed there to draw the necessary ropes, immediately closing at the mouth.

[Sidenote: Oppian. Cyneg. L. +iv.+ 409.]

ἐπεὶ κελάδοντος ἀήτεω
ταινίαι τ’ ἐφύπερθε διηέριαι κραδάουσι,
κινύμεναι πτέρυγές τε λιγήϊα συρίζουσιν.
οὕνεκα παπταίνουσα κατ’ ἄρκυας ἀντίον ἕρπει·
ἐν δ’ ἔπεσεν λινέοισι λόχοις.

The whole management of the nets and lines was vested in the watch αἰζηῶν πυλαωρῶν referred to, who were concealed under copse-wood, for the purpose, more particularly, of attending to the ἐπίδρομος and περίδρομος, the ropes (smooth and knotless) which governed the ἄρκυες, and passed through iron rings, along the course of the δίκτυα, up to the watchmen’s hiding-place:

[Sidenote: Oppian. Cyneg. L. +iv.+ 382.]

ἐν δὲ δύω κλῖναν δοιαῖς ἑκάτερθε κεραιαῖς
ἀνέρας ἀκρολίνους ὑπὸ μειλινέοισι πάγοισιν.

The length of the δίκτυα or _retia_, properly so called, would astonish a modern disciple of Diana. So great was the extent of ground sometimes enclosed by these toils, that Plutarch mentions, in his life of Alexander, hunting-nets above twelve miles long. With such it was customary to encircle vast tracts of country, and then, by gradually contracting their ambit, to force the animals of the district into a narrower compass;—when at the will of the _magister venationis_, the work of slaughter commenced.[306] This mode of hunting is very clearly described, with its usual auxiliaries of noise and flame, in a simile of the Achilleid:

[Sidenote: Statii Achil. L. +i.+ 459.]

sic curva feras indago latentes
Claudit, et admotis paulatim cassibus arctat.
Illæ ignem sonitumque pavent, diffusaque linquunt
Avia, miranturque suum decrescere montem,
Donec in angustam ceciderunt undique vallem,
Inque vicem stupuêre greges, socioque timore
Mansuescunt. Simul hirtus aper, simul ursa, lupusque
Cogitur, et captos contemnit cerva leones.

The Faliscian poet, in the early part of his Cynegeticon, specifies the best materials for the composition of nets, with particular instructions for their size and shape:

[Sidenote: Gratii Cyneg. vs. 25.]

Prima jubent tenui nascentem jungere filo
Limbum, et quadruplici tormento adstringere limbos.
Illa operum patiens, illa usûs linea longi.
Tunc ipsum medio cassem qui nascitur ore,
Per senos circum usque sinus laqueabis, ut omnem
Concipiat tergo, si quisquam est plurimus, hostem.
Et bis vicenos, spatium prætendere passus
Rete velim, plenisque decem consurgere nodis.

On the same subject the Carthaginian summarily touches, distinctly recognizing the three varieties of which we have been just speaking:

[Sidenote: Nemesian. Cyneg. vs. 299.]

Necnon et casses iidem venatibus aptos,
Atque plagas, longoque meantia retia tractu
Addiscant raris semper contexere nodis,
Et servare modum maculis linoque tenaci.

And an earlier poet, in his praise of the brumal pleasures of the countryman’s life, sunders _plagæ_ and _retia_, applying them to such totally different purposes, that it is probable they sometimes differed as much in the structure of the mesh, its size, &c. as in the magnitude of the whole instrument:

[Sidenote: Hor. Epod. L. +ii.+ 29.]

At cum tonantis annus hybernus Jovis
Imbres nivesque comparat:
Aut trudit acres hinc et hinc multâ cane
Apros in obstantes plagas;
Aut amite levi rara tendit retia
Turdis edacibus dolos,
Pavidumve leporem, et advenam laqueo gruem,
Jucunda captat præmia.

Whatever honour be attached to these reticular inventions, and that of the running-noose, the βρόχος or _laqueus_, is due to Hippolytus:

[Sidenote: Oppian. Cyneg. L. +ii.+ 24.]

ἄρκυας αὖτε βρόχους τε, καὶ ἀγκύλα δίκτυα πρῶτος
Ἱππόλυτος μερόπεσσιν ἐπακτήρεσσιν ἔφηνε.

The βρόχος generally formed a rhomb-shaped entrance to the ἄρκυς, as probably did the _laqueus_ to the _cassis_:—but as the tunnel was occasionally used separate from the sean-like toil (δίκτυ—_rete_) and from the road-net (ἐνόδιον—_plagæ_), so may these slip-knot nooses have been also set independent of the purses, their usual additaments, in narrow passes, or straits frequented by game:

[Sidenote: P. A. Bargæi Cyneg. L. +i.+]

Namque hos aut foveis, aut cæci in limine callis
Occultant, &c.

The noose-ropes,[307] being of much ruder manufacture, and more simple structure, than any variety of net with meshes, must have been of earlier institution.

[Sidenote: Gratii Cyneg. vs. 89.]

Nam fuit et laqueis aliquis curracibus usus.
Cervino jussêre magis contexere nervo;
Fraus teget insidias, habitu mentita ferino.

[Sidenote: Hor. L. +iii.+ Od. +iv.+ vs. 70.]

These _laquei curraces_,[308] seemingly from this passage made of other materials than hemp before the days of Gratius, are yet in use, under the form of springes and wires, with deer and hare-poachers; who, I find in Oppian, are indebted to the giant-hunter Orion—“integræ—tentator Orion Dianæ”—for the first establishment of their nocturnal depredations:

[Sidenote: Cyneg. L. +ii.+ 28.]

νυκτερίους δὲ λόχους, νυχίην πανεπίκλοπον ἄγρην
Ὠρίων πρώτιστος ἐμήσατο κερδαλεόφρων.

[Sidenote: Xen. de Venat. c. +ix.+]

[Sidenote: Poll. Onom. L. +v.+ c. 32.]

We are next introduced by Gratius to _dentatæ pedicæ_, spiked foot-traps or gins, resembling the ποδοστράβαι of Xenophon and Pollux; and formed, as the following lines indicate, of wood, concealed on the ground;

Quid qui dentatas iligno robore clausit
Venator pedicas? cum dissimulantibus armis
Sæpè habet imprudens alieni lucra laboris?

It being no small recommendation to them that one poacher might reap the fruits of another’s labours. Their invention is attributed to a virtuous and holy Arcadian, ycleped Dercylus,[309] in high favour with the Sylvan goddess, and by her initiated in the mysteries of hunting, and the formation of sundry destructive implements of predation, which he first employed in the valleys of Mount Mænalus, and the Lacedæmonian Amyclæ:

[Sidenote: Gratii Cyneg. vs. 95.]

O felix, tantis quem primum industria rebus
Prodidit auctorem! Deus ille, an proxuma Divos
Mens fuit, in cæcas aciem quæ magna tenebras
Egit, et ignarum perfudit lumine vulgus?

And again:

Ergo illum primis nemorum Dea finxit in annis,
Auctoremque operi dignata inscribere magno,
Jussit adire suas et pandere gentibus artes.

[Sidenote: Plutarch. in Amatorio.]

But it must not be forgotten that a competitor for the glory of these, and other like discoveries, is mentioned by Plutarch, in Amatorio, and by Nonnus, in Dionysiacis, in the person of Aristæus—εὔχονται δ’ Ἀρισταίῳ δολοῦντες ὀρύγμασι καὶ βρόχοις λύκους καὶ ἄρκτους, ὃς πρῶτος θήρεσσιν ἔπηξε ποδάγρας:—indeed, if we may credit the Christian poet of Panopolis, the sire of the hapless Actæon is entitled to the invention of almost every article of hunting-gear, the dresses of sportsmen, initiation of hounds of chase, &c.—of many of which he has been deprived by less rightful claimants:

[Sidenote: Nonni in Dionys. L. +v.+]

κεῖνος ἀνὴρ πρώτιστος ὀρίδρομος ἅλματι ταρσῶν
εὗρε φιλοσκοπέλοιο πόνον κεμαδοσσόον ἄγρης,
πῶς νοερῷ μυκτῆρι παρὰ σφυρὰ φορβάδος ὕλης
θηρὸς ἀσημάντοιο κύων μαντεύεται ὀδμὴν,
ὄρθια ὀξυκέλευθον ἐπὶ δρόμον οὔατα τείνων·
καὶ δολίης δεδάηκε πολύπλοκα δίκτυα τέχνης,
καὶ σταλίκων τύπον ὀρθόν. κ. τ. λ.

To the first-mentioned Arcadian worthy Gratius attributes the earliest fashioning of hunting-spears with _moræ_ or guards. Virgil sings of “lato venabula ferro,” for close conflict; and Gratius more particularly adds, to the honour of Dercylus’s armoury, the introduction of bifid spears:

[Sidenote: Gratii Cyneg. vs. 108.]

Ille etiam valido primus venabula dente
Induit: et proni moderatus vulneris iram
Omne moris excepit onus. Tum stricta verutis
Dentibus et geminas subiêre hastilia furcas.

[Sidenote: Oppian. Cyneg. L. +ii.+ 22.]

But although the Arcadian formed the spear for pedestrian assault, and Meleager was conspicuous in the use of it,—ἐν σταδίοισιν ὀρειοτέροισι μόθοισιν,—a more celebrated hero first wielded it in distant jaculation on horseback:

[Sidenote: Oppian. Cyneg. L. +ii.+ 14.]

ἱππαλέην δ’ ἄγρην ὁ φαεσφόρος εὕρατο Κάστωρ,
καὶ τοὺς μὲν κατέπεφνεν, ἐπὶ σκοπὸν ἰθὺς ἄκοντι
βαλλόμενος, τοὺς δ’ αὖτε θοοῖς ἵπποισιν ἐλαύνων
θῆρας ἕλε ξυλόχοισι μεσημβρινοῖο δρόμοιο.

[Sidenote: Cyneg. L. +i.+ vs. 91. seqq.]

—a style of hunting, which we may suppose to have been much practised in the Roman empire by persons of noble rank, as Montfaucon gives several representations of it from the sepulchre of the Nasoni:—in exact accordance with which, the ἱππελάτης of Oppian is decked out for the equestrian chase.

[Sidenote: Martial. de Amph. Cæsar. L. +xi.+]

The reader’s recollection will readily supply, from authors in every one’s hands, the use of bows and arrows,[310] and small darts—“excussâ lancea torta manu,”—in the early annals of field-sports:

[Sidenote: Gratii Cyneg. vs. 122.]

Quocirca et jaculis habilem perpendimus usum:
Neu leve vulnus eat, neu sit brevis impetus illi.
Ipsa arcu Lyciâque suas Diana pharetrâ
Armavit comites; ne tela relinquite Divæ,
Magnum opus et volucres quondam fecêre sagittæ.

The far-famed female ally of Meleager in the attack on the Calydonian boar,

[Sidenote: Golding’s Ovid’s Metam. B. +viii.+]

the paragone
Of Lycey forest, Atalant, a goodly lady, one
Of Schænyes daughters,

claims the merit of first employing archery; having been instructed[311] both in κυνηλασίη and εὐστοχίη by Dian herself, (see Callim. H. in Dian. vs. 217.)

[Sidenote: Oppian. Cyneg. L. +ii.+ 26.]

Σχοινῆος πρώτη δὲ κλυτὴ θυγάτηρ Ἀταλάντη
θηρσὶ φόνον πτερόεντα συηβόλος εὕρατο κούρη.

We are unacquainted with the form and use of many of the weapons, with which Oppian accoutres his able-bodied rustics for the covert-side,

[Sidenote: Ejusdem L. +i.+ 148.]

καὶ μὴν τόσσα φέροιντο ποτὶ κνημοὺς ξυλόχους τε
ἐργοπόνοι κρατεροὶ θήρης ἐρικυδέος ὅπλα,
ἔντεά τ’ εὐθήροιο μέγα πνείοντα φόνοιο, κ. τ. λ.

[Sidenote: Nat. Com. de Venat. L. +iv.+]

[Sidenote: Hieron. Ruscell. Schol. Breviss. Illustr. Ald. F. Venet. +m.d.li.+]

and Natalis Comes, with his brief scholiast Ruscellius, throws no light on them, in the borrowed armoury of his first cynegetic. The Oppianic catalogue runs through eight lines, in which we recognize, in addition to the former implements of predatory hunting, others particularly devoted to the capture of the hare, the ἁρπάλαγον and λαγωοφόνος τρίαινα, the hare-pole, and three-pronged hare-fork—belonging probably to the class of murderous instruments mentioned by the poet of Barga:

[Sidenote: P. A. Bargæi Cyneg. L. +i.+]

Nec desint duræ sinuato vertice clavæ
Quæ leporis cursum jactæ compescere possint.[312]

Among the more simple modes of following wild animals for capture, I should have earlier mentioned that of _tracking_—from its simplicity, probably, coeval with the rudest species of pursuit. It is alluded to in the 32nd Epigram of Callimachus,

Ὠγρευτὴς, Ἐπικυδὲς, ἐν οὔρεσι πάντα λαγωὸν
διφᾷ, καὶ πάσης ἴχνια δορκαλίδος,
στίβῃ καὶ νιφετῷ κεχαρημένος—

in the 1st Georgic of Virgil vs. 308. and the 2nd Satire of the 1st book of Horace vs. 105. Oppian describes _tracking_ as twofold, by men, and dogs,—the former of course being the more ancient, and more correctly termed _tracking_, the latter _scenting_:

[Sidenote: Oppian. Cyneg. L. +i.+ 450.]

εἴδεα δὲ στιβίης δυσδερκέος ἔπλετο δισσὰ,
ἀνδρῶν, ἠδὲ κυνῶν· μέροπες μὲν ἄρ’ αἰολόβουλοι
ὄμμασι τεκμῄραντο, καὶ εὖ φράσσαντο κέλευθα·
μυξωτῆρσι κύνες δὲ πανίχνια σημήναντο.

Savary’s ejaculation on snow-tracking the hare is more amusing than poetical:

[Sidenote: Alb. Dianæ Leporicidæ L. +iii.+]

O nix! improba nix! generosæ invisa Dianæ,
Pernicies leporum! venantum ignobile vulgus
Quam votis petit assiduis, ut cæde cruentâ
Depopuletur agros! &c.

The many wily inventions devised by man’s ingenuity of old for ensnaring noxious and timid animals, appear to us more like instruments of lawless poaching, than fair hunting, and fully justify the conclusion of Arrian’s 24th chapter de Venatione; wherein, with the spirit of a genuine courser, he exclaims, “there is as much difference between a fair trial of speed in a _good run_, and ensnaring a poor animal without an effort, as between the secret piratical assaults of robbers at sea, and the victorious naval engagements of the Athenians at Artemisium, at Salamis, at Psyttalia, and at Cyprus.”

[Sidenote: Antiq. Expl. Tom. +iii.+ l. +iii.+ c. +iv.+]

It has been erroneously stated by Montfaucon and others, that the use of nets and snares was not an exercise of pleasure to men of quality, but only to peasants, and persons of inferior grade;—the praise of a noble employment being, on this view, alone awarded to hunting with dogs, or being armed for the sport with _venabula_, _hastilia_, &c. either on foot or horseback. But this distinction, however plausible in theory, is not tenable in fact. Discreditable as the use of snares may be deemed, and irreconcilable to modern taste, the philosophic recluse of Scillus, the patrician Xenophon, and every other sportsman, whether high or low, of the classic ages, must plead guilty to their employment:

[Sidenote: Manilii L. +v.+]

ducuntur et ipsi
Retibus, et claudunt campos formidine mortis,
Mendacesque parant foveas, laqueosque tenaces,
Currentesque feras pedicarum compede nectunt,
Aut canibus ferrove necant, prædasque reportant.

I do not mean that the gentry had not the aid of servants in these as in other menial occupations—(for it is evident that Xenophon’s ἀρκυωρὸς was a servant; and on the huntsman’s tomb, recorded by Pausanias in Achaicis c. +xxii.+, by the side of the principal is the οἰκέτης ἀκόντια ἔχων, καὶ ἄγων κύνας ἐπιτηδείας θηρεύουσιν ἀνθρώποις—The ostentation too of the Horatian Gargilius,

[Sidenote: Hor. L. +i.+ Epist. +vi.+ 58.]

qui mane plagas, venabula, _servos_,
Differium transire forum populumque jubebat,—