Chapter VIII: Part 8

Xenophon reprobates hook-nosed hounds, αἱ δὲ γρυπαὶ ἄστομοι, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο οὐ κατέχουσι τὸν λαγῶ. Pollux would have the heads light and airy, κοῦφαι καὶ εὔφοροι: and when speaking on human anatomy, explains the terms γρυπαὶ and σιμαὶ, ἐπὶ δὲ τοῦ σιμοῦ, φαίης ἂν ὡς ἔστιν ἡ ῥὶς ἐκ μέσων κοίλη· ὥσπερ ἐπὶ τοῦ γρυποῦ ῥὶς καμπύλη. Many of the features of Pollux’s portrait of the C. Venaticus are appropriate to the Celtic hound. See Onomast. L. +v.+ c. 37.

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

The more modern Cynegetica agree, in all important points, with the structure approved by Arrian: “A greihounde shuld have a longe hede and somdele greet ymakyd in the manere of a luce, a good large mouthe and good sesours the on agein the other, so that the nether jawes passe not hem above, ne that thei above passe not hem by nether.”

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

A grehounde sholde be
Heeded lyke a snake.

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

“Capite et collo oblongis,” says Belisarius: “longo et plano capite,” Albertus. “He should have a fine, long, lean head, with a sharp nose rush-grown, from the eyes downwards.”

[67] Ἰνώδη—sinewy. Xenophon says, ἰνώδη τὰ κάτωθεν τῶν μετώπων: but his namesake is indifferent on this point.

[68] Oppian describes the eyes of lions as

[Sidenote: Cyneg. +iii.+ v. 26.]

Ὄμματα δ’ αἰγλήεντα:

and again,

[Sidenote: v. 32.]

καὶ πυρὸς ἀστράπτουσιν ἀπ’ ὀφθαλμῶν ἀμαρυγαί:

of the leopard or panther,

[Sidenote: v. 69.]

——ὄμμα φαεινὸν,
γλαυκιόωσι κόραι βλεφάροις ὑπὸ μαρμαίρουσι,
γλαυκιόωσιν ὁμοῦ τε, καὶ ἔνδοθι φοινίσσονται
αἰθομέναις ἵκελαι, πυριλαμπέες:

of the lynx,

[Sidenote: Cyneg. +iii.+ v. 90.]

βλεφάροισιν ἀπ’ ὀφθαλμῶν ἀμαρυγαὶ
ἱμερόεν στράπτουσι.

[69]

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

Xenophon de Venat. c. +iii.+ condemns blink-eyed and grey-eyed hounds as bad and unsightly, αἰσχραὶ ὁρᾶσθαι: but Oppian particularly specifies blue eyes as preferable to all others; and I have known many azure-eyed dogs of great merit. The darker the eye, however, the better. “Her eynne shuld be,” according to De Langley, “reed or blak as of a sphauke:”—“full and clear, with long eye-lids,” according to Markham. The reader of Anacreon will understand the sort of eye admired in the greyhound, from the

[Sidenote: Anacreon. Od. +xxix.+]

μέλαν ὄμμα γοργὸν ἔστω
κεκερασμένον γαλήνῃ—

of the 29th Ode; and at the same time, perhaps, smile at the quotation.

[70] The early part of this chapter, devoted to the portraiture of the author’s beloved Hormé, interrupts his general description of the greyhound’s shape, which he again resumes after gratifying his personal feelings in an affectionate interlude of canine biography; ostensibly introduced to prove that a blue-eyed hound (κύνα χαροπὴν, οἵαν χαροπωτάτην) may possess all the essential excellencies of his race.

[71]

[Sidenote: Stephani Schediasm. L. +iv.+]

[Sidenote: Eustath. ad Il. H. p. 692.]

I have taken the liberty of changing the sex of this favourite dog, according to the example of Holsten; because I think it probable that Arrian may have used the feminine gender here, and generally through the treatise, not from the animal spoken of having been really of that sex, but from its being usual with Xenophon and other classic authors to employ the feminine gender when speaking of the dogs of the chase. Indeed, it has been remarked by Eustathius and others, that such was the custom of the ancient Greek writers, whenever they spoke of any kind of animals collectively. But Arrian does not apply the feminine gender to dogs _gregatim_ only, but also individually: and the same prevalence of this gender is also observable in the Latin poets. It must be confessed, however, that the name Hormé (Angl. _Rush_) is more applicable to a bitch than a dog.

[72]

[Sidenote: Chronique de Froissart, and note to Johnnes’s Transl. V. +iv.+ 657.]

It is generally believed that greyhounds have very weak attachments; and the fickle companions of Charles de Blois and of Richard II. favour such an opinion. But against these well-known examples of canine infidelity, we may place others of extraordinary attachment to their lords; at the head of which let Hormé stand, πρᾳοτάτη καὶ φιλανθρωποτάτη, the beloved and affectionate hound of the founder of the leash:

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

Possem multa canum variorum exempla referre,
Ni pigeat studium parvarum noscere rerum.

[Sidenote: =Mayster of Game=, c. +xii.+ fol. 47-49.]

To the tales of inviolable attachment recorded by the royal pen of Edmund Duke of York, of “the greihounde boothe good and faire of Kyng Apollo of Lyonnys,” and the “wel good and faire greihounde that was Aubries of Mondidert,” the reader is referred for farther examples; nor should he forget the martyr Charles’s dying eulogy of the Celtic hound.

Vide J. C. Scaliger de Subtil. ad Card. Exerc. +ccii.+ the last of the Historiæ Duæ Nobilissimæ;, sect. 6.

[73]

[Sidenote: Cicero de Naturâ Deor.]

“Amans dominorum adulatio.”

——nulla homini magè prodiga grati
Officii quadrupes, dominisque fidelior ipsis!

says the kind-hearted poet of Venusium: and again,

[Sidenote: J. Darcii Venusini Canes.]

Usque sequetur ovans, tua nec vestigia quoquam
Deseret, at lateri semper comes ibit herili.
Sistis iter? sistit—properas? velociùs Euro
Scindit in obliquum campos, &c.

[74] The following lines from a canine epitaph, “De Mopso fidissimo cane,” are not inapposite:

[Sidenote: Septem Illust. Vir. Poëmata Amst. 1672.]

Custos assiduus domi forisque
Nostri principis, et comes fidelis:
Equo seu fuit ire, sive curru,
Seu tritâ pedibus viâ voluptas.
Hinc me carior haud erat; nec alter
Posthac est aliis futurus annis
Me carus magis, aut magis peritus
Blandiri domino, &c.

[75] Ἐπανίοντος πρόεισι, θαμινὰ ἐπιστρεφομένη, κ. τ. λ.

[Sidenote: J. Darcii Venusini Canes.]

——si post terga relinquas,
(Nam dominum crebrò aspiciens observat euntem)
Ille moram cursu pensat, viden’ ecce repentè
A tergo ut vultuque hilaris blanditur amico, &c.

[76]

[Sidenote: Vanierii Præd. Rustic. L. +iv.+]

——fidas ad limina custos
Excubias agit, et nutus observat heriles;
Ut quò jussa vocant velocior advolet: idem
Nunc hilari congaudet hero, nunc _tristior ægro
Assidet_.

[77] So Calpurnius of the pet stag:

[Sidenote: Eclog. +vi.+ 35.]

——sequiturque vocantem
Credulus, et mensæ non improba porrigit ora.

[78] The ancients cleansed their hands with the soft crumb of bread after meals, and threw it to their dogs. These pieces of bread were called ἀπομαγδαλίαι: the μειλίγματα of the Homeric simile:

[Sidenote: Homer. Odyss. +x.+ 216.]

ὡς δ’ ὅταν ἀμφὶ ἄνακτα κύνες δαίτηθεν ἰόντα
σαίνωσ’, (αἰεὶ γάρ τε φέρει μειλίγματα θυμοῦ).

Hence probably Juvenal’s “sordes farris mordere canini.”

[79] Πολύφθογγος.

[Sidenote: Martial. Issa Publii.]

Hanc tu si queritur, _loqui_ putabis.
Sentit tristitiamque gaudiumque.

[Sidenote: Anyta Epidauria.]

Did Hormé’s “verba canina” (Ovid, in Ibin) extend to the imitation of spoken language, as in the memorable case of M. Leibnitz’s dog, recorded by him (“témoin oculaire”) in the Hist. de l’Acad. Royale des Sciences, ann. 1715? or are we to understand that this most musical of hounds, φιλοφθόγγων ὠκυτάτη σκυλάκων, only “gave tongue,” like his congeners, with various intonations of bark?

[Sidenote: Apollon. Rhod. L. +iii.+ 1216.]

ὀξειῇ ὑλακῇ χθόνιοι κύνες ἐφθέγγοντο—

making up by intelligence, and significancy of action, for deficiency of speech:

[Sidenote: Nonni Dionysiac. L. +xvi.+]

εἰσὶ καὶ ἐν σκυλάκεσσιν ἐχέφρονες, οἷσι Κρονίων
ἀνδρομέην φρένα δῶκε καὶ οὐ βροτέην πόρε φωνήν.

[Sidenote: Andreas Naugerius, Carm. +v.+ Illustr. Poetar.]

Nunc blandè assiliebat hùc et illùc
Ludens, atque avido appetebat ore.
Erectis modo cruribus, bipesque
Mense adstabat herili, heroque ab ipso
Latratu tenero cibum petebat.

[80] Ὑποπτήξασα λιπαρεῖ—

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

The fawning hound
Salutes thee cow’ring.

[Sidenote: Lucretius. L. +v.+ 1071.]

Plorantes fugiunt summisso corpore plagas.

[81]

[Sidenote: Buffon, H. N. Le Chien.]

“Plus sensible au souvenir des bienfaits qu’à celui des outrages, il ne se rebute pas par les mauvais traitemens, il les subit, les oublie, ou ne s’en souvient que pour s’attacher davantage; loin de s’irriter ou de fuir, il lèche cette main, instrument de douleur, qui vient de le frapper; il ne lui oppose que la plainte, et la désarme enfin par la patience et la soumission.”

[82] Σοφωτάτη. Plato also has κύων σοφωτάτος.

[83] Ἱεροτάτη—“holiest;” Encycl. Metropol., article “Hunting.” It is scarcely possible to express this epithet in English. Zeune’s Index Græcitatis gives “præstantissima.” I do not like Mr. Smedley’s translation, E. M.; and yet I cannot suggest a better in its place than that of the version. A coursing friend substitutes “perfectly divine.”

[84] He now returns from his beautiful episode on Hormé to the physical indications of excellence in greyhounds generally. The _conque_ of the ear is semi-pendulous, and yet the greyhound has the power of elevating it with as much ease as the less reclaimed varieties of dog. This particular structure gives the appearance, noticed in the text, of the ear being broken; and also adds to its seeming magnitude.

[85] The modern courser prefers the small ears of the Oppianic hound,

[Sidenote: Oppian. Cyneg. +i.+ +v.+ 403.]

βαιὰ δ’ ὕπερθεν
οὔατα λεπταλέοισι περιστέλλοινθ’ ὑμένεσσι:

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

and excludes the pricked ear, the “rectæ aures” of Fracastor. Albertus recommends “aures acutæ retrorsùm directæ, et parvæ:” the Mayster of Game, “the eerys smal and hie in the maner of a serpent:” Gervase Markham, “a sharp ear, short, and close-falling:” but the most correct notion of the ears of a perfect greyhound is imparted in the line

[Sidenote: Nemesian. Cyneget. 113.]

Cuique nimis molles fluitent in cursibus aures—

of the Carthaginian poet.

[86]

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

δειρὴ μηκεδανὴ, καὶ στήθεα νέρθε κραταιὰ,
εὐρέα.

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

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

[Sidenote: Booke of Hawkyng, &c.]

On the necessity of a long neck all the Cynegetica, ancient and modern, are agreed; but there is a difference of opinion on the formation of the chest. “The neke,” according to De Langley, should be “grete and longe, bowed as a swannes nek.” “Pectore acuto,” says Belisarius, “costis inferiùs longis, et ad ima paululùm trahentibus: præcordiis lateribusque ita amplis, ut sine difficultate canes spiritum trahant. Nam quò facilior respiratio fuerit, tantò expeditiores ad cursum erunt.” Albertus agrees with him in all points of importance. Juliana’s portrait is “neckyd lyke a drake:” Markham’s, “a long neck, a little bending, with a loose hanging wezand; a broad breast, straight fore-legs, and side-hollow ribs.”

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

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

Topsel translates from Albertus an invention “to make a greyhound have a long neck,” far too ridiculous to be extracted. Indeed, this worthy Bishop of Ratisbon fully merits the character given of him by Sir Thos. Brown, “that he hath delivered most conceits, with strict enquiry into few:” and the Rector of St. Botolph’s, Aldersgate, is a close copyist of all his absurdities.

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

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

τὼ πρόσθεν δέ τ’ ὀλιζοτέρω πόδε ἔστων,
ὀρθοτενεῖς κώλων ταναοὶ δολιχήρεες ἱστοὶ,
εὐρέες ὠμοπλάται, πλευρῶν ἐπικάρσια ταρσὰ,
ὀσφύες εὔσαρκοι, μὴ πίονες· αὐτὰρ ὄπισθε
στριφνή τ’ ἐκτάδιός τε πέλοι δολιχόσκιος οὐρή.
τοῖοι μὲν ταναοῖσιν ἐφοπλίζοιντο δρόμοισι
δόρκοις, ἠδ’ ἐλάφοισιν, ἀελλόποδί τε λαγωῷ.

Nemesian is brief, but highly illustrative:

[Sidenote: Nemesian. Cyneg. 106.]

Elige tunc cursu facilem, facilemque recursu,
Seu Lacedæmonio natam, seu rure Molosso,
Non humili de gente canem. Sit cruribus altis,
Sit rigidis, multamque gerat sub pectore lato
Costarum, sub fine decenter prona, carinam,
Quæ sensim sursùs siccâ se colligat alvo,
Renibus ampla satis vadis, diductaque coxas,
Cuique nimis molles fluitent in cursibus aures.

[Sidenote: Alcon.]

Fracastorius’s canine portrait, “Sint armi lati, sint æquè pectora lata,” &c. are of doubtful application.

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

Pollux adds to the perfection of the fore-legs by saying they should be μὴ προὔχοντα κατὰ τοὺς ἀγκῶνας—“not out at the elbows:” and Xenophon would have the Spartan dog straight both in the leg and at the elbow.

[Sidenote: Belisarius de Venatione.]

“Ilia sint angusta et compressa: venter exilis, nam crassus currentem gravat. Crura alta, brachia non æquè, ne leporis capturam impediant. Anteriores pedes, ut in fele, rotundi potius quàm longi.”

[88] The terms λαγόνες and κενεῶνες are often confounded as synonymous. Arrian and the elder Xenophon use the term λαγόνες to designate (speaking anatomically) that part of the lumbar region, behind the last or short ribs, where the kidneys are situate, the upper and anterior part of the flanks: κενεῶνες, the lower and posterior part of the flanks.

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

Aristotle observes that the best Canes Venatici are well tucked-up in the flanks ἴδοι δ’ ἄν τις καὶ τῶν κυνῶν τοὺς φιλοθηροτάτους εὐζώνους ὄντας. Such was the Ovidian Ladon,

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

Substricta gerens Sicyonius ilia Ladon.

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

The Mayster of Game is here peculiarly illustrative of the text, fashioning the greyhound to perfection: “her shuldres as a roobuk. The for legges streght and greet ynow and nought to hie legges, the feet straught and rounde as a catte and greet clees,—the boone and the joyntes of the chyne greet and hard as the chyne of an hert. Eke be reson his chynne shuld be a litel hie, for it is better than it were flatt, &c. &c.—the thyes grete and squarred as an hare, the houghes streight and not crompyng as of an oxe, a cattes tayle makyng a ryng at eende and not to hie, the to boonys of the chyne behynd brode of a large pame or more. Also ther byne many greihoundes with longe tailles ryght swift,” &c.

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

Fotyd lyke a catte:
Tayllyd lyke a ratte:
Syded lyke a teme,
And chynyd lyke a beme—

finishes the doggerel of the Sopewell portrait.

[89]

[Sidenote: Skinner Etymolog.]

Εὐπαγἢ—well-filleted? Fillet, “musculosior pars femoris sic dicta, quia eò loci magni et validi tendines et nervi insignes, qui propter longitudinem, filorum speciem exhibent, occurrunt.”

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

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

So Markham: “a straight square and flat back, short and strong fillets; a broad space between the hips; a strong stern or tail, and a round foot, and good large clefts.” Elsewhere, he says: “a long, broad, and square beame back, with high round fillets”—“hee must be deepe swine sided, with hollow bended ribs, and a full brest; he must have rush growne limbes before, and sickell houghs behind; a fine, round, full cat’s foot, with strong cleyes and tough soles, and an even growne long rat’s tail, round turning at the lower end from the leash ward; and hee must bee full set on betweene the buttockes,” &c.

[90] The Cynosophium has the same remarks on the relative length of the fore and hind legs; see sect. +iv.+ p. 262.

[91]

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

χρειὼ δὲ σκοπέλου μὲν ἀνάντεος ἠδὲ πάγοιο
σεύεσθαι προθέοντα ποδωκέα φῦλα λαγωῶν,
πρὸς δὲ κάταντα σοφῇσι προμηθείῃσιν ἐλαύνειν.
αὐτίκα γὰρ σκύλακάς τε καὶ ἀνέρας ἀθρήσαντες
πρὸς λόφον ἰθύουσιν, ἐπεὶ μάλα γινώσκουσιν
ὅττι πάροιθεν ἔασιν ὀλιζότεροι πόδες αὐτοῖς.
τοὔνεκα ῥηΐδιαι πτώκεσσι πέλουσι κολῶναι,
ῥηΐδιαι πτώκεσσι, δυσάντεες ἱππελάτῃσι.

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

And Ælian, De Naturâ Animalium, states the advantage and disadvantage of this shape to the hare: τὰ δὲ ἀνάντη μὲν καὶ ὑψηλὰ οἱ λαγῲ ἀναθέουσι ῥᾷστα· τὰ γάρ τοι κατόπιν κῶλα μακρότερα ἔχουσι τῶν ἔμπροσθεν, καὶ καταθέουσιν οὐκ ὁμοίως, λυπεῖ γὰρ αὐτοὺς τῶν ποδῶν τὸ ἐναντίον:—a circumstance well known to every courser, and not forgotten in the “Questions” of Dame Juliana’s poetical manual,

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

Tell me, maister, (quoth the man) what dooth it skill
Why the hare would so faine runne against the hil?
Quoth the maister, for her leggs be shorter before,
And therfore she desireth to run that way evermore.

[92]

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

[Sidenote: Illustrations of Gratius.]

Bad-footed hounds, however high-couraged, are unable to bear work, according to Xenophon, on account of the pain they endure in running, διὰ τὸ ἄλγος τῶν ποδῶν. No cynegeticon omits the essential feature of a well-formed foot; which, in Wase’s words, should be “round, high-knuckled, and well-clawed, with a dry hard soal.”

[Sidenote: Gratii Cyneg. 276.]

Effuge qui latâ pandit vestigia plantâ,
Mollis in officio, siccis ego dura lacertis
Crura velim, et solidos hæc in certamina calces.

Fracastorius,

[Sidenote: Alcon.]

Ima pedum parvâ signent vestigia plantâ.

[Sidenote: De Venatione.]

Tardif explains the cat-like foot, “pedes parvi, digitis duris, et aptè conjunctis, ne quid terræ aut luti in vià admittant:” and Savary of Caen,

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

——brevemque pedes glomerentur in orbem
Parvaque compactis digitis vestigia forment.

[93] Compare Xenophon de Venat. c. +iv.+ Arrian very rationally combats the notion of a greyhound’s excellence being at all dependent on so variable a distinction as colour. Oppian, more credulous on this point, reprobates white and black dogs, as impatient of heat and cold, and gives a preference to such as are red, russet, or fawn:

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

κεῖνοι δ’ ἐν πάντεσσιν ἀριστεύουσι κύνεσσι,
τοῖς ἴκελοι μορφαὶ μάλα θήρεσιν ὠμηστῇσι,
μηλοφόνοισι λύκοις, ἢ τίγρεσιν ἠνεμοέσσαις,
ἢ καὶ ἀλωπεκέεσσι, θοαῖσί τε πορδαλίεσσιν,
ἢ ὁπόσοι δήμητρι πανείκελον εἶδος ἔχουσι
σιτόχροοι· μάλα γάρ τε θοοὶ κρατεροί τε πέλονται.

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

The Cynosophium recommends such as are παραπλήσιοι λέουσι, πάρδοις, λύκοις: and adds to its Materia Medica (p. 275.) amongst other ridiculous nostrums, a formula by which the colour of the hair may be changed from white to black—_credat Judæus!_

In accordance with the general prejudice which bestowed superior virtue on parti-coloured, (for such was Xenophon’s opinion,) Pan confers on the Goddess of the Chase pie-bald and mottled hounds:

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

τὶν δ’ ὁ γενείητης δύο μὲν κύνας ἥμισυ πηγοὺς,
τρεῖς δὲ πόρ’ οὐατίους, ἕνα δ’ αἰόλον.

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

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

The modern Cynegetica are as fickle and capricious as to colour as their ancient models:

[Sidenote: Nat. Comes de Venat.]

——color est deterrimus albo,
Nec placeat niveis maculis signatus et atris;
Aut longis nimium villis, fuscove colore—

[Sidenote: Album Dianæ, &c.]

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

according to the canine canons of Natalis Comes:—whereas Savary gives the preference to a white hound, “nunc est in pretio et reliquos supereminet albus;” and is supported by Fouilloux and his copyist Turbervile, who praise those of one homogeneous colour—white, fallow, dun, and black; the latter being the valued breed of St. Hubert, (les chiens courans,) “qui estoit veneur avec S. Eustache, dont est à conjecturer, que les bons veneurs les ensuysront en Paradis avec la grace de Dieu.”

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

“Of alle manere of greihoundes there byn,” says De Langley, “both good and evel. Natheless the best hewe is rede falow with a blak moselle.”

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

After citing so many, and such conflicting opinions, I leave the reader to draw his own conclusion on this most unimportant point; bidding him remember that Markham supports our author, that “colours have (as touching any particular goodnesse) no preheminence one above the other, but are all equal—many good and famous dogs having been of all the several colours; onely the white is esteemed the most beautifull and best for the eie, the black and fallow hardest to endure labour, and the dunne and brended best for the poachers and nightmen, who delight to have all their pleasures performed in darknesse.” Backed by the compiler of “The Countrey Farme,” let him give to Arrian the weight he is entitled to, as a practical courser. My own conviction accords with that of Tardif, “ex colore nihil certi ferè pronunciatur: sæpius enim turpi colore canes, pulchrioribus præstant:” and with the poet of Caen,

[Sidenote: Album Dianæ, &c.]

——nullus virtutibus obstat,
Aut prodest color: hunc habeas quicunque placebit;

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

I object to no dog merely on account of his colour, though he may rival in variety of tint the renowned Triamour’s marvellous Peticrewe.

[94] εἴτε οὖν τοῦ δασέος γένους, εἴτε τοῦ ψιλοῦ τύχοιεν οἱ κύνες. These two varieties still exist; but the rough, or wire-haired variety of greyhound is banished from the kennel of modern coursers; for though this δασὺ γένος may show some fire and speed in a short course in an enclosed country, it is always beaten by the ψιλὸν γένος over a champaign country, where the duration of the contest defies ignoble competition.

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

Buffon derives the wiry hair from commixture with the spaniel, “le poil long de certains lévriers vient du mélange des espagneuls:” but if such be its origin, the text proves it to have been of remote antiquity.

[Sidenote: De Canibus Britannicis Libellus.]

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

“Est strigosum genus,” says Caius, “in quo alii majores sunt, alii minores; alii pilo sessili, alii hirto.” And Ulysses Aldrovandus has left us rude sketches of the two varieties under the titles of “C. leporarius hirsutus albus,” and “C. leporarius alter ferruginei coloris.” See also “The Countrey Farme,” c. +xxii.+ Schneider quotes Synesius Laud. Calvit. p. 67. ἐκεῖναι σοφώταται τῶν κυνῶν, κ. τ. λ.: see the passage in his note on the Greek text. It does not appear to what variety of dog the author alludes.

[95]

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

So also the Cynosophium of Demetrius of Constantinople, καλὸν εἰ τῷ μεγέθει τοῦ σώματος ἡ θήλη προσήκειται ἄῤῥενι. But I do not remember to have seen these remarks of Arrian on the dog partaking of the bitch’s form, and the bitch of the dog’s, in any of the more ancient Cynegetica of Greece and Rome. The Byzantine physician doubtless derived the hint from our author.

[96]

[Sidenote: Aristotelis Physiognom.]

Aristotle admits the possibility of distinguishing by outward manifestations the innate qualities and tempers of animals; such discrimination is the result of particular experience: τῶν ἄλλων ζώων οἱ περὶ ἕκαστον ἐπιστήμονες ἐκ τῆς ἰδίας διαθέσεως δύνανται θεωρεῖν, ἱππικοί τε ἵππους, καὶ κυνηγέται κύνας.

[97] τῷ δὲ ἀνατρέφοντι προσφιλεῖς. Oppian would have hounds friendly to all men alike:

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

ἵπποισι κρατεροῖσι δ’ ὁμήθεες ἀγρευτῆρες
ἐξέτι νηπιάχων ἔστων, μερόπεσσί τε πᾶσιν
ἠθάδιοι φίλιοί τε, μόνοισι δὲ θήρεσιν ἐχθροί.

[98] κράτισται δὲ αἱ φιλανθρωπόταται—the best greyhounds are the most kindly-affectioned. Martial’s Lydia was gentle at home, but savage in the wood,

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

Venatrix sylvis aspera, blanda domi:

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

and De Langley’s greyhound, “curtaise and nought to felle, wel folowyng his maister and doyng whatever he hym commaundeth. He shuld be good and kyndly and clene, glad and joyful and playeing wel willyng, and goodly to alle maner folkes, save to wilde beestis, upon whom he shuld be felle spitous and egre.”

[99] Ὑπὸ ψόφου ἐκπλήττονται.

[Sidenote: Tickell’s Fragment on Hunting.]

Start at the starting prey or rustling wind.

[100]

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

All these particulars are, for the most part, matters of education and discipline; but are partially dependent on innate disposition. Education, however, is very important, operating on a good subject. Τῶν κυνῶν, says Socrates, τῶν εὐφυεστάτων, φιλοπόνων τε οὐσῶν, καὶ ἐπιθετικῶν τοῖς θηρίοις, τὰς μὲν καλῶς ἀχθείσας, ἀρίστας γίγνεσθαι πρὸς τὰς θήρας, καὶ χρησιμωτάτας· ἀναγώγους δὲ γιγνομένας, ματαίους τε καὶ μανίωδεις καὶ δυσπειθεστάτας.

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

[Sidenote: De Mulabus Gallicis.]

Exutæ laqueis, sub ditione tamen.

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

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

Cowering low
With blandishment.

The greyhound’s posture is peculiarly graceful, when fondly crouching before his master or keeper; and may be well likened to the ταπεινότης (Arr. Exped. Alex. L. +iv.+ c. +xi.+) of the Persian, performing his salaam to the King of kings.

[103]

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

Οἱ προσκυνοῦντες. From what Callisthenes says to Alexander (Arrian. Exped. Alexand. L. +iv.+ c. +xi.+) it appears that Cyrus, the founder of the Persian empire, was the first person to whom adoration was paid on earth by his fellow-men; and it was continued and enjoined to his successors, as a political homage. The ordinary compliments of the modern Greeks are called προσκυνήματα. See Arrian’s account of the προσκυνήσις, loco citato; and Xenophon, Cyropædia, L. +viii.+ for the first occasion of it, πρόσθεν δὲ Περσῶν οὐδεὶς Κῦρον προσεκύνει.

[104] The king of Persia was called μέγας βασιλεὺς, according to Suidas, διὰ τὸ πλείονι δυνάμει χρῆσθαι τῇ Περσικῇ· τοῖς δὲ ἄλλοις προσετίθεσαν καὶ τῶν ἀρχομένων ὀνόματα, οἷον Λακεδαιμονίων, Μακεδόνων. The title still exists in “Le Grand Seigneur.”

[105] Οὐδὲ τὸ ἵστασθαι δὲ ἐν πεδίῳ λυθεῖσαν ἀγαθόν. Constant confinement with chain and collar, made the youthful Celtic hound start from couples with fire, when taken into the field for sport or exercise; not so, however, the aged, whose privileged rest is beautifully touched by our classic poet of the chase, and readily yielded by Arrian as no blemish to his character:

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

Now grown stiff with age,
And many a painful chase, the wise old hound,
Regardless of the frolic pack, attends
His master’s side, &c.

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

[Sidenote: Iliad. p. 136.]

πᾶν δέ τ’ ἐπισκύνιον κάτω ἕλκεται ὄσσε καλύπτων.

[107]

[Sidenote: Systema Naturæ. Canis.]

Ἄκρον. So the Paris and Amsterdam editions, quasi ἐπ’ ἄκρων ὀνύχων. Schneider reads ἁβρὸν, a delicate tread, a light tread; but the signification is nearly the same. Linnæus’s definition corresponds with Arrian’s as to the dog’s gait: “obliquè currit, incedit supra digitos,” μεταβάλλουσι τὰς πλευρὰς, “tranversis incedunt lateribus.”

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

[Sidenote: Appollon. Rhod.]

κυδιόων ὀρθοῖσιν ἐπ’ οὔασιν αὐχέν’ ἀείρει.

Xenophon uses the term γαυριᾶσθαι, perhaps, with the same meaning. I take λαμπρύνω (magnificè me ostento) to signify the artificial posture in which the horse is placed by a skilful rider, with the aid of rein, whip, spur, &c. as described by Xenophon in the chapter referred to. To this graceful attitude of the well-disciplined war-horse, we may suppose our author to liken that of the Celtic hound in the strictest propriety:

[Sidenote: Gay’s Rural Sports.]

Now I behold the steed curvet and bound,
And paw with restless hoof the smoking ground.

[109]

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

The watchful eye of the Veltrarius is required at the time of feeding: indeed it is best for each hound to have his separate allotment of food; so difficult is it to check the voracious, and encourage the delicate, when placed at the same trough. Τροφῆς δὲ τὴν κοινωνίαν ἥκιστα ἐνδέχονται κύνες· πολλάκις γοῦν καὶ ὑπὲρ ὀστέου ἀλλήλους σπαράττουσιν ὡσπεροῦν ὁ Μενέλεως καὶ ὁ Πάρις ὑπὲρ τῆς Ἑλένης.

[110] Τὸ κόσμιον γενναιότερον τοῦ ἀκόσμου. I never knew a very gross-feeding dog to possess any excellence.

[111]

[Sidenote: Cynosophium. p. 270.]

Ἄρτῳ. Demetrius devotes a few sections to the subject of feeding, recommending “milk to be gradually added to bread (the dog’s usual diet) when it is wished to raise him in flesh, until it becomes his only nutriment, morning and evening. From this he is to be again weaned, by the gradual abstraction of the milk, when we desire to reduce him. In the former case, he is not to have his liberty; in the latter, he is to be daily exercised. A second kind of nutritious food consists of oatmeal gruel with fat; and a third, of bean flour, oil, and fat bacon.” Wheaten bread or biscuit, with gruel made from the farina of oats, is the best nutriment for all hounds.

[Sidenote: Markham’s Countrey Contentments. B. +i.+ p. 49. See also pp. 50, 51.]

“When you have a perfect and well-shapt greyhound, your next rule is to apply yourselfe to the dyetting and ordering of him, for the pleasure to which you keepe him, that bringing him to the uttermost height or strength of winde, you may know the uttermost goodnesse that is within him, which disorderly and foule keeping will conceale, and you lose a jewell, for want of knowledge of the value. Dyetting then of greyhounds consisteth in four especiall things, viz. foode, exercise, ayring, and kennelling; the first nourishing the body, the second the limbes, the third the winde, and the last the spirits.”

[112] Ἄμεινον δὲ εἰ καὶ ξηρᾷ τῇ τροφῇ χαίροιεν. Hounds readily support themselves with dry oat or wheat meal. _Maza_ is variously interpreted—flour mixed with oil and water, and flour beat up with milk:

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

Hordea quotidiana illis sint pabula; avenam
Si mediam addideris, sic sponte resolvitur alvus.
In panem coquit ille, cavo hic in robore caldâ
Digerit in pultem, lambendaque cœna paratur.
Nec durum sit sæpe tibi, quâ luce quietem
Artemidi debes, illos recreare calenti
Jure, minutatim scissis è vilibus extis:
Currentem, ilignisve bibant in vasibus undam.

[113] Καμούσῃ δὲ ἐμβάλλειν ἢ ὕδωρ, &c. Arrian says nothing on the treatment of canine disease beyond this hint on diet.

[114] The Cynosophium substitutes the lungs for the liver of a bullock, as nutriment for puppies, when deprived of milk—εἰ γάλα μὴ ἔχεις. See Cynosoph. p. 271.

On the feeding of puppies Nemesian observes, that it should be regulated by the season of the year, atmospheric temperature, &c.

[Sidenote: Cynegeticus v. 161.]

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

but during the intense heat of summer the puppies are to be kept on lighter food, and then again on meal and whey,

[Sidenote: Ejusdem v. 182.]

Tunc rursus miscere sero Cerealia dona
Conveniet, fortemque dari de frugibus escam.

[115]

[Sidenote: Cynosoph. p. 267.]

Ἀγαθὸν δὲ καὶ ἡ ἀσιτία καμνούσῃ. Arrian probably wrote τῇ ἀσιτίᾳ καμνούσῃ: “prodest etiam lac quando cibi fastidio laborat canis.” The remedy suggested by Demetrius of Constantinople for _anorexis_, “bad feeding,” I should consider more likely to increase, than cure the disease; ἐὰν ἀνορεκτῇ κύων, κόπριαν ἀνθρωπίαν δίδου φαγεῖν, κ. τ. λ.

[116]

[Sidenote: Cynosoph. p. 263.]

A short section of the Cynosophium is given to kennel management—κύνας μετὰ ἀνθρώπων κοιμᾶσθαι καλόν· πραεῖς γὰρ ἐκ τούτου γίνονται, καὶ φιλάνθρωποι, καὶ εὐκόλως καλοῦνται—a practical allurement of canine affection heretofore more common than at present. Modern refinement would ill bear the intimate association recommended by Arrian and Demetrius, and practised by James V. of Scotland, with his favourite Bagsche, who was wont

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

To lap upon the king is bed,
With claith of gold thoch it were spred.

Indeed, we rarely see the high-bred and elegant Celtic hound within the vestibule of a modern dwelling; though heretofore, in the hall of banquet,

[Sidenote: Lay of the Last Minstrel.]

The stag-hounds, weary of the chase,
Lay stretch’d upon the rushy floor,
And urged in dreams the forest race
From Teviot-stone to Eskdale-moor.

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

Whether the Duke of York’s “childe” lay _with_ the hounds, I know not; but it seems that he did, though not with the intention specified by our author: “alway bi nyght and bi day I wil that some childe lye or be in the kenel with the houndes for to kepe hem from fyghteng,” &c.

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

I no where find the close cutaneous contact of man and dog, enjoined in the text, recommended in the ancient Cynegetica; but Xenophon advises an intimate acquaintance between the parties in the kennel at the hours of feeding, &c.: if the hounds be fed by the huntsman, they become attached to his person, τὸν διδόντα στέργουσιν, &c. (c. +vi.+): and so if the Veltrarii (“les valets de lévriers, qui exercent les lévriers, et qui les lâchent à la courre”) superintend the feeding their charge, the attachment thereby produced will render actual cohabitation unnecessary.

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

Quod superest, celeris catuli cui credita cura,
Nutriat illecebris hunc, et sibi jungat amore.
Sic facilè et noto domino parere jubenti
Disceret, acceptisque sequi vestigia signis.

[117] Εἰ γὰρ ἀγρυπνήσειεν, ἐξάγειν ἐπὶ θήραν οὐκ ἀσφαλές. We find in the Hieracosophium, undisturbed sleep is deemed necessary for the hawk the night preceding a flight, ἀταράχου ὕπνου μετεχέτω.

[118] Ἐπιστάξειε—the common reading being probably corrupt, I have received the emendation of Zeune in his Index Græcitatis, ἐπιστενάξειε.

[119] Οὐδ’ εἴ τι ἀπεμέσειε τῶν σιτίων. Such rejection of food by vomiting is an indication of indigestion; and the latter, of course, of unfitness for the chase.

Xenophon forbids hounds to be taken out hunting unless they feed heartily; for bad feeding is an indication of bad health. De Venat. c. +vi.+ 2.

[120] Ψώρας ἐμπίπλασθαι. Mange is a chronic inflammation of the skin, constitutional in some dogs, in others infectious, and in a few cases I have known it hereditary.

Ancient sportsmen had great dread of mange in their kennels. Gratius, the only one who has entered much into canine pathology amongst the cynegetical writers, recommends that the first dog affected with mange should be destroyed, to prevent others from catching so loathsome a disease—a radical cure!

[Sidenote: Gratii Cyneg. v. 408.]

At si deformi lacerum dulcedine corpus
Persequitur scabies, longi via pessima lethi,
In primo accessu tristis medicina; sed unà
Pernicies redimenda animâ, quæ prima sequaci
Sparsa malo est, ne dira trahant contagia vulgi.

If, however, the disease be of a mild type and slow in its progress, it is curable, he says, with an ointment which he prescribes, but which I do not introduce here, as the cutaneous detergents of the scientific Delabere Blaine will be found by the reader far more efficacious. Venesection and purgation, as recommended by Savary, are most important auxiliaries to inunction:

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

Altera latrantum pestis, commercia quæ per
Vicina insinuans sese, diffunditur agmen
In totum, tenerosque brevi depascitur artus,
Deformis scabies, hoc potu ventre soluto,
Victa fugit, si vena die sit aperta sequenti:
Atque malum bini post intervalla diei,
Toto, quod docuit Fulloxius, unguine cures.

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

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

De Langley’s instructions to the kennel-man are excellent: “I wyll hym lerne that onys in the day he voyde the kenel and make it al clene, and remeve her strawe, and putt agayn ffressh new straw, a greet dele and ryght thikke; and ther as he leith it the houndes shall lye, and the place there as thei shuld lye shuld be made of tree a foot hie fro the erthe, and than the strawe should be leide upon, bi cause that the moystnesse of the erthe shuld not make hem morfound, ne engender other siknesse bi the which thei myght be the wors for huntyng,” &c. And before, he says: “The skabbe cometh to hem whan thei abiden in her kenel to longe and gon not on huntyng, or ellis her litter and couche is unclene kept, or ellis the strawe is not remevid and hur water not fressh; and shortly the hound is unclene, I hold, and evel kept or long waterles, havyn comonly this mamewe.”

[121] The courser will not fail to observe Arrian’s intimate knowledge and experience of his subject. The minute instructions communicated in this chapter on rubbing and dressing the Celtic hound, “in cute curandâ,” prove the great care paid by ancient coursers to the condition of the skin in running animals; without which, indeed, no greyhound can compete with an upland champaign hare.

[122] The effect of friction with the hand, or hair-cloth, or flesh-brush, is farther illustrated by Nemesian, on grooming the horse:

[Sidenote: Cyneget. v. 294.]

Pulvere quinetiam puras secernere fruges
Cura sit, atque toros manibus percurrere equorum,
Gaudeat ut plausu sonipes, lætumque relaxet
Corpus, et altores rapiat per viscera succos.
Id curent famuli, comitumque animosa juventus.

[123] Τὴν τρίχα μαλθακὴν ἐργάζεται, &c. This is partially effected in modern days by body-clothes. The clothing of greyhounds, as at present practised by coursers, is of more remote antiquity than the days of Michael Angelo Biondi; having its probable origin in the στελμονίαι of Xenophon, who describes, in the 6th chapter of his Cynegeticus, all the accoutrements of his hunting pack. These consisted of collars, δέραια, soft and broad, so as not to rub off the dog’s hair; leading-thongs or straps, ἱμάντες, independent of the collar, with a handle attached to them; and sur-cingles or body-clothes, στελμονίαι, with straps sufficiently broad not to gall the bellies of the animals. Such was the Athenian’s κυνῶν κόσμος: and it is probable that the latter, though used for the protection of the hound from injury during the chase, and not merely, as at present, against cold, may have been the type of the modern application.

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

[Sidenote: Hist. of Inventions.]

The θοαὶ κύνες were certainly clothed in parti-coloured habiliments in the age of Blondus, and their feet were also protected with shoes: “Canibus venaticis dorsum integunt pannis diversorum colorum, adversus frigoris injuriam, præcipuè leporariis; et pedibus adhibent calceamenta, quò faciliùs illæsi cursum exerceant.” Beckman states that the dogs of Kamschatka are furnished with shoes, so ingeniously made, that their claws project through small apertures—a plausible contrivance for heavy dogs of draught; but how a greyhound is to exhibit his speed on the coursing plain with such incumbrances, I know not.

[124] Arrian recommends confinement for full-grown dogs; but we must not suppose that the same treatment is suited to puppies. They, on the contrary, should have their entire liberty, as Nemesian remarks:

[Sidenote: Cyneget. v. 172.]

Sed neque conclusos teneas, neque vincula collo
Impatiens circumdederis, noceasque futuris
Cursibus imprudens.

This freedom from restraint is to be continued until they are eight months old, when they should be put into couples, and habituated to confinement:

[Sidenote: Cyneget. v. 184.]

Libera tunc primùm consuescant colla ligari,
Concordes et ferre gradus, clausique teneri.

The whole of this department of kennel discipline is elegantly explained by the classic poet of Barga:

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

Ergo age duro
Assuescant victu catuli, imperioque magistri
Unius addiscant parere, atque unius omnes
Nutus observare, et jussa facessere læti,
Collaque præduris ultrò præbere capistris,
Cum primùm teneros artus duraverit ætas,
Et se jam sua per vestigia volverit annus.
Antè autem cave imprudens concluseris usquam
Aut loris vinctum, aut angusti pariete septi.
Namque urent tenerum circumdata vincula collum,
Impatiensque moræ sese conatibus anget:
Ostiaque arrodens denteis obtundet, et ungues.

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

“Dùm non venatur, loris in stabulo vinciendus est; et siccis potiùs eduliis alendus quàm pinguibus jusculentis: hæc enim graviorem reddunt. Educendus tamen nonnunquam est è stabulo vinctus, in vicos tantùm, ut excrementis se exoneret promptiùs; mox iterum coercendus usque ad tempus venationis.”

“Now for the kennelling of greyhounds,” says Gervase Markham, “it is a right necessary action and must be performed with all diligence; for it breeds in the dog lust, spirit, and nimbleness, prevents divers mischances, and keeps the powers from spending till time of necessity: and therefore you shall by no means suffer your dog to be out of the kennel, but in the hours of feeding, walking, coursing, or when you have other necessary business to do about him.” But Arrian means more than mere confinement within the walls of a kennel by the term δεδέσθαι.

The greyhounds are to be actually fastened with a collar and strap or chain; and such, I am informed, is the customary restraint of the boar-hound of continental Europe. The dogs are chained along the walls of their kennel equidistant from each other, a row on each side of the sleeping-room.

A celebrated modern courser adheres very strictly to the system of restraint alternated with exercise, as recommended in this chapter, and appears to have found it conducive to his success at public meetings. Vide Sport. Mag. Vol. 71. p. 256.—Hounds accustomed to such privation of liberty, are said to start from the slips with great fire and speed:

[Sidenote: Fracastorii Alcon.]

Ita demùm libera colla,
Cum res ipsa, ususque vocat, majore feruntur
Impete.

[Sidenote: p. 41.]

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

Difficile est canem vetulum assuescere loro.

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

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

πάντη δὲ πλάζονται, ὄπη γένυς, ἔνθα κελεύει
γαστὴρ, καὶ λαίμαργος ἔρως ἀκόρητος ἐδωδῆς.

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

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

“The child shuld lede the houndes to scombre twies in the day, in the mornyng and in the evenyng, so that the sonne be up, specially in wynter. Than shuld he lat hem renne and play longe in a faire medew in the sonne, and than kembe every hounde after other, and wipe hem with a grette wispe of straw; and thus shal he do every mornyng.”

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

These simple instructions of Duke Edmund are amplified by old Gervase: “Touching ayring or walking of greyhounds, which is a great nourisher and increaser of winde, it must be dewly done every morning before sun-rise, and every evening before or after sunne-set in this manner; as soone as you have opened your kennel and rub’d your dogge over with a cleane haire cloath, you shall let him play a little about you before the kennel dore, then take him up into your leashe, and walke him forth into the fields, where for the most parte are no sheepe or other smal cattell, which they may out of wantonness indaunger, and there let him loose, and give him leave to play and scope about you, so that he may skummer and emptie his body; which when he hath done sufficiently, you shall then take him up in your leash againe, and so walk him home and kennell him; this you shall doe after the same manner in the evening; and also if your dogge bee stronge and lustie, at night after supper, and then bringing him home, bring him to the fire, and there let him stretch and beake themselves, and with your hand grope and cleanse them from ticks and other filth, which done leade them to the kennell, and shut them up for all night.”

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

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

——θοοὶ κύνες ἀμφιθορόντες
Ἀλλήλους βρυχηδὸν ἐδήϊον.

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

For oft in sport
Begun, combat ensues; growling they snarl,
Then on their haunches rear’d, rampant they seize
Each other’s throats; with teeth and claws in gore
Besmear’d, they wound, they tear, till on the ground
Panting, half dead the conquer’d champion lies, &c.

[128] Blancard’s reading of φίλαι is adopted instead of that of the first edition of Paris, ἄφιλαι.

[129] Arrian has already spoken on the subject of feeding, as an indication of good blood, in c. +viii.+

[Sidenote: Blondi Libellus, &c.]

“Adulti siccis vescantur edulibus: pane videlicet et ossibus, et hoc fiat digestis horis, ut concoctio peragatur, et potiùs famescant paululùm, quàm non exactis horis pascantur.”

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

[Sidenote: p. 52.]

It is occasionally necessary to administer food twice a day to delicate hounds: but the more usual practice accords with the text. Gervase Markham, however, recommends the courser to feed twice a day on his prescribed diet-bread, “to wit, halfe an houre after sunne-rise, and halfe an houre before sun-set, when he comes from walking or ayring his dogge, and it will bring him to exceeding great strength of body and purenesse of winde.”—“Upon his coursing days you must by no means give him any meat more than a white bread toast and butter, or a toast and oil,” &c.

[Sidenote: Tardivus de Venatione.]

Tardif, a French writer cited by Conrad Gesner, agrees with Arrian on the utility of a second meal in summer: “Canis æstate frequentiùs quàm hyeme cibandus est, ut æstivis diebus longis et calidis durare possit. Infringatur ei panis in aquam. Si tamen sæpiùs quàm par est cibetur, ventriculus ei subvertitur, lac aut panis lacte madidus optimè alunt.”

[130] Θέρους δὲ ἀγαθὸν καὶ ἄρτου ὀλίγον δοῦναι ἐμφαγεῖν—as a morning meal, a breakfast.

[131]

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

Στέαρ ταριχευόμενον—salted suet or fat. Στέαρ appears from Pollux, L. +ii.+ c. +v.+ 3. to be the same as πιμελὴ, white adipose substance adherent to the membranes of the abdomen and viscera of men and animals: but if Hesychius be correct in his explanation of ἀπομαγδαλία as στέαρ ἐν ᾧ τὰς χεῖρας ἀπεμάττοντο ἐν τοῖς δείπνοις· βαλόντες δὲ τοῖς κυσὶν ἀναλύοντες ἀπὸ τῶν δείπνων, it must have possessed saponaceous qualities of detergency; for if it were pure fat, with Bochart we might well ask “unde abstergantur, qui inde absterguntur?” For the distinctive difference between πιμελὴ and στέαρ, see Aristot. Hist. Animal. L. +iii.+ c. +xvii.+ The properties of each are evidently distinct.

[132]

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

[Sidenote: Historia Quadruped. &c.]

“Sæpè etiam languor et nausea discutitur, si integrum gallinaceum ovum jejunis faucibus inferas,” &c. So also Tardif, as cited by Gesner, “si canis inter venandum nimiâ siti laboret, duo aut tria ova confracta in gulam ei immittes: sic enim sitim extingues, et à periculo hecticæ vel marasmi canem liberabis.”

[133] Ancient sportsmen were accustomed to follow their field sports through the whole year; and often prolonged the chase till midnight. Hor. L. +i.+ od. +i.+

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

ποτὲ δ’ ἑσπερίου, ποτὲ αὖτε καὶ ὄρφνῃ
θῆρας ὑπ’ ἀκτίνεσσι σεληναίης ἐδάμασσαν.

But the more humane of modern days have abridged this perpetuity of warfare with the animals of the field and forest by legislative enactment.

Nemesian alone, of all the cynegetical writers of Greece and Rome, enjoins us to commence coursing at the period usually adopted:

[Sidenote: Cyneget. v. 321.]

Hiemis sub tempus aquosæ
Incipe veloces catulos immittere pratis,
Incipe cornipedes latos agitare per agros.

Dame Juliana, seemingly careless of the “her-hounde’s” impatience of heat, held on till Midsummer;

[Sidenote: Book of St. Albans.]

At myghelmas begynneth huntynge of the haare:
And lastyth tyll mydsomer there wyll no man it spare.

Natalis Comes allows us to sport during the whole spring, preferring that season for the reasons stated in the text—

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

Nam neque tunc horrent torpentia frigora brumæ,
Nec nimio uruntur florentia prata calore.

but the prudent and humane courser will not slip his greyhound later than the month of February.

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

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

ἐν δὲ θέρει, χρειὼ φυγέειν φλογόεσσαν ἐνιπὴν
ἄζαν τ’ ἠελίου.

[135] The Paris and Amsterdam editions read διαπνίγονται, for which Schneider substitutes διαλείποντα (χρόνον)—an emendation which I have adopted in the translation.

[136] Ἀπεπνίγησαν ὑπὸ τοῦ ἄσθματος. Such accidents usually happen from running greyhounds when out of wind, and condition. The state of the muscular and respiratory systems are always in fault—

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

τῷ μὴ πιαλέοι θήρης ἐπὶ μῶλον ἴοιεν
μηδέ τε λεπταλέοι.

But the safest plan is to leave the greyhounds in a cool and shady kennel during the intense heat of a midsummer day—if exercised at all, the earlier they have their airing, the better.

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

+Lyc.+ Ad fluvium duc, Daphni, canes, (vocat æstus in umbram,)
Nec catulos virides sine lascivire per herbas.
Eja agedum, requiesce Lacon, requiesce Lycarba,
Fervidus Hesperias dum sol declinet in undas.

[137] Ἀποκναίονται, (radendo vulnerare ἀποκναίειν,)—a preferable reading to the conjectural one of Schneider, ἀποκαίονται—founded on Xenoph. de Venat. c. +viii.+ 2. a passage scarce applicable to the Celtic hound. No wise Veltrarius would think of coursing his greyhounds during severe frost.

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

Cum fluidos gelidâ sisti torpedine rivos
Videris, extantesque pedi non cedere glebas,
Ne campis immitte canes: nam nulla laborum
Præmia; et avulsos vanis conatibus ungues
Sæpè diù, melior pars turmæ clauda, dolebit.

[138] Against this havock from frost, Natalis Comes suggests a guard in the use of shoes, so formed according to Ruscellius (Schol. in Nat. Com. L. +i.+) as to let the nails pass through the _calceamenta coriacea_:

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

Ast ubi jam Boreas invadit frigidus arva,
Et glacialis hyems currentia flumina sistit,
Arcendæ à plantis concretæ frigore crustæ,
Atque armandus erit pes, ne mala frigora lædant,
Et tellus concreta gelu, spinæque rigentes.

But should this guard be insufficient, or inapplicable, and the loss of a nail ensue, the poetical physician of Verona supplies a simple restorative:

[Sidenote: Fracastorii Alcon.]

Quid? taceam nimio cum decidit ungula cursu?
Frangere namque juvat pallentis grana cumini
Dentibus, admotâque pedem lenire salivâ:
Incipientque novi subcrescere protinùs ungues.”

The Cynosophium of Demetrius gives its earlier sanction to the efficacy of this remedy; and yet it is probable that any of the gum-resins dissolved in spirit of wine will be found more curative.

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

[Sidenote: Martini Lexicon Philologicum.]

οὐδ’ αὐτοῖς δειλοῖς λασιοκνημοῖσι λαγωοῖς.

Lepus δασύπους vocatur, quòd hirsutos habeat pedes.

[140] In the first and second editions of the Cynegeticus, a chapter is here introduced _On the Manner and Time of Coursing among the Celts_; but which is more correctly placed by Schneider after the nineteenth chapter. Following his example, I have omitted it here, and shall introduce it into that part of the treatise to which it naturally belongs.

[141]

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

Ὅστις κύνας ἀγαθὰς ἔχει—_whoever has good hounds_: greyhounds; elsewhere called κύνας ὠκείας.

[142] The laws of the leash in England, subscribed by Thomas Duke of Norfolk, in the reign of Elizabeth, speak to these points:

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

“That the fewterer shall give the hare twelve score law, ere he loose the greyhounds, except it be in danger of losing sight.”

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

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

Turberville, however, gives a little more licence as to number of dogs: “If the greyhounds be but yong or slowe, you may course with a lease at one hare, but that is seldome seene, and a brase of dogges is ynow for such a poore beast.” No fair courser would slip more than a brace of tried and swift dogs (δύω κύνε, εἰδότε θήρης) after a hare.

As to the distance at which the hounds are to be slipped to the hare, which in the ancient English Cynegetica is called _law_, “it should be,” says Turberville, “+xii+ score yardes or more, according to the ground and country where she sitteth.” So Ben Jonson, in the _Sad Shepherd_,

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

But you must give her law: and you shall see her
Make twenty leaps and doubles, &c.

[143]

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

Δρομικὸς—a racer. Ὁ δυνάμενος τὰ σκέλη ῥιπτεῖν πως, καὶ κινεῖν ταχὺ, καὶ πόῤῥω, δρομικός: a definition equally applicable to man and beast. See the final note to this chapter.

[144]

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

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

Διαῤῥίψαντες τὰ μέλη—_having tossed about their limbs; capered about_. Arrian means to express the anxiety and joy of the greyhound when the hare is just on the start. With the same signification Xenophon uses διαῤῥίμμα, the τὸ πηδήμα τοῦ σώματος &c. of Pollux. Σκιρτᾷ γοῦν, says Ælian of the hare’s start, τὰ πρῶτα ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς, καὶ πηδᾷ: and Pollux calls her ἁλτικὸν καὶ πηδητικὸν τὸ ζῶον.

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

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

jamdudum vincula pugnat
Exuere ipse sibi, colloque morantia tendit.
Vix bene missus erat; nec jam poteramus, ubi esset,
Scire; pedum calidus vestigia pulvis habebat:
Ipse oculis ereptus erat. Non ocyor illo
Hasta, nec excussæ contorto verbere glandes,
Nec Gortyniaco calamus levis exit ab arcu.

Many of the coursing terms employed in the present, the 19th, and 20th chapters, on the Celtic mode of following the sport, are illustrated by Michael Drayton’s prosaic muse:

[Sidenote: Polyolbion. Song +xxiii.+]

In the proper terms the Muse doth thus report—
The man whose vacant mind prepares him to the sport,
The finder sendeth out, to seek out nimble Wat,
Which crosseth in the field, each furlong, every flat,
Till he this pretty beast upon the form hath found;
Then viewing for the course, which is the fairest ground,
The greyhounds forth are brought, for coursing then in case,
And choicely in the slip, one leading forth a brace;
The finder puts her up, and gives her courser’s law.
And whilst the eager dogs upon the start do draw,
She riseth from her seat, as though on earth she flew,
Forced by some yelping cute to give the greyhounds view,
Which are at length let slip, when gunning out they go,
As in respect of them the swiftest wind were slow;
When each man runs his horse, with fixed eyes, and notes
Which dog first turns the hare, which first the other coats:
They wrench her once or twice, ere she a turn will take,
What’s offer’d by the first, the other good doth make;
And turn for turn again with equal speed they ply,
Bestirring their swift feet with strange agility:
A harden’d ridge or way, when if the hare do win,
Then as shot from a bow she from the dogs doth spin,
That strive to put her off, but when he cannot reach her,
This giving him a coat, about again doth fetch her
To him that comes behind, which seems the hare to bear;
But with a nimble turn she casts them both arrear:
Till oft for want of breath to fall to ground they make her,
The greyhounds both so spent that they want breath to take her.

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