Arrian on coursing

CANES BELLICOSI or PUGNACES.

The type of this class is given by Gratius in the following lines, which must be taken as a general description, requiring some latitude in its application to individuals:⁠[336]

By its side we may place its counterpart in Greek;—for, notwithstanding the Oppianic sketch has been appropriated by Bodinus to the Albanese, it certainly may be viewed in a broader light, as a picture in outline of the whole pugnacious family, without reference to individuals:

The introduction of a third, more recent portrait, will be justified by the chaste Latinity of Peter Angelio, and the faithful accuracy of his pen:

The quarry of these savage hounds consisted of animals more ferocious than their assailants—such as

Following the order of the poetical manual, to which we are indebted for our first-cited outline of the race, the Mede and Celt arrest our earliest attention, followed by the Ser, Lycaonian, Hyrcanian, Briton, Molossian, and others:

The Persian appears to have been a connecting link between the pugnacious and sagacious classes, though his neighbours of Media and Hyrcania were a purely savage breed. The Persian was a mongrel variety—

The character of the “indocilis Medus” we may infer from Ælian’s description, already cited, of the men and horses of the country—which at the conclusion he also extends to the De Naturâ Animal. L. iii. c. ii.dogs—ταῦτά τοι καὶ περὶ τῶν κυνῶν ἔπεισι νοεῖν μοι. The latter were fierce, impetuous, and of great size.

There is evidently no connexion between the Celtæ of Gratius and κύνες Κελτικαὶ of Arrian, though deriving their name from the same source, and seemingly of the same country. The former were originally perhaps the only varieties of the canine species inmates of the kennels of Gaul,

the sagacious and swift-footed hounds being subsequently admitted therein;—but not until the older mode of hunting ferocious animals with savage dogs had fallen into disrepute, from the superior attraction of the improved style; or into disuse, from the gradual extirpation of beasts of prey. As the latter disappeared, or were driven into remote fastnesses, we may suppose the more timid and fugacious creatures supplied their place; and, multiplying in the ratio of the others’ diminution, afforded abundant quarry to the Vertragus, and the archetype of the chien courant of modern France.

How beautifully are the more innoxious sports of sylvan life, and superior claims of the hare and deer hunt, touched by Ovid in the fable of Venus and Adonis. The goddess of love turns huntress:

No wonder that the Celtic people by degrees discontinued the warlike chase, fraught with innumerable perils, and substituted the harmless pursuit of fugacious quarry, with keen-scented and swift-footed hounds, according to the injunctions of the meretricious queen to her disobedient “sweete boy;”

which, in the days of Arrian, constituted their principal field sport.

Julius Pollux, in his Onomasticon, mentions the Celtic war-dogs, and Oppian also includes Κελτοὶ in the muster-roll of his first cynegetic.⁠[339] It is probable that they were a-kin to those of ancient Britain; for we are told by Strabo, who lived soon after Gratius, that the exports from this island to Gaul consisted of Strabo L. iv. p. 138.δέρματα, καὶ ἀνδράποδα, καὶ κύνες εὐφυεῖς πρὸς τὰς κυνηγεσίας. Κελτοὶ δὲ καὶ πρὸς τοὺς πολέμους χρῶνται, καὶ τούτοις, καὶ τοῖς ἐπιχωρίοις. Whence it appears that the Celts had native Canes Venatici which they employed in war,⁠[340] as well as those imported from Britain.⁠[341] In this adaptation of canine ferocity the Celtæ were not peculiar; but as dogs, thus applied, can scarce be considered in their sporting character, it is unnecessary to multiply citations. Let the few instances hereafter adduced suffice on this head. Whether these Celtic dogs are the Gallic hybrids of the natural historian I cannot say: “hoc idem,” says Pliny,L. viii. c. 40. ex Vlitii Emend. “è lupis Galli, quorum greges suum quisque ductorem è canibus et Lyciscam habent. Illum in venatu comitantur, illi parent. Namque inter se exercent etiam magisteria.” There were whole packs of these dogs in every chase or forest, “that had for their leader some particular demi-wolf, which the rest accompanied in hunting, obeyed, and were directed by; keeping an order among themselves of government and mastership.”

Gratius mentions, in the next place, the Ser, the Lycaonian or Arcadian, the Hyrcanian, and the union of the latter with the tiger.

The Seræ were a nation of Æthiopia near the origin of the Nile, and also of India between the Indus and Hydaspes: but “the famous Seræ were a people of Asia, the farthest to the east beyond China towards Scythia without Imaus,” according to Wase’s geography of Gratius. As the poet does not record the fame of the Canes Indici under their usual denomination, we may consider the Seric dog as the redoubted Indian—“genus intractabilis iræ.”

The Indian dog is noticed by Herodotus, Aristotle, Xenophon, Diodorus Siculus, Strabo, Plutarch, Pollux, Ælian, Athenaeus, Themistius, and Phile, among the Greeks; and by Pliny, Solinus, and Quintus Curtius, among the Latins. The size, strength, speed, and courage of this dog induced Xenophon to recommend him for boar and deer hunting—Xenophon, de Venat. c. ix.εἰσὶ γὰρ ἰσχυραὶ, μεγάλαι, ποδώκεις, οὐκ ἄψυχοι, says this experienced sportsman; and Ælian adds to his good qualities keenness of sight or scent in tracking—Ælian. de Natur. Animal. L. viii. c. 1.εὐγενεῖς καὶ ἴχνη καταγνῶναι θηρίων ἀγαθαὶ, κ. τ. λ. J. Pollux, on the authority of Nicander, derives the Canes Indici from Actæon’s pack; who, when they had recovered from their madness, Ovid. Metam. L. iii. 140.“satiatæ sanguine herili,” passed the Euphrates, and wandered into India. Polluc. Onom. L. v. c. v. 39.He particularly distinguishes them from the Hyrcanian, with which they have been by some historians confounded. Both the last-mentioned authors, Ælian. de Nat. Animal. L. iv. c. 19.and also Plutarch, would have us believe that the lion was the only antagonist with whom this courageous dog would willingly contend:Plutarch. p. 1787. Ed. Steph.—τῶν δὲ ἄλλων ζώων ὑπερφρονοῦντα πάντων, says Plutarch; and Ælian affirms his victory over the lion; but Themistius adds the pard to his chosen antagonists, to the exclusion of inferior combatants, as wolves and foxes. Brodæi Annot. in Oppian. p. 43.Fable however and history are so closely blended in the records of canine biography, that we are compelled occasionally to doubt. And did we not relieve ourselves by incredulity, the marvellous tale of patient courage narrated by Ælian, as manifested by this fierce animal, would make us shudder at the bare recital. It is found in detail in the first chapter of his eighth book de Naturâ Animalium,⁠[342] and succinctly copied by Pollux in the fifth chapter of the fifth book of his Onomasticon.

The cruel experiment, transmitted to us by Dr. Goldsmith, as having been practised on the British Molossus, is quite eclipsed by this more barbarous exhibition of the innate fortitude of the dog of India. For in the latter case, the commencement of the inhuman test of patient courage was the amputation of the tail, and the conclusion decollation. The legs of the poor brute were successively cut off, one by one, without his quitting his hold of the lion, his chosen antagonist:—and when at last the neck was severed from the body, the teeth still adhered with the trunkless, but still mordacious head, (credat Judæus,) suspended to the wound. But let the credulous story-teller speak for himself:Ælian. de Nat. Animal. L. viii. c. 1.—καὶ τελευτῶντες τῆς κεφαλῆς τὸ λοιπὸν σῶμα ἀφεῖλον· ὀδόντες δὲ ἐκείνῃ ἤρτηντο τῆς ἐξ ἀρχῆς ἀντιλαβῆς, καὶ ἡ κεφαλὴ ἠωρεῖτο μετέωρος ἐκ τοῦ λέοντος, αὐτοῦ μέντοι τοῦ δακόντος ἐξ ἀρχῆς οὐκ ἔτι ὄντος. The dog like the British bull-dog was memorable for never quitting his hold—a feature in his ferocious character remarked by Phile in his iambic versification of Ælian’s marvellous tale.

In the scarce plates of Stradan, engraven by Galle, there is a picture of the Canis Indicus, as I conceive, fighting with the elephant and lion. The annexed quatrain, by Kilian Dufflæus, sufficiently explains it, but is not worthy of citation. The following poetical portrait, however, by a far better scholar, will be read with pleasure, whether viewed as delineating the Indian, or his congener, the Albanian:

Bodin supposes Oppian to allude to the Canis Indicus in his 1st Cynegetic, vs. 413.; but as the poet does not mention any name, and particularly specifies a want of speed in the dogs he describes, I should rather refer his sketch to the Molossian or true Epirote, (if it must have a particular application,) than to the Indian or Albanian. I have no doubt, however, that it is, as already stated, a general description of the pugnacious type, and therefore includes both Indian and Molossian.

Many of the anecdotes of the Indian dog are promiscuously told of the Albanian, Iberian, and Hyrcanian; and it certainly is difficult to point out any distinctive characters between them. Of the latter I shall presently speak, in the rotation in which he is recorded by Gratius. The Albanian and Iberian are undoubtedly consimilars, strongly impregnated with the Molossian cast—natives of the Asiatic district indifferently called Iberia and Albania. They are celebrated by modern travellers as much as by classic historical and cynegetical writers. Hist. Natur. L. viii. c. xl.Pliny does not name the country of the dog “inusitatæ magnitudinis” given to Alexander by a king of Albania;⁠[343] though it would be a fair conclusion that the dog was of the same country as the king. Yet Strabo L. xv.Strabo, notwithstanding he commemorates the prowess of the Albanian race of dogs, particularly notes that those presented to the king of Macedonia were Indian; and he is supported by Plutarch, Diodorus Siculus, and Julius Pollux, differing somewhat in the historical detail. Solinus, for the most part a copyist of Pliny and Strabo, is, on this occasion, it may be, mistaken in assigning to them an Albanian origin. Speaking of the Albanese, he says: C. J. Solini Polyhistor. c. xv.“Apud hos populos nati canes feris anteponuntur, frangunt tauros, leones premunt, detinent quid-quid objectum: quibus ex causis meruerunt etiam annalibus tradi. Legimus petenti Indiam Alexandro, à rege Albaniæ dono duos missos,” &c.—and again, “Hoc genus canes crescunt ad formam amplissimam, terrificis latratibus ultra rugitus insonantes.” Vide Bodini Comment. in Oppian. p. 63.May we not reconcile these statements by considering the Albanese dogs of the Latin historians—Pliny, Solinus, and Curtius—the Indians of the Greek authors—Strabo, Plutarch, Diodorus, Ælian, and Pollux—and the Albania of the former, the India of the latter? The inhabitants of Albania and India were both excessively addicted to hunting—Strabo L. xi.θηρευτικοί τε καὶ αὐτοὶ καὶ οἱ κύνες αὐτῶν εἰς ὑπερβολήν.

The Iberian dog is mentioned by Julius Pollux, Oppian, and Nemesian—the latter poet merely saying the breed is not to be despised by sportsmen;

and the former recommending it to be crossed with Sarmatian blood,

Darcius records the strength, courage, and velocity of the Albanian breed;

and two lines below mentions the dogs, “quos dives Iberia pascit,” as if distinct from the Albanese—which, if Asiatic, they certainly resembled. It is, however, possible, that Darcius may allude to European Iberia, or Spain. Indeed, the geographical appropriation of Oppian’s Iberian dogs is doubtful in the opinion of commentators. Brodæi Annotationes in Oppian.Brodæus assigns the Iberian horse of Oppian (Cyn. i. vs. 284.) to Asia; but the people mentioned by the poet under the same name, in connexion with the Celts, in the episode at the conclusion of his second Halieutic, are evidently inhabitants of Western Europe. Jones’s Oppian’s Halieutics.And again—his description of the tunnies “rushing from th’ Atlantic deep,” into the Mediterranean, and of their subsequent capture along its shores, places the Iberians a second time in the West:

however, whether Asiatic or European, it is sufficient for our classification that the dogs were of the pugnacious class.

The modern representative of the classical Albanese occupies a more extensive district than his ferocious prototype, who was confined to the region between Colchos and Armenia; whereas his descendant is found in Macedonia, Illyria, Chaonia, and Epirus.

Of the classical Albanian, in his character of a dog of war, Valerius Flaccus has left us the following very animated description:

And the fame of his tribe, as spread over these countries at large, is celebrated by the chaste poet of Barga in his 5th Cynegeticon, with the same song, decies repetita, of leonine and elephantine quarry:

Opportunity offers, in introducing the dog of Arcadia to the reader’s notice, of speaking of the semiferous race of lupine dogs, the demi-wolves of the ancient Cynegetica.⁠[344] The cross of the wolf and dog is of considerable antiquity; indeed the belief of its existence may be traced very generally through the popular works of the classic ages. Under the Spartan dog, in the second class, I shall again allude to hybrid dogs, and refer to Mr. Hunter’s paper on the subject in the Transactions of the Royal Society of London. At present, it may be stated that the cross of the wolf and domestic dog is an established one, and that the breed, so obtained, has been carried forward for many generations. Aristotle, I believe, first remarked the sexual intercourse of these congeners in Cyrene; and, from the fact as stated by him, Cardan Vulgar Errors. B. i.(“a great inquirer after truth, but too greedy a receiver of it,” according to Sir Thomas Brown,) inferred the gradual degeneration of wolves into the canine type.⁠[345] “Ut lupos et canes,” says Brodæus in Oppianum, “mutuò coire fatear, Diodori, Ovidii, (‘Deque lupo concepta Nape,’) ac complurium facit auctoritas.” As the mule is born from the horse and ass, remarks Galen, so a mixed breed may be generated from the wolf and dog.⁠[346] The race of old reported to have been sprung from the latter connexion was that of Arcadia, the Lycaonian; thence called, peradventure, Lycas by Simonides, and Lycisca by Virgil and Ovid—Scaliger.“Mista lupo canis est signatâ voce Lycisca.”⁠[347] That the Lycas of the canine epitaph was of lupine origin, we may conjecture from the name; but the Cean poet specifying other localities as the scenes of his hound’s exploits in life, and Pollux calling her Λυκάδα τὴν Θεττάλην, some other kennel may put forward a claim, instead of that of Arcadia, for the honour of the breed; or the name may be merely an appellative distinction, unconnected with lineage;—still the monumental elegy is deserving of citation:

Gratius contrasts the docility of Lycaonian dogs, the Τεγεῆται of Oppian, with the intractability of the Indian,

The breed of the northern part of Peloponnesus, having been of great note, and the son of Pelasgus Ovid. Metam. L. i. 198.(“notus feritate Lycaon”) having been converted into a wolf—the first subject, it may be, of lycanthropy—the dogs indifferently called Arcadian and Lycaonian, were probably, says C. Wase, Vide Pausan. in Arcad. c. ii.“heirs of his own body naturally begotten.” Many Arcadian hounds are found in the Ovidian pack, among the mistaken pursuers of the unfortunate son of Aristæus—

possessed of great speed and resolution:

The poet elsewhere bestows on the hound of Arcadia the local epithet of Mænalian, from Mount Mænalus—

Is it not probable that some of the hounds of chase, bestowed by the Arcadian God on the Goddess of hunting, were culled by his goatish majesty from the kennels of the country of Lycaon, where Pan himself gratified his sporting ardour?—the brace of pie-balled—the leash of long-eared—and the spotted hound?

The other seven which Pan contributed to Dian’s pack, being θάσσονες αὐράων, and destined for more timid quarry, are placed under the Spartan family, of which they were the fleetest members.

Whether all the dogs “of Arcas kinde,” as sings Golding’s Ovid’s Metam. B. iii.Sir Arthur Golding in his “worke very pleasant and delectable,” were demi-wolves, and “gaunt as any grewnd,” I cannot take on myself to decide; but it is a fair inference, from the evidence adduced, that lupi-canine crosses predominated, in all their ferocity, in the kennels of Arcadia—not indeed to the exclusion of canine indigenæ of pure blood, but enough to give a ferine character to the general type.⁠[348]

The Hyrcanian, savage as he was, is reported to have increased his natural ferocity by engendering with the tiger:

And to the subsequent generations of this cross Bargæus gives speed in pursuit, and courage in attack:

The breed of Hyrcania, having escaped the notice of Aristotle and his copyist Pliny, is of course omitted by Solinus, (whose work entitled The Governour. B. i. c. xi.Polyhistor, however “mervaylous delectable” in the opinion of Sir Thomas Elyot, is a mere breviary of the twice-told tales of the too credulous Aristot. Hist. Animal. L. viii. c. 28.Roman naturalist,) but the same fabulous union with the tiger is recorded by them as the parent stock of the Indian dog. May not the Indian and Hyrcanian, though separated by Athenæus and Pollux, have been deemed identical by the Deipnosoph. L. v. c. 8.Stagirite?⁠[349]—To the tiger-cross of Irak, the compound epithet λεοντομιγεῖς is applied by the learned grammarianPollucis Onomast. L. v. c. v. 39. just cited, as if the “fera semina” of the first connexion were leonine. The ferocity of the breed, contrasted with the timidity of the stag, affords an argument to Lucretius against the Pythagorean doctrine of a promiscuous transmigration of souls:

By the archbishop of Thessalonica the Canes Hyrcani are mentioned amongst the ἐπίσημα κυνῶν γένη of his commentary on Homer (ad Iliad. ρʹ.) but they are not found in either of the poems; nor, indeed, do I remember in the Iliad or Odyssey any dogs distinctively marked by their geographical appellations.

The plaintive wailing of the old nurse, Carmé, over her daughter, the nymph Britomartis,

in one of Virgil’s minor poems, amended by Heyne, refers very pathetically to the companionship of the Hyrcanian dog in the mountainous chase—

though associates from a Cretan kennel would have been more in place—

The Locrian dog, much esteemed by Grecian sportsmen, is particularly employed by Xenophon in the boar-chase; but I know not to which of the territories called Locris he should be appropriated, nor whether common to all. Nor do I find in him properties sufficiently characteristic of the family of bellicosi to place him here with confidence—and yet I no where see him used in pursuit of timid fugacious quarry.⁠[350] Oppian (no authority for classification) introduces him between the Egyptian and Molossian—here then let him stand—Oppian. Cyneg. L. i. 374.βουκολίων οὖροι, Λοκροὶ χαροποί τε Μολοσσοί. The following beautiful little epitaph of Anyta is admitted, merely because its subject, the fleetest of musical hounds, bears the name of Locris—

for I am by no means convinced that the title is any thing more than an individual appellative (unconnected with locality) bestowed by a Grecian lady, perhaps, on a valued pet. Darcius of Venusium places the Locrian with the Arcadian, and others of the pugnacious class.

The Carthaginian poet alone has commemorated the “acres catuli” of Libya, his native country,