CANES VENATICI. Class II.
CANES SAGACES.
The multitudinous varieties of this class have one common quality, by which they are united in the same family, and which Gratius terms “venandi sagax virtus,” diversified in its phenomena, and operative under great dissimilarity of external shape.[367]
Of the larger and more powerful varieties the type is given by Xenophon in the third and fourth chapters of his Cynegeticus, and by Julius Pollux in the fifth book of his Onomasticon:—that of the smaller and more nimble sorts will be found hereafter in the examples of the Canis Petronius of Gratius, and the Canis Agassæus of Oppian. The names of the hounds, principally derived from the countries of which they were supposed to be indigenous, have been already enumerated. Their mode of hunting is faithfully struck off by the Latin poet of the Halieutica, a fragment of disputed authorship, heretofore attributed to Ovid, but latterly to Gratius:
In our descriptions of the pugnacious class, we followed, where able, the order of the Faliscian’s Cynegeticon,—filling up lacunæ, when apparent, from extraneous sources; but, in the present class, we have no such text-book by which to regulate our progress, and must be beholden to the Greek and Latin Cynegetica, collectively, for an arrangement of the individuals of this class in such sequence, as the scale of their importance in the kennels of antiquity may seem to justify. And first, and foremost, we place the well-known hound of Lacedæmon.
The Spartan dog, in its two varieties of Castorian and Foxite, was employed by Xenophon for the common purposes of hunting.[368] The Καστόριαι were so called Pollucis Onomast. L. v. c. v. 39.ὅτι Κάστωρ ἡσθεὶς τῷ ἔργῳ μάλιστα αὐτὰς διεφύλαξεν; or, in the words of the Onomasticon, because they were Κάστορος θρέμματα, Ἀπόλλωνος τὸ δῶρον.
The ἀλωπεκίδες had their name διότι ἐκ κυνῶν καὶ ἀλωπέκων ἐγένοντο; Castor, according to Nicander, having united the dog to the fox, and produced a hybrid sort of sporting hound of great repute.
But as if Castor and Pollux, being twin brothers, born ὠδῖνι μιῇ, (Apollon. L. i.) possessed a common identity, the honour of having first initiated the canine race in the pursuit of game, is indifferently awarded to both. Oppian, we have already seen, bestows it on Pollux, and Xenophon on Castor—“ovo prognatus eodem.” Aristotle considers all the Canes Laconici to be of the sort called ἀλωπεκίδες—not that they were all sprung from the fox and dog, but were fox-like in appearance:—and on the same authority, we hold that the bitches of a Spartan kennel were superior to the dogs—Hist. Animal. L. ix. c. i.Λάκαιναι κύνες αἱ θήλειαι εὐφυέστεραι τῶν ἀῤῥένων εἰσί.
Although the eloquent compiler of the Cynegeticus distinguishes his harriers, as above stated, into Castorian and Foxite hounds, he notes no characteristic peculiarities in either: but Themistius, the Paphlagonian philosopher, induces us to believe that each possessed the distinctive features of a particular family—Oratio xxvii.ἕτερον μὲν κάλλος καστορίδων κύνων, ἕτερον δὲ ἀλωπεκίδων. Vlitius’s fanciful emendation of the text of the Onomasticon has led him into an error, and produced the monstrous birth of a third variety, which he ascribes to Julius Pollux, called ἀλωπεκικαστόρες; but which that learned man’s work will not admit.
Of the whole Spartan tribe the swiftest, perhaps, were the κυνοσουρίδες of Callimachus—deriving their name from Cynosura of Laconia—
They were the gift of the Arcadian God Pan to Diana, and possessed sagacity of nose equal to their speed of foot:[369]
—and near a-kin to them, we may suppose, if not of the same blood, were the brace presented by the worshipful Agrotera to her much-favoured Cyrene:
But of fable, enough—The Spartan’s shape, qualities, and style of hunting, singly and in pack, are fully described by Xenophon in the third, fourth, and sixth chapters of his Manual. The quarry is here that of which the Athenian was most enamoured, viz. the hare,—with which the woods and parks of his Scilluntian retreat abounded. But for the boar-chase the hound of Lacedæmon is also employed. To the Indian, Cretan, and Locrian dogs,Xenophon de Venat. c. x. the sportsman, who would successfully combat the savage boar, must add the choicest individuals of the Spartan kennel. And in this chase, he will find one of the latter hounds most useful as a limier,[370] to follow up the trail to the boar’s couch in silence, and then, with the rest of the pack, to bay the started quarry:
Julius Pollux, on the authority of Nicander, has transmitted to us subordinate varieties of the Spartan, entitled Menelaides from Menelaus, Harmodii from Harmodius, and others from other persons, and places of inferior note. Virgil applies the epithets Taygetan to the race, from the “juga longa Taygeti” which traverse Laconia, a favourite resort of the Sylvan Goddess:
and Amyclean, from the birth-place of Castor and Pollux:
a local epithet also found in a supposed fragment of Pindar, cited by Plutarch, Quæst. Conviv. ix. 15. 748. and admitted amongst the Fragmenta ex Hyporchematibus. Vol. ii. of Heyne’s edition. (Oxon. 1807.)
But a few words, before we proceed farther, on the lineage of the ἀλωπεκίδες.
Modern naturalists, with the exception of Mons. Desmoulins, are pretty generally agreed that the Canis aureus is the real origin of the domestic dog. And if so, being a native of Asia Minor, and of a dirty fulvous colour, may we not suppose him to have been the cross, from which the foxite hounds of Xenophon were bred? The latter had more or less of a ferine aspect, and fulvous colour, softened down by the admixture of hair of a different hue about the muzzle. Still tawny was the predominant colour—“fulvus Lacon,” (Hor.)
Mr. Hunter denies the existence of a genuine foxite, as the dog and fox are of different species, and will not produce together. Guldenstadt allows the jackal may be the Thos of Aristotle. May he not also be the Thos of Gratius, and “Cat o’ mountaine”[371] of his translator? May not Hagnon’s pack,[372]
derived from a Thoan cross, and other such semiferous commixtures, be founded in fact?
May not these possible tales have given currency and belief to the supposed, impossible, fictitious, engendering of the fox and dog, and the breed of semi-wild ἀλωπεκίδες?—Aristotle says roundly, when animals resemble each other in size, outward character, and time of gestation, they may breed together; and that it positively happens with the dog, fox, and wolf—οἱ δὲ θῶες, says the Stagirite also, ὁμοίως κυΐσκονται τοῖς κυσὶ, καὶ τίκτουσι τυφλὰ, κ. τ. λ.—and therefore, by his own canons, may engender with dogs. Galen, Hesychius, and Gesner, seem to allow the possibility of vulpi-canine issue: Caius accounts for such a birth by the “pruriens libido” of the parties concerned:[373] even Blumenbach and Desmoulins, on the authority of others, have given credency to it. Pennant’s Quadrupeds.Pennant reports a case of prolific engendering of the fox and dog, on the word of an Oxfordshire woodman; and Daniel’s Field-Sports. Vol. i. p. 12.Daniel cites a second in London. Hunter, who assumed nothing in natural history of doubtful character as fact, till he had put it to the test, denies this cross, à priori, not from actual experiment; for he did not live to make the trial. The former crosses he fully established: see Phil. Trans. Vol. 77.
May not Ovid be supposed to allude to the cross of the Thos and dog, and to exemplify it in the individual of Actæon’s pack whom he calls Thous?
The fanciful origin of Oppian’s Thos from the wolf and panther, ὅθεν κρατερόφρονα φῦλα, baffles all elucidation.
Let the ἀλωπεκίδες, then, be considered as possible hybrids, the produce of authenticated crosses.[374] The wolf, jackal, and dog, all differ but little. “The dog himself,” says Philosoph. Transactions. Vol. 77.Mr. Hunter, “may be the wolf tamed, and the jackal may probably be the dog returned to his wild state.”
All animals having been originally wild, the more a specific class may differ from its prototype in appearance, the further it is removed in consequence of variation arising from cultivation. Where dogs have been least cultivated, they still retain most of their original character, or similarity to the wolf, or jackal, both in shape and disposition. Thus the shepherd’s dog, all over the world, has strongly the character of these wild animals—and so I have no doubt had the dog of Laconia.
The wild dogs of modern travellers, as found in Congo, Lower Æthiopia, and towards the Cape of Good Hope, somewhat resemble the Spartan type. They are stated to be “greyhound-like in shape, red-haired, with upright ears, rough tails, and extremely fierce.” The Dingo of Australasia, and Dhole of the East Indies, look very like ἀλωπεκίδες. The North and South-American half-reclaimed varieties have the elongated jaws of the semi-barbarous breeds, and tend to prove from their general shape, their character of countenance, their quick manner, and pricked and erect ears, identity of species in the dog, wolf, and jackal.
But on this subject enough:—let us now return within the pale of the kennel of Lacedæmon. The true Spartan dogs of the olden time were strong, swift, and courageous; and barked on scent of their game. We know that they were strong, on the authority of Ovid’s “prævalidusque Lacon;” and swift, from Virgil calling them “Veloces Spartæ catulos,” and Pindar alluding to the same excellence in the fragment beginning
Still their speed, like that of the Etolian of Gratius, was of a qualified character, and very much below the Vertragus.
Their strength and courage recommended them to shepherds and herdsmen, as guardians of their flocks—the goatherd Lacon’s dog, from his venatico-pastoral cast, being probably, of this variety.
Virgil enjoins feeding the Spartan and Molossian on fattening whey, for the safe custody of cattle;
and briefly runs through the ordinary chases in which the canine tribe generally are used;
The trailing quality of the Spartan, and keenness of scent,[375] Plato refers to, in his Parmenides—ὥσπεργε αἱ Λάκαιναι σκύλακες μεταθεὶς καὶ ἰχνεύεις τὰ λεχθέντα, (Zeno Socrati)—and Sophocles in the prologue of the Ajax Flagellifer, where the wily son of Laertes, tracking the murderous maniac, Αἴαντι τῷ σακεσφόρῳ, is likened to a sharp-nosed Spartan hound,
Homer’s kindly and vivid description of the hunting excellencies of the faithful Argus, his keenness of sight and smell, and speed of foot, would lead us to place him amongst the swiftest of the sagacious class: and where can we assign him a more honourable station than in a Spartan kennel?—I am aware some ancient Greek writer (to whom I have lost my clue of reference) considers this far-famed hound an isolated variety of no particular family—ὅμως ἡ φύσις καὶ ἐν ἄλλοις καὶ ἅπασι τόποις διασπείρει κύνας ἀγαθοὺς, ὁποῖός τις καὶ ὁ Ἄργος—not reducible within the pale of a general classification founded on geographical distribution; but he has evidently all the characteristic qualities of a genuine Spartan, and I never heard of any breed peculiar to Ithaca.
The answer of Eumæus, in which he fondly dilates on the prowess of the old dog in the better days of his youth, throws farther light on his supposed connexion with a Spartan kennel:
—evidently showing that he ran on sight of his game as well as scent: for the common reading ἴδοιτο is preferable to the δίοιτο of Eustathius, and is followed by Pope in his inimitable translation:
A Spartan huntsman might value such omnifarious qualifications; but we cannot allow such a hound, εἰ δὴ καὶ ταχὺς ἔσκε θέειν, within the precincts of a coursing kennel, where speed and keen-sightedness are essential properties, according to the modern canons of the leash; but to stoop to “the tainted green” with the sagacity of a harrier, or even of a Caledonian deer-hound, of which Argus has been deemed a prototype, invalidates the claim to εὐγένεια in the breed.[376]
Diana having been particularly worshipped in Crete,[377]
we naturally look for a race of dogs deriving a local name from her favourite isle. And, accordingly, connected with the last-mentioned tribe of Canes Venatici, we have the Cretan and Carian, powerful, quick-scented, nimble hounds; whom it would be wrong unnaturally to dissever, as having no marked physical peculiarities. Indeed from their parity of character, and supposed identity of origin, the hounds of Crete, and its neighbouring continent of Caria, have generally been united in one family.
Ælian describes the κύων Κρῆσσα κούφη, καὶ ἁλτικὴ, καὶ ὀρειβασίαις σύντροφος. By Seneca the Cretans are called pugnacious—“pugnaces Cressæ;” and by Claudian, wire-haired—“Hirsutæque fremunt Cressæ.” Arrian, when speaking of the Segusian hounds of Celtica, their unsightly aspect, their noisy howl, and extraordinary sagacity of nose, indirectly proves the speed and keen-scentedness of the Carian and Cretan. Oppian enjoins the hound of Crete to be crossed with that of Pannonia, and the Carian, as if different, with the Thracian,
but, it is probable, the Pannonian and Thracian resembled each other as much as the Cretan and Carian.
Two sub-varieties are recorded by Julius Pollux under the titles of διάπονοι and πάριπποι:—the former so called from their bustling, indefatigable character—Pollucis Onomast. L. v. c. v.τὰς νύκτας ταῖς ἡμέραις ἐν ταῖς πρὸς τὰ θηρία μάχαις ἐπιλαμβάνειν, καὶ πολλάκις παρευνασθέντας τοῖς θηρίοις μεθ’ ἡμέραν ἄρχεσθαι τῆς μάχης; the latter, from their running at the horse’s side—τοῖς ἵπποις συνθέουσιν οὔτε προθέοντες οὔτε μὴν ἀπολειπόμενοι.
To these the courser of Nicomedia adds a third sub-variety, seemingly produced by the union of the former two—Arriani de Venat. c. iii. αἱ διάπονοι ἀπὸ τοῦ φιλοπονεῖν, καὶ αἱ ἰταμαὶ ἀπὸ τοῦ ὀξέως, καὶ αἱ μικταὶ ἀπ’ ἀμφοῖν; the ἰταμαὶ probably answering to the πάριπποι of the philologist. On the authority of Ejusdem c. ii.Arrian, we conclude the Cretan and Carian modes of hunting to have been the same as generally practised in Greece—such as are described at large by the elder Xenophon in his Cynegeticus. See Meursii Opera, Tom. iii. c. vii. Creta.
Though not used by the elder Xenophon in the common hare-chase, the Cretans are recommended for boar-hunting, and were sometimes employed in pursuit of deer.
How beautifully is their style of hunting described by the poet Varius, “Mæonii carminis ales,” in the fragment preserved by Macrobius!
Varius apud Macrob. L. vi. c. ii.
—affording the Cilician copyist one of a profusion of highly poetical similes, with which he depicts the polypus, or preke, searching for its beloved olive-tree:
In connexion with the kindred Spartans, the Cretans are briefly mentioned by See Wernsdorf in loco.Gratius,—an allusion being, probably, intended to an intermixture of the two allied breeds in order to produce the Metagon,[378] whose praises are subsequently sung:
Ovid specifies them by name in Actæon’s blood-thirsty pack,
and subsequently a litter,
as sings Sir Arthur Golding:
Indeed almost all the Ovidian pack were of Cretan, Spartan, and Arcadian blood, well chosen by the poet for the fabled chase of the son of Autonoë,[379] “falsi sub imagine cervi”—[380]
The whole of the Spartan family, inclusive of the Cretan and Carian, appear to have barked, as I have already observed, on scent of their game[381]—a quality reprobated by Gratius (malignum officium!) when shown before the quarry was started from his lair.
The noisy bark of the Etolian breed Gratius contrasts with the mute cunning of its neighbour of Acarnania, already considered in the first class:[382]
Too much addicted to gladdening, when near the lair of his game, the Etolian is not admitted into the class of Canes Bellicosi, whose general character was closeness till the game was started; at which time a cry, however loud, was not objected to by classic huntsmen,—but the dog, that roused the game by giving tongue beforehand, was strongly reprobated. Such was the faulty dog of Calydon, who needed all his other better qualities to counterbalance this latrant propensity. That he had some valuable properties Gratius allows, and recommends them to be turned to account by judicious commixture with the mute Molossian’s blood:
In consequence of the common Canes Venatici giving tongue or opening, before the game was roused, it was customary with classic sportsmen to employ Inductores, mute finders, “canes tacitæ,” (Senecæ Hippolyt.,) to search out the quarry by the trail;[384]
These are the Metagontes of the Faliscian poet—so called from “drawing after their game”—μετάγοντες:
Steadiness and a close mouth are essential attributes of the limehound tribe.[385] Gratius, Lucan, Seneca, Ælian, and others, insist on silence. And Oppian, seemingly forgetful of this negative quality in the Armenian bear-hound, (whom I consider a limehound,) inculcates closeness in sagacious dogs, generally, from their very puppyhood;
They are to be taught it with their names, and other matters of kennel discipline.
The limiers of classical antiquity, more numerous perhaps than the reader may suppose, are found widely distributed. We gather traces of them in Homer, Lucretius, Virgil, Pliny, Gratius, Ælian, Seneca, Nemesian, Oppian, Silius Italicus, and others. The Belgic hound of the poet of the Second Punic War is certainly an inductor or limier:
And it strikes me, that the Gelonian and Umbrian of Gratius, the Tuscan of Nemesian, and the Armenian bear-hound of Oppian, are all varieties of limehound. Of the Metagon, already mentioned, there can be no doubt—he is clearly of the class described by the Greek poet of the Halieutics:
The Homeric inductors occur in the boar-hunt of Mount Parnassus, in the van of which Ulysses, οὐτάμεναι μεμαὼς, distinguishes himself, with the sons of Autolycus:
and the abstract phraseology of Lucretius affords a second early notice of them: