Contrary to what you would suppose would be the result of a contest of speed between them, on comparing the respective shapes of the two animals. The hare being made for speed, and not so the dog, the former, if caught by the latter, is caught παρὰ φύσιν σώματος: thence the inference of Arrian that Xenophon was unacquainted with greyhounds, who are made for speed, is a fair deduction. The words of the latter are: De Venatione, c. v.κατὰ πόδας δὲ οὐ πολλάκις ὑπὸ τῶν κυνῶν διὰ τὸ τάχος κρατεῖται· ὅσοι δὲ ἁλίσκονται, παρὰ φύσιν τοῦ σώματος, τύχῃ δὲ χρώμενοι· οὐδὲν γὰρ τῶν ὄντων ἰσομέγεθες τούτῳ ὅμοιόν ἐστι πρὸς δρόμον· σύγκειται γὰρ ἐκ τοιούτων, κ. τ. λ.

See Xenophon de Venat. c. vi.

Εἰ παραδράμοι τὰς ἄρκυς—if she pass by the tunnel or purse-nets without entering their mouths. The ἄρκυες or casses were placed, here and there, in the line of the main hayes, δίκτυα or retia; and as the hare passed along exploring a place of escape, terrified by the formido above, and the meshes below, (continuous except where the purse-nets with the running noose, βρόχος or laqueus, were introduced,) she attempted to pass at the supposed opening, and became by her struggles entangled in the purse, which immediately closed at its slip-knot entrance. Arrian, perhaps, uses the term ἄρκυς generically for every variety of net, and not specifically for the tunnel. See the Venationes Ferarum of Johannes Stradensis and Philippus Galle, tab. xviii. “Sic leporem in laqueos agitant,” &c.

In the 21st chapter Arrian remarks that greyhounds answer every purpose, and supersede the use of nets altogether: he there writes τὰς ἀγαθὰς as synonymous to τὰς ὠκείας; and the latter epithet being more distinctive of the hounds intended to be designated, I have so translated the former epithet in the present instance. Any dog may be good of his kind, but a greyhound alone fleet.

Diana having been particularly worshipped in Crete, on the authority of Ovid’s

we expect to find the inhabitants addicted to hunting; and such was their character according to Ælian: De Naturâ Animal. L. iii. c. ii.Κύων Κρῆσσα κούφη, καὶ ἁλτικὴ, καὶ ὀρειβασίαις σύντροφος· καὶ μέντοι καὶ αὐτοὶ Κρῆτες τοιούτους αὑτοὺς παραδεικνῦσιν, καὶ ἄδει ἡ φήμη. But it is worthy of notice that although Arrian attributes to Xenophon a description of the hunting practices alone of the Cretans and Carians, there is no mention, in the Cynegeticus of the latter, of these ardent sportsmen or their hounds, save that in his chapter on boar-hunting he orders Indians, Cretans, Locrians, and Spartans to be taken to the field, as a fit pack to contend with such ferocious game, Xenophon. de Venat. c. x.μὴ τὰς ἐπιτυχούσας (picked dogs) ἵνα ἕτοιμοι ὦσι πολεμεῖν τῷ θηρίῳ.

Arrian’s meaning therefore must be that Xenophon’s description, such as it is, (in hare-hunting confined to the Castorian and Foxite hounds,) is applicable to the Carian and Cretan sporting alone, and can have no reference whatever to the peculiar practices of the Celtic coursers. However, I do not believe the difference between the Ejusdem c. iii.Spartan and Cretan or Carian hounds to have been very marked, and Xenophon, possibly, may have included the two latter with the former in his general classification of καστόριαι and ἀλωπεκίδες.

Τὸ Καρικὸν καὶ Κρητικόν. The Cretan and Carian hounds were amongst the most celebrated of antiquity—powerful, quick-scented, and nimble. For a full account of them see the Appendix.

The Celtic beagle, or Segusian hound, is well known to modern sportsmen, answering exactly to the description here given of him. See the Appendix.

Αὐταὶ ἰχνεύουσαι σὺν κλαγγῇ καὶ ὑλαγμῷ. So Oppian,

Τῷ δρομαίῳ οὐ μεῖον ἢ τῷ εὐναίῳ. Holsten has here misapprehended his author in the version of the 1st edition. Xenophon, with his usual accuracy, explains the difference of the two scents: De Venat. c. v. 7.τὰ μὲν εὐναῖα ὁ λαγὼς πορεύεται ἐφιστάμενος, τὰ δὲ δρομαῖα τάχυ. The former is of course a stronger scent than the latter; for the hare goes slowly to her form, often stopping, and saturating the ground with her trail; but her pace, when pursued, is quickened, and leaves less impregnation. Wase thinks the Wase’s Preface to his Translation of Gratius.“accessusque abitusque ferarum” of Gratius (Cyneg. v. 242.) has the same meaning as these terms of Xenophon. Blane’s translation is here, as in almost every passage of the least difficulty, erroneous.

Ἑγουσίαι. The Segusiani were inhabitants of Gallia Celtica on the western side of the Rhone. “Hi sunt extra provinciam trans Rhodanum primi.” By Cicero they are called Sebusiani (pro P. Quintio). See C. Venatici Class II. in the Appendix.

Xenophon’s observations on the mode of hunting of the dogs he has described, (viz. the Castorian and Foxite hounds of Sparta,) have anticipated all that can be said about these Segusian beagles. See Xenoph. de Venat. c. iii. c. iv. and c. vi. The latter hounds are not mentioned in the Cynegeticus of the elder Xenophon.

Οὐέρτραγοι—Vertragi, Veltrachæ. See the etymology of this Celtic term explained in the Appendix, C. Venatici Class III. Our author is mistaken in deriving the term ἀπὸ τῆς ὠκύτητος. Its roots are velt campus, and racha canis.

Διάπονοι. So named, according to Pollux, because they not only kept up the contest through the day, but slept near their antagonists, and went to work again in the morning. “Perdita nec seræ meminit decedere nocti.” Varius.

The ἰταμαὶ are probably the πάριπποι of Pollux.

Τὴν δὲ ἰδέαν, καλόν τι χρῆμά εἰσι, &c. How characteristic of the ἀνὴρ θηρευτικὸς of the text is this burst of admiration of the Vertragus, the fleetest and most beautiful of hounds! The Countrey Farme. c. xxii.“Of all dogs whatsoever the most noble and princely, strong, nimble, swift, and valient.”

Blane omits this and ten succeeding chapters.

Λέξω δὲ καὶ αὐτὸς, &c. “I too,” says Arrian, “will relate the indications,” &c.; for Xenophon had also written on the external character of dogs, and it was Arrian’s intention not to recapitulate what his predecessor had already discussed, but to fill up the lacunæ of his treatise. The variety of hound, however, described by the elder Xenophon being different, and the indications of excellence equally so, it was necessary for the younger Athenian also to enter on the subject of external character.

Μακραὶ ἔστωσαν ἀπὸ κεφαλῆς ἐπ’ οὐράν. So Xenophon of the Spartans, χρὴ εἶναι μεγάλας, &c. Length of body is insisted on by the ancients as an essential characteristic of γενναιότης in the horse, cow, and dog. Gratius notes the “longum latus” of the latter, and Oppian his μηκεδανὸν κρατερὸν δέμας, as necessary to perfection of form. Such a structure is generally indicative of speed: and as an example the writer may specify a high-bred greyhound in his own possession, 5 feet 2 inches long:

Vlitius, the learned editor of the Poetæ Venatici, mentions that greyhounds were called in his day, κατ’ ἐξοχὴν, “the long dogs,” as by modern coursers.

Καὶ μὴν καὶ αἱ μείζονες—εὐφυέστεραι τῶν σμικρῶν.

Our most distinguished modern greyhounds, as Millar, “facilis cui plurima palma,” Snowball, and others, have been large dogs, lengthy, muscular, and low on the legs:

If we qualify the size by the conditions laid down by Aristotle in the ἀρεταὶ σώματος, we shall probably hit the mark as to Rhetoric. L. i. c. v.μέγεθος, whose ἀρετὴ is defined τὸ ὑπερέχειν κατὰ τὸ μῆκος, καὶ βάθος, καὶ πλάτος, τῶν πολλῶν, τοσούτῳ μείζονι, ὥστε μὴ βραδυτέρας ποιεῖν τὰς κινήσεις διὰ τὴν ὑπερβολήν.

Pollux has well observed ἀρεταὶ δὲ κυνῶν, ἀπὸ μὲν σώματος, μεγάλαι, μηδὲ ἀσυμμετροὶ, μηδὲ ἀνάρμοστοι.

The Vertragi, like Xenophon’s Spartan Foxites, should not be high on the legs, nor loose-made—αἱ ὑψηλαὶ μὲν καὶ ἀσύμμετροι, ἀσύντακτα ἔχουσαι τὰ σώματα, βαρέως διαφοιτῶσιν—they labour in their course.

“The good greyhounde,” says Edmund de Langley, “shuld be of middel asise, neither to moche neither to litel, and then is he good for alle beestis,” &c.

The head of the greyhound is a remarkable feature in his external character:

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.

The more modern Cynegetica agree, in all important points, with the structure approved by Arrian: Mayster of Game, c. xv. fol. 66.“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.”

“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.”

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

Oppian describes the eyes of lions as

and again,

of the leopard or panther,

of the lynx,

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. Mayster of Game, c. xv. fol. 66.“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

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

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.

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 Stephani Schediasm. L. iv.Xenophon and other classic authors to employ the feminine gender when speaking of the dogs of the chase. Indeed, it has been remarked by Eustath. ad Il. H. p. 692.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.

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:

To the tales of inviolable attachment recorded by the royal pen of Edmund Duke of York, of Mayster of Game, c. xii. fol. 47-49.“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.

“Amans dominorum adulatio.”

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

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

Ἐπανίοντος πρόεισι, θαμινὰ ἐπιστρεφομένη, κ. τ. λ.

So Calpurnius of the pet stag:

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:

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

Πολύφθογγος.

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, Anyta Epidauria.φιλοφθόγγων ὠκυτάτη σκυλάκων, only “gave tongue,” like his congeners, with various intonations of bark?

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

Ὑποπτήξασα λιπαρεῖ—

“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.”

Σοφωτάτη. Plato also has κύων σοφωτάτος.

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.”

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.

The modern courser prefers the small ears of the Oppianic hound,

and excludes the pricked ear, the “rectæ aures” of Fracastor. Albertus recommends Chap. xv. fol. 66.“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

of the Carthaginian poet.

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. Mayster of Game. c. xv. fol. 66.“The neke,” according to De Langley, should be “grete and longe, bowed as a swannes nek.” “Pectore acuto,” says Belisar. Aquiv. Aragoneus de Venatione.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 Booke of Hawkyng, &c.“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.”

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.

The following lines complete the accurate portrait of the Cilician poet:

Nemesian is brief, but highly illustrative:

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

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.

“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.”

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.

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,

The Mayster of Game is here peculiarly illustrative of the text, fashioning the greyhound to perfection: Chap. xv. fol. 66.“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.

finishes the doggerel of the Sopewell portrait.

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.”

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.

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

And Ælian, De Naturâ Animalium, states the advantage and disadvantage of this shape to the hare: Lib. xiii. c. 14.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,

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.”

Fracastorius,

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,