It appears to me from this passage that the Celts coursed with each hound held in a single slip and collar, and started probably simultaneously with his appointed compeer, held in juxta-position by a second person. Some commentators, however, are of opinion, from the term συνδυαζέτω, that the dogs were held in double collars, or couples; but if so, we must still suppose, from the words σὺ καὶ σὺ ἐπιλύειν, that two persons were appointed to let the dogs loose at the same time:
Xenophon particularly enjoins, in his instructions on hare-hunting, that the Spartan hounds should be held in separate collars at the covert-side: ἑκάστην χωρὶς, (each apart)De Venat. c. vi. ὅπως ἂν εὔλυτοι ὦσι.
The ancient slip or slippe (ab elabendo Vlit. p. 94.) was formed by a leading thong or lyam, passed through the ring of the dog’s collar, the two ends being held in the hand of the slipper, or keeper. When the dog was loosed, the slipper let go one end of the thong, and drew the other with his hand from the eye of the collar, whereby the dog was liberated with the collar on his neck, the lyam remaining in the slipper’s hand. (See Xenophon, Pollux, and Conrad Gesner, on these accoutrements: the latter is copious on the subject in his Hist. Quadrup. “Canis.”) Such a representation of greyhounds coursing, with collars on their necks, we have in Montfaucon, Tom. iii. liv. iv. pl. 176. See the lithograph of Chrysis and Aura.(Chasse au Lièvre.) Nor are the incumbrances, which envelop the necks of Chrysis and Aura in this beautiful gem, got rid of in the coursing plates of “The Gentleman’s Recreations,”—so few are the improvements in the practical department of the leash, from the days of Arrian till those of Richard Blome. The modern method of slipping a brace of greyhounds, at the same instant of time, from double spring or wedge collars, is of recent introduction; having its origin, probably, at the institution of public coursing meetings.
Οἱ δὲ ἐμπεδούντων τὸ ταχθέν. Obedience to the orders of the ἄρχων or ἀγωνοθέτης, in a coursing field, is an essential point of discipline: indeed, we could not select any more important for the regulation of such an assemblage than the brief and emphatic injunction of our author in his Tactics, Arriani Tactic. 71. Ed. Blancard.“silence and attention to orders”—σίγα καὶ πρόσεχε τῷ παραγγελλομένῳ.
This method of coursing was practised in England in the days of Edmund De Langley (A. D. 1380). From the instructions which he gives relative to it, it appears that the greyhounds were placed, as amongst the Celts, on the outside of the covert. So also in the beautiful poetry of Scott:
“Nos autem vidimus,” says Blondus, “venantes in capiendis leporibus hunc modum servare insidiandi. Divisi ac sparsi venatores per inculta frequentiùs quàm per culta, arte quâdam incedunt laqueis canem leporarium detinentes: spineta et sentes, sive dumeta, saltusve potiùs celebrantes quàm nemora. Nonnunquam etiam præmittunt odorum canem qui è latebris pellat timidum leporem, post quem è laqueis mittunt canem fugacem, altis clamoribus persequentes, qui sunt exhortationes fugacium canum.”
“In montosis locis (agri Bononiensis) ob rubetorum frequentiam, canibus sagacibus ad lepores excitandos utuntur, deinde visis leporibus canes leporarios solvunt,” &c.
The classic poet of Barga, although we look in vain for a description of the hare-course throughout his varied and copious Cynegeticon, has left us the following counterpart in the machinery of the fox-chase with swift-footed hounds:
and this is again followed by other chases, wherein the wolf and stag are the greyhound’s quarry.
See also L’Ecole de la Chasse, (Rouen, 1788,) “Manière de prendre les loups avec les lévriers.”
Ὅπως ἄν τοι προχωρῇ. “Quâcunque ratione fieri potest,” Ind. Græc. Z. “When she is going off,” Blane.
Καὶ εἰσὶν αἱ κύνες αὗται, ὅ τι περ αἱ ἄρκυς Ξενοφῶντι ἐκείνῳ. From some curious Dialogues composed by Elfric, Duke of Mercia, in Latin, Mr. Turner has shown that our ancestors resembled their continental neighbours in these field sports.
“I am a hunter to one of the kings.—How do you exercise your art? I spread my nets, and set them in a fit place, and instruct my hounds to pursue the wild deer till they come to the nets unexpectedly, and so are entangled, and I slay them in the nets.—Cannot you hunt without nets? Yes, with swift hounds I follow the wild deer.—What wild deer do you chiefly take? Harts, boars, and rein-deer, and goats, and sometimes hares,” &c.
Ὑπὸ τῆς κλαγγῆς τῶν κυνῶν, &c. Κυνῶν ἐφόβησεν ὁμοκλή: for a practical exemplification of a course conducted upon the principle of uniting speed and sagacity in the same pack, see Mr. Hobhouse’s description of his sport with his host at Votizza. To “four wire-haired Lacouni” were added Journey thro’ Albania, &c. Letter xvii.“three mongrel pointers, and several curs ... with a large party of men on foot and horseback, making as much noise as possible.” It is scarce necessary to state the poor hare was killed “after a short run.”
This method of coursing (if it deserve the name) was much in use in France two centuries or more ago. “They use their greyhounds,” says Book of Hunting. p. 246.Turberville, “only to set backsets, or receytes for deare, wolfe, fox, or such-like. Whereas we here in England do make great account of such pastime as is to be seen in coursing with greyhounds at deare, hare, foxe, or such-like, even of themselves, when there are neyther hounds hunting, nor other meane to help them.”
Edmund De Langley, in his Mayster of Game, condemns the union of sagacious and fleet hounds, “spaynels and greihoundes,” in the same field; for “the spaynel wil make al the ryot and al the harme.” The latter’s mode of hunting is beautifully described by Darcius of Venusium:
Τὰ μὲν οὖν λίαν νεογνὰ οἱ φιλοκυνηγέται ἀφιᾶσι τῇ Θεῷ. But the same mercy was not extended to fawns: see Xenoph. de Venat. c. ix. 1.
Τῇ Θεῷ. Diana ἀγροτέρα, or Venatrix.
So, in the Anacreontic Λιτανεία,
By Pollux the worshipful goddess is variously called ἀγροτέρα, καὶ κυνηγέτις, καὶ φιλόθηρος, καὶ ὀρεία. For the popular belief respecting her many vocations, see Callimach. H. in Dian. How graphically is she decked out, in all her sylvan trim, by Nemesian, in the following address to her, to aid, with her many sporting associates, the essay of his Cynegetical Muse!
See Lucian’s Deorum Dialogi, Venus et Cupido, for the pursuits of Diana; and for several elegant representations of her in her sporting attire, see Montfaucon, Tom. i. perrier, tab. 64. goltzii numismata græciæ, &c. tab. vii. f. 1. Insular Medals, Tab. xvii. f. 1. morell. tab. xv. passerii tom. iii. Tab. 88. &c. A few of the most classic gems and medals have been faithfully copied in outline by Mr. Haghe from the antique, and annexed to this work; they are taken from Montfaucon, who had previously borrowed them from La Chausse and Beger.
The translation of Mr. Blane does not extend beyond this Chapter.
Xenophon De Venat. c. ix. recommends Indian dogs for deer-hunting, as they are strong, large, swift-footed, and resolute.
In the ancient field sports of Britain we find the deer, the wolf, and the fox, and even sometimes the wild cat, (of which last the Mayster of Game c. x. reports, “he hath the Devyllis spyryt,”) coursed with greyhounds: but at present these diversions are discontinued, and the hare alone deemed worthy of the honourable distinction of competing in speed with the Celtic hound:
The coursing of deer was a recreation of high repute, and was divided into two sorts; the paddock, and the forest or purlieu. See Daniel’s Rural Sports. But a better authority, Turberville, in “a short observation set downe by the Translatour, concerning coursing with greyhoundes,” attached to “The Booke of Hunting,” has given us his remarks on coursing deer, and the method of doing it in the olden time with “teasers,” (“to start the deare from the whole heard, or make a low deare strain,”) “side laies,” (“to way-lay him by the midway,”) and “back-sets, or receits,” (to meet him “full in the face—to the end they may the more amase him.”) See Turberville’s Appendix to his translation of Fouilloux, and “The Governour,” B. i. c. 17.
Μέγα τε γὰρ τὸ θηρίον, &c. “He is of all beasts,” says Gervase Markham, “the goodliest, stateliest, and most manly:” and Buffon, after describing the stag with his wonted eloquence, concludes, Hist. Naturelle. “sa grandeur, sa légèreté, sa force le distinguent assez des autres habitans des bois: et comme il est le plus noble d’entre eux, il ne sert aussi qu’aux plaisirs des plus nobles des hommes; il a, dans tous les temps, occupé le loisir des héros.”
“A red deare will beare sometimes foure or five brase of greyhounds before they can pull him downe: such wonderfull force he is of, and can so easily shake off a greyhound when he pincheth him.”
Ὁ κίνδυνος οὐ σμικρὸς, &c. “He that hath a good hare greyhound, shal do very evill to course a deare with him, for it wil both bruse him and make him lyther: and the course at the hare is much the nobler pastime.”
Oppian denies that deer butt with their horns, and thereby endanger the dogs:
but Xenophon, a practical authority, affirms it—τοῖς κέρασι παίει καὶ τοῖς ποσίν. The thrust from the tynes, or branches, of the stag’s horns, were accounted far more dangerous to a human being than those of the boar’s tusk:
Ἔνθα τὰ πεδία εὐήλατα. The Homeric scholar will remember the Nomade tribes of this champaign region, on whom Jupiter cast his eyes in looking from Mount Ida towards Thrace. The Mysians were of the number:
Seneca speaks of the “Vacuisque vagus Sarmata campis,”—Claudian, of the “gens exercita campo,”—and an earlier poet, the exiled Ovid, in one of his mournful elegies, commemorates the Scythian’s skill in horsemanship:
Strabo notices the hunting propensities of the inhabitants of the Scythian and Sarmatian plains Hist. of Rome. vol. iv. c. xxvi.(L. xvii.); and the eloquent historian of the Decline and Fall enlarges on the vigour and patience both of the men and horses in the continual exercise of the chase. From the way in which these pastoral tribes of the Scythian plains are introduced by Arrian in connexion with the Celtic coursing, we may conclude that they were Celto-Scythians.
The highest praise is bestowed by Oppian on Sicilian horses, ὠκύτατοι Σικελοί: but fleeter than these are the Armenians and Parthians; and fleetest of all, the Iberians.
Ὁ δὲ ἐς τοσοῦτον ἄρα ἀντέχει.
Ἔξεστιν ἤδη, εἰ μὲν βούλοιο, ἀκοντίσαι ἐγγύθεν ὡς πεπεδημένην.
Xenophon gives a full description of the mode of ensnaring deer in a variety of trap called ποδοστράβη, and adds: ἁλίσκονται δὲ καὶ ἄνευ ποδοστράβης διωκόμεναι, ὅταν ᾖ ἡ ὥρα θερινὴ, ἀπαγορεύουσι γὰρ σφόδρα, ὥστε ἑστῶσαι ἀκοντίζονται.
Βρόχον—a noose-rope. Such ropes were generally used by rude nations in battle as well as the chase. For a clever representation of this mode of catching deer, see the Venationes Ferarum of Stradanus and Galle, and the accompanying quatrain of Kilian Dufflæus.
Ælian mentions these horses in his second book of Animal History: ὤκιστοι μέν εἰσιν ἵππων καμάτου δὲ δή τι αἴσθονται οὐδέν· λεπτοὶ δὲ, καὶ οὐκ εὔσαρκοι, ἐπιτήδειοί γε μὴν καὶ φέρειν ὀλιγωρίαν δεσπότου εἰσίν:—and Oppian in his first Cynegetic:
Ἐλάφους ἢ δορκάδας. I take ἐλάφος to be the red deer, the cervus elaphus of naturalists; and δόρκας the roe deer, cervus capreolus, the chevreuil of France. To these the poet of Cyneg. ii. v. 293.Anazarbus adds the fallow deer, under the name of εὐρυκέρωτες.
From hence it would appear that it was no great exploit to take a red or roe deer, in Arrian’s opinion; but the latter was deemed very fleet by the last-cited poet,Cyneg. ii. v. 315. ὠκυτάτων δόρκων ἀρίδηλα γένεθλα: and his opinion is supported by the high authority of theMayster of Game. c. v. fol. 32. Mayster of Game, who affirms that “he rennyth wondir fast, and some tyme, at the partyng from his leyre, he shal out goo a brace of good greye houndes.”
The wild ass, or Koulan, is an animal of the greatest speed and beauty. He is elegantly and correctly described by Oppian:
See also the Book of Job, c. xxxix. vs. 5. et seqq. plin. hist. nat. l. viii. c. 44. Varro de R. R. L. ii. c. 6. and the veterinarian apsyrtus, geopon. l. xvi. c. 21. Martial records his beauty, “Pulcher adest onager.” Spelman is mistaken in identifying the onager and zebra, and referring to the stuffed specimen of our college for his example of the former under the type of the latter.
Μέγαν βασιλέα. This is the title given by all Greek authors to the king of Persia; and it is preserved to the successors of Mahomet in that of the Grand Seignor. Cyrus was the youngest son of Darius by Parysatis, and brother to Artaxerxes. His father, therefore, and brother, were both called, κατ’ ἐξοχὴν, “the great king.”
Xenophon. Anabas. L. i. 5. 2.
The inhabitants of this part of Arabia are denominated Σκηνίται Ἄραβες by Strabo; a vagabond people, living by depredation. “Nomades, infestioresque Chaldæorum, Scenitæ,” says Pliny, “à tabernaculis cognominati;” afterwards Saracens.
Ἐπὶ γυμνῶν τῶν ἵππων.
The allusions to the tractable and fleet Numidian horse, and his expert rider, are too numerous in the authors of antiquity for citation of more than a few. The barbs, in the language of our great dramatist,
In the army of Hannibal, the “equi hominesque paululi, discinctus et inermis eques, equi sine frænis,” are eulogized by the Roman historian: and Strabo notices the docility of the African little steeds to be such ὥς τ’ ἀπὸ ῥαβδίου οἰακίζεσθαι.
Virgil speaks of the “Numidæ infræni,” (Æneid. L. iv. 41.): Silius Italicus of the
and again, in the first book of his Punic War:
But the poets of the chase, Oppian and Nemesian, have left us in detail their shape and qualifications:
The same fact is related by Ælian, in his Natural History of Animals, L. xiv. c. 10.; and Beckman (Hist. of Inventions, Vol. iv. p. 292.) observes, on the authority of Vancouver, that the βρόχος, or noose-rope, is still employed by the Hungarians, for the subjugation of wild horses.
See these instruments of predatory hunting described in the early part of the Appendix, and accurately represented in the spirited engravings of the “Venationes Ferarum” of Stradanus and Galle. The metrical skill of A. C. Kilian Dufflæus, the poet of the annexed quatrains, is not commensurate with that of the engraver.
Ἐκ τοῦ εὐθέος διαγωνιζόμενοι. Many are the instances recorded in which the agency of the hound of chase was despised by “the light-footed sons of Chiron’s school.” The heroes and heroines of old were all-sufficient for the capture of the fleetest animals of the forest and plain. This was indeed coursing in good earnest, and is well illustrated by the simile of the text. In this way Diana furnished her chariot with deer, her πρωτάγριον, the swiftest beasts of draught—
In this way, the son of Peleus arrested the attention of her sylvan ladyship and the goddess Pallas,
Mithridates, in later days, was wont, during his rustication, “feras cursu aut fugare, aut persequi, cum quibusdam etiam viribus congredi.” And in our own annals,Description of Britaine. Booke Thirde. c. 7. “King Henrye the fift,” says Holinshed, “thought it a mere scoffery to pursue any fallow deare wyth hounds or greyhounds, but supposed hym selfe alwayes to have done a sufficient acte, when he had tired them by his own travaile on foote, and so kylled them wyth hys handes, in the upshot of that exercise and ende of hys recreation.”
Περὶ Ἀρτεμίσιον.
Plato (λόγος ἐπιτάφιος) gives the first and principal honours (ἀριστεῖα) to the victors of Marathon—τὰ δὲ δευτερεῖα, τοῖς περὶ Σαλαμῖνα καὶ ἐπ’ Ἀρτεμισίῳ ναυμαχήσασι καὶ νικήσασι. Artemisium was a northern promontory of the island of Eubœa; Psyttalia, a small, rocky, and barren isle, off the coast of Attica, and near to Salamis; Cyprus, an island of the Mediterranean Sea. The naval victories of Themistocles and Cimon are too well known to need any detail.
Having taken a summary view of the different modes of coursing amongst the Celts, and elsewhere, he now enters in detail into the treatment, initiation, &c. of young hounds.
The elder Xenophon mentions an earlier date for entering puppies—bitches at eight months, dogs at ten months old: but he does not allude to greyhounds. Pollux would introduce bitches at six months, and dogs at eight; Onomast. L. v. c. ix. The courser will follow the example of his Bithynian predecessor, whose instructions, indeed, are in exact accordance with modern practice.
He recommends a later period for entering dog-puppies; see the next Chapter. Nemesian makes no distinction between the dog and bitch on this point:
Less diffuse than the Carthaginian poet, the Veronese physician enters his “catulus venaticus” in the following lines of his Alcon, without specifying his age:
Ἁλισκομένου δὲ τοῦ λαγῷ, says the elder Xenophon, διδόναι αὐταῖς ἀναῤῥηγνύναι. Every sportsman is fully aware of the importance of blooding young hounds: κύων ἀγρευτικὸς ἅπας αὐτὸς μὲν λαβὼν θηρίον ἥδεται, καὶ κέχρηται τῇ ἄγρᾳ, ὡς ἄθλῳ, ἐὰν αὐτὸν συγχωρήσῃ ὁ δεσπότης: and a greater than Xenophon or Ælian has declared that the curée, or quarry, is to the Spartan hound the object of his chase, οὐδὲ ταῖς ὀσμαῖς τῶν λαγωῶν αἱ κύνες χαίρουσιν, ἀλλὰ τῇ βρώσει—ὅτι βορὰν ἕξουσιν. But Plutarch tells us that they will not touch the game, nor lap the blood of it, unless they kill it themselves; while, in the other case, Plutarchi Utraque animalia, &c.ἥδονται διασπῶντες, καὶ τὸ αἷμα λάπτουσι προθύμως, &c.
Julius Pollux advises that puppies be well blooded, ἵνα προσεθίζωνται τῇ κυνηγετικῇ τροφῇ.
“Ye shal gif yor. houndys the bowellis boyled wh. breed, and it is callyd reward for cause that it is etyn on the erthe and not on the skyn.”
“Goodnesse of greyhoundes cometh of ryght corage and of the good nature of her fader and modir, and also men may wel helpe to make hem good in the encharmyng of hem with other good greihoundes and feede hem wel in the beest that he taketh.”
“In coursing,” says Markham, “you shall observe two things, bloud and labour; bloud, which is a hartening and animating of your dogge to delight in the pleasure, when he findes the reward of his paines taking; for if a dog course continually, and never kill, the sport will growe yrksome to him, and therefore, now and then, give him such advantage that he may kill the hare—then labour, which is contrary to killing; for in it you must give the hare all indifferent advantage, both by lawe and otherwise, whereby she may stand long before the dogge and make him shewe his uttermost strength before he be able to reach her.”
So Xenophon: ἔστι δὲ καὶ, ἄνευ τοῦ εὑρίσκειν τὸν λαγῶ, ἀγαθὸν, ἄγειν τὰς κύνας εἰς τὰ τραχέα· καὶ γὰρ εὔποδες γίγνονται, καὶ τὰ σώματα διαπονοῦσαι ἐν τόποις τοιούτοις ὠφελοῦνται.
“Whan thei be at sojourne, men shuld lede hem out every day a myle or ij upon gravel, or upon right an hard pathe, bi a revere syde, bicause that her feet may be harder.”
Περὶ τῶν εἰς ἰχνείαν ἀσκουμένων κυνῶν—Spartan hounds, Castorians and Foxites—with regard to which, XenophonDe Venat. c. vii. recommends that the hare should be out of sight before they be allowed to follow her; lest, from being too near their game, such as are high-couraged and swift of foot might be injured by too much exertion in pursuit. It is unnecessary to observe that the elder Athenian’s remarks are inapplicable to the courser’s hound, who runs entirely by the eye; and the nearer he is slipped to the hare, if he be only just entered, the better. A hare will always beat a puppy in his noviciate, unaided by an old and experienced hound.
Μαινομένῃ ἔοικεν.
He now gives in detail his instructions for entering greyhound puppies to their appointed game, in opposition to those of Xenophon’s seventh chapter; nor can the most experienced courser add to them any thing worth knowing, nor the most ignorant complain of their insufficiency.