Part 18

Παίονες, Αὐσόνιοι, Κᾶρες, Θρήϊκες, Ἴβηρες, Ἀρκάδες, Ἀργεῖοι, Λακεδαιμόνιοι, Τεγεῆται, Σαυρομάται, Κελτοὶ, Κρῆτες, Μάγνητες, Ἐπειοὶ, ὅσσοι τ’ Αἰγύπτοιο πολυψαμάθοισιν ἐπ’ ὄχθαις βουκολίων οὖροι, Λοκροὶ, χαροποί τε Μολοσσοί.

But if the kennel-master acted on the principles laid down by this poet, and his Latin predecessor, Gratius, and crossed his pack with irreconcilable varieties out of different families, belonging to different countries, (and that he did so we have evidence in the irregular and ill-disciplined muster-roll of Ovid,) although the names on Oppian’s file might remain, the animals must have been so changed by the “superinduction of opposite qualities,” that a genuine breed of any one variety must have been most rare. To this general amalgamation of heterogeneous forms and qualities in the canine race, must be attributed the custom of applying the terms Molossian and Spartan to the Canes bellicosi and Canes sagaces respectively, gregatim—the dogs of Epirus and Sparta being held the best of their several classes. And, for the same reason, a true Molossian or Spartan of pure blood must have fallen to the lot of few of Dian’s worshippers. Aristotle speaks with praise of the Spartan and Molossian cross, but awards the highest price in the Spartan kennel to the purest blood: and Themistius, in his first oration, states it as an acknowledged rule in breeding, that the kennel be supplied from bitches of the purest and most unadulterated blood.

Even after the introduction of the Vertragus, and the commixture of his breed with the older varieties of sporting dogs—

et unà Præcipites pedibus catulos habuêre sagaces,—

the names derived from Sparta and Molosse were still kept up, and prostituted in many instances on most degenerate brutes.

With regard to the original geographical distribution of the three varieties of bellicosi, sagaces, and celeres, and of their respective chases, the most prevalent opinion of continental writers, who have devoted their attention to the Cynegetica of Greece and Rome, is that the last mentioned originally came from Gaul, the sagacious from Greece, and the bellicose from Asia. War-dogs of pure blood are nearly extinct in the British islands, and are becoming more rare on the continent of Europe; being much crossed with the sagacious and swift-footed tribes. Vlitius, himself a Dutchman, naturally espouses the Belgic origin of the Belgic, or, more correctly speaking, the Celtic dog. Spelman, on the contrary, claims him for the honour of Britain; and, in addition, we have always deemed some sorts of bellicosi and sagaces indigenous of this country. Mr. Whitaker, in his History of Manchester, gives to the ancient Britons the old English hound, or talbot, as the parent stock of the celebrated sagacious hounds of our island: and it is found, by experience, that this dog degenerates in every other part of the world—a strong presumptive proof of his being indigenous of Britain. The earliest record of the greyhound allots him to Gallia; and we have no hesitation in considering him of Celtic origin, notwithstanding the offensive disclaimer of Savary of Caen—

Gallos non hæc infamia tangit.

No exclusive national claim can be made for the pugnacious tribe, almost every nation of antiquity having had its particular variety; of which none surpassed the Britannus and Molossus, natives of regions remote from each other, unconnected, probably, in their lineage, and united alone in untameable ferocity of character.

The translator of Gratius, after enumerating the various sorts of the British hound, greyhound, and mastiff, (which he calls “indigena, or native of England,”) observes:—“all these dogs have deserved to be famous in adjacent and remote countries, whither they are sent for great rarities, and ambitiously sought for by their lords and princes, although only the fighting dogs seem to have been known to the antient authors: and perhaps in that age hunting was not so much cultivated by our own countrymen.”

CANES VENATICI. +Class I.+

CANES BELLICOSI +or+ PUGNACES.

Quibus est audacia præceps.

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:

Sint celsi vultus, sint hirtæ frontibus aures, Os magnum, et patulis agitatos morsibus ignes Spirent, adstricti succingant ilia ventres, Cauda brevis, longumque latus, discretaque collo Cæsaries, non pexa nimis, non frigoris illa Impatiens: validis tum surgat pectus ab armis, Quod magnos capiat motus, magnisque supersit. Effuge, qui latâ pandit vestigia planlâ, Mollis in officio, siccis ego dura lacertis Crura velim, et solidos hæc in certamina calces.

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:

θοῦροι δ’ αὖθ’ ἕτεροι, τοῖσιν μενεδήϊος ἀλκὴ, ὅσσοι καὶ ταύροισιν ἐπέχραον ἠϋγενείοις, καὶ σύας ὑβριστῆρας ἐπαΐξαντες ὄλεσσαν ὅσσοι μηδὲ λέοντας ἑοὺς τρείουσιν ἄνακτας, ζατρεφέες, πρώνεσσιν ἐοικότες ἀκρολόφοισι. σιμότεροι μὲν ἔασι προσώπατα, δεινὰ δ’ ὕπερθε νεύει ἐπισκυνίοισι μεσόφρυα, καὶ πυρόεντες ὀφθαλμοὶ χαροπῇσιν ὑποστίλβοντες ὀπωπαῖς· ῥινὸς ἅπας λάσιος, κρατερὸν δέμας, εὐρέα νῶτα· κραιπνοὶ δ’ οὐ τελέθουσιν, ἀτὰρ μένος ἔνδοθι πολλὸν καὶ σθένος ἄφραστον, κραδίη καὶ θυμὸς ἀναιδής.

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:

Ille tibi ingentes tauros aggressus, et ursos Sistat, et imposito fugientes vulnere tardet: Cui summæ pendent aures, cui laxa supernè Labra fluant, cui vultus atrox, cui maxima cervix, Obtusumque caput, pressumque ante omnia rostrum: Præterea magnique pedes, unguesque recurvi: Molle solum, sublime femen, suppressior alvus: Ipsaque rectorum longa internodia crurum: Spina duplex, pingues lumbi, color helvus, honestum Pectus: et è patulis efflet qui naribus ignem, Latratu quoties sylvas implevit, et amplo Pectore conceptas subitus decurrit ad iras. Tum verò splendent oculi, collumque tumescit, Et caudam crebrò villosa in terga retorquet.

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

Trahit in præceps non sana ferocia mentis.

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:

——magna indocilis dat prælia Medus, Magnaque diversos extollit gloria Celtas.

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—

Perses in utroque paratus.

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 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,

Gallia cùm pridem coleret devota Dianam,

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.