Part 28

Oppian’s boar and lion-killers have very little resemblance to these indices of the form or seat of the timorous hare. The latter poet recommends the Tuscans (whom he is also supposed to designate under the title of Ausonians in his first kennel-roll) to be crossed with the Spartan race;

Τυρσηνὰ γένεθλα Λάκωσι—

The Armenian bear-dog was a sort of lyemmer used by sportsmen of the East for tracking bears;

πουλὺς ὄχλος βαίνουσι τανύσκια βένθεα δρυμῶν, ἴδριες, αὐτολύτοις σὺν ἐϋρίνεσσι κύνεσσιν, ἴχνια μεστεύσοντ’ ὀλοῶν πουλύπλανα θηρῶν. ἀλλ’ ὁπότ’ ἀθρήσωσι κύνες σημήϊα ταρσῶν, ἕσπονται, στιβέας τε ποδηγετέουσιν ὁμαρτῆ ῥῖνας μὲν ταναὰς σχεδόθεν χέρσοιο τιθέντες, ἐξοπίσω δ’ εἴπερ τι νεώτερον ἀθρήσειαν ἴχνος, ἐπειγόμενοι θόρον αὐτίκα καγχαλόωντες, ληθόμενοι τοῦ πρόσθεν· ἐπὴν δ’ εἰς ἄκρον ἵκωνται εὐπλανέος στιβίης, θηρός τε παναίολον εὐνὴν, αὐτίχ’ ὁ μὲν θρώσκει παλάμης ἀπὸ θηρητῆρος, οἰκτρὰ μάλ’ ὑλακόων, κεχαρημένος ἔξοχα θυμόν.

The poet concludes this part of his description with a singularly beautiful simile of a bare-footed little damsel in joyful search of mountain violets, (discovered by their grateful odour, and plucked for the decoration of her head,) with which she returns singing to the home of her peasant parents:

ὣς κυνὸς ἰάνθη θυμὸς θρασύς. αὐτὰρ ἐπακτὴρ καὶ μάλα μιν θύνοντα βιησάμενος τελαμῶσι, καγχαλόων παλίνορσος ἔβη μεθ’ ὅμιλον ἑταίρων.

The δίκτυα and ἄρκυες, the δεῖμα πολύχροον of the feathered line, and the other instruments of the savage chase, combine to secure the ursine quarry. See Oppian. Cyneg. +iv.+ vs. 354 ad vs. 424.

Having already noticed the wary employment of the mute finder to search out the lair of animals obnoxious to the chase, let us look at the subsequent proceedings. When the nets and snares were set, the game found, and started by the Canes ductores, the attendants, it seems, slipped the latrant pack, which were held in couples at hand. That this was the ordinary routine is proved by Xenophon, Lucan, Seneca, and others. The Greek sportsman of Scillus does not, indeed, say that the dog first slipped should be mute, but merely quick-scented. Lucan, however, particularly states his quality of closeness in the lines of his Pharsalia, where he likens the naval tactics of Octavius, “Illyricæ custos Octavius undæ,” to the wily stratagems of a huntsman preparing for the attack of his game;

—Sic dum pavidos formidine cervos Claudat odoratæ metuentes aëra pennæ: Aut dum dispositis attollat retia varis Venator, tenet ora levis clamosa Molossi; Spartanos Cretasque ligat; nec creditur ulli Sylva cani, nisi qui presso vestigia rostro Colligit, et prædâ nescit latrare repertâ, Contentus tremulo monstrâsse cubilia loro.

—and Seneca implies the same,

at vos laxas Tacitis canibus mittite habenas: Teneant acres lora Molossos, Et pugnaces tendant Cressæ Fortia trito vincula collo. At Spartanos (genus est audax Avidumque feræ) nodo cautus Propriore liga. Veniet tempus Cum latratu cava saxa sonent: Nunc demissi nare sagaci Captent auras, lustraque presso Quærant rostro.

Hitherto we have said nothing of the race of sagacious hunting-dogs, most commonly known by the name of hounds, the Petronius of Gratius, the Ἀγασσεὺς of Oppian, and the Segusian of Arrian. The Petronius belongs to the family of fleet sagacious hounds;

at te leve si qua Tangit opus, pavidosque juvat compellere dorcas, Aut versuta sequi leporis vestigia parvi: Petronios (sic fama) canes, volucresque Sicambros, Et pictam maculâ Vertraham delige falsâ. Ocyor affectu mentis pinnâque cucurrit, Sed premit inventas, non inventura latentes Illa feras; quæ Petroniis benè gloria constat.

We here see the distinction between the harrier and greyhound, the former running on scent, the latter on sight. That the Petronii opened as soon as they hit upon the trail of their game, before it was roused, is much regretted by the poet—

Quod si maturo pressantes gaudia lusu Dissimulare feras tacitique accedere possent: Illis omne decus, quod nunc, Metagontes, habetis, Constaret sylvis; sed virtus irrita damno est!

Herein, however, they strikingly resemble their modern representatives; for, with Ducange, I readily grant that the Canes Petronii “ii sunt quos vulgò chiens courans appellamus.” Whoever has heard the din of the fox or hare-chase,

—whilst the babbling echo mocks the hounds, Replying shrilly to the well-tuned horns, As if a double hunt were heard at once,

will grant that no Petronian pack could have been more noisy on the trail than their modern representatives.

The Britannus sagax, “the hound sagacious on the tainted green,” next claims our attention. Of the Britannus bellicosus we have already spoken under the first class. The earlier cynegetical writers are silent on the subject of British hounds: nor do they appear to have been known in Italy till towards the decline of the Roman empire; when, having been introduced into Celtic Gaul, their merits became gradually known in southern Europe. And here, in spite of the French encyclopedists, (the copyists of Messieurs D’Yauville and Le Verrier de la Conterie,) who gratuitously assume “qu’en général les chiens Anglois n’ont pas autant de noblesse que les beaux chiens François,”—and that where the breed is improved, as they allow it to be in some cases, the amelioration is attributable to Norman crosses,—we must, with our native poet, claim the palm for Britain;

In thee alone, fair land of liberty! Is bred the perfect hound, in scent and speed As yet unrivall’d, while in other climes Their virtue fails, a weak degenerate race!

By name, British hunting-dogs (as distinct from the pugnacious class) are mentioned by the poets of Carthage and Anazarbus alone; by the former, where singing the praises of different canine breeds, the merits of the blood of distant countries;

Sed non Spartanos tantùm, tantùmve Molossos Pascendum catulos: divisa Britannia mittit Veloces, nostrisque orbis venatibus aptos;

—by the latter, in the conclusion of his first cynegetic, vs. 467, hereafter cited. Of Nemesian’s “veloces,” probably not of the sagacious class, I shall, in the sequel, speak. In the absence of any assigned habitat for the Petronius, may we not consider him indigenous of Britain? Our happy isle has ever been famous for excellent breeds of hunting-dogs, for skilful sportsmen, and horses both fleet and patient of the chase. All the Celtic nations indeed, and our ancestors among the rest, were passionately addicted to the diversions of the field, considering the prosecution of such laborious callings a kind of apprenticeship and initiation for war. Thence the superiority of the Celtic breeds of sporting-dogs, and more especially of the Britannus sagax and Britannus bellicosus. With the latter, perhaps, the former may have been sent to Italy by the resident Procurator Cynegii, as worthy of admission into Roman kennels; for at this early period I believe there were only these two native varieties of the canine race in Britain. In the field of battle, in public spectacles, and in the wolf and boar-chases, the bellicosus, the rival of the truculent Epirote, stood pre-eminent: and in the ordinary hunting of timid and fugacious quarry, the hound “naribus utilis,” acquired an early name and character. For hideousness of aspect, and ugliness of shape, both were remarkable;

Si non ad speciem, mentiturosque decores Protinùs: hæc una est catulis jactura Britannis:

—a notification of Ovid’s contemporary, which may be interpreted of the sagacious with as much truth as of the pugnacious sorts.

Modern ingenuity has taught British hounds of chase to pursue many varieties of prey. “Alius leporis, alius vulpis, alius cervi, alius platycerotis, alius taxi, alius lutræ, alius mustelæ, alius cuniculi tantùm odore gaudet.” The dog does not himself necessarily differ, for adaptation to different game; and possibly, the old English Talbot was the parent stock, whence all the sub-varieties, at present found in the kennels of Great Britain, originally sprung, modified in shape and character by judicious breeding, and careful management as to quarry:

strong, heavy, slow, but sure, Whose ears down-hanging from his thick round head, Shall sweep the morning dew; whose clanging voice Awake the mountain echo in her cell, And shake the forest: the bold Talbot kind Of these the prime, &c.

The hounds of Theseus would be correctly placed, from the description of our great dramatic poet, under the old English breed. With it they have more points in common than with their fabled progenitors;