Part 39

ἀλλ’ ὁπότ’ ἴχνεος ὀψὲ διηερίοιο τυχήσῃ, καγχαλάα, κνυζεῖ τε κεχαρμένος.

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: 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 “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! “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:

Ocyor cervis, et agente nimbos Ocyor Euro.

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:

Who knows not Snowball? he whose race renown’d Is still victorious on each coursing ground? Swaffham, Newmarket, and the Roman Camp, Have seen them victors o’er each meaner stamp.

If we qualify the size by the conditions laid down by Aristotle in the ἀρεταὶ σώματος, we shall probably hit the mark as to 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:

——ἄρκιον ἠδὲ κάρηνον, κοῦφον, ἐΰγληνον, κυαναὶ στίλβοιεν ὀπωπαί· κάρχαρον, ἐκτάδιον τελέθοι στόμα.

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: “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.”

A grehounde sholde be Heeded lyke a snake.

“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