Part 42

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,

Substricta gerens Sicyonius ilia Ladon.

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

Fotyd lyke a catte: Tayllyd lyke a ratte: Syded lyke a teme, And chynyd lyke a beme—

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.

χρειὼ δὲ σκοπέλου μὲν ἀνάντεος ἠδὲ πάγοιο σεύεσθαι προθέοντα ποδωκέα φῦλα λαγωῶν, πρὸς δὲ κάταντα σοφῇσι προμηθείῃσιν ἐλαύνειν. αὐτίκα γὰρ σκύλακάς τε καὶ ἀνέρας ἀθρήσαντες πρὸς λόφον ἰθύουσιν, ἐπεὶ μάλα γινώσκουσιν ὅττι πάροιθεν ἔασιν ὀλιζότεροι πόδες αὐτοῖς. τοὔνεκα ῥηΐδιαι πτώκεσσι πέλουσι κολῶναι, ῥηΐδιαι πτώκεσσι, δυσάντεες ἱππελάτῃσι.

And Ælian, De Naturâ Animalium, states the advantage and disadvantage of this shape to the hare: 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,

Tell me, maister, (quoth the man) what dooth it skill Why the hare would so faine runne against the hil? Quoth the maister, for her leggs be shorter before, And therfore she desireth to run that way evermore.

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.”

Effuge qui latâ pandit vestigia plantâ, Mollis in officio, siccis ego dura lacertis Crura velim, et solidos hæc in certamina calces.

Fracastorius,

Ima pedum parvâ signent vestigia plantâ.

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,

——brevemque pedes glomerentur in orbem Parvaque compactis digitis vestigia forment.

Compare Xenophon de Venat. c. +iv.+ Arrian very rationally combats the notion of a greyhound’s excellence being at all dependent on so variable a distinction as colour. Oppian, more credulous on this point, reprobates white and black dogs, as impatient of heat and cold, and gives a preference to such as are red, russet, or fawn:

κεῖνοι δ’ ἐν πάντεσσιν ἀριστεύουσι κύνεσσι, τοῖς ἴκελοι μορφαὶ μάλα θήρεσιν ὠμηστῇσι, μηλοφόνοισι λύκοις, ἢ τίγρεσιν ἠνεμοέσσαις, ἢ καὶ ἀλωπεκέεσσι, θοαῖσί τε πορδαλίεσσιν, ἢ ὁπόσοι δήμητρι πανείκελον εἶδος ἔχουσι σιτόχροοι· μάλα γάρ τε θοοὶ κρατεροί τε πέλονται.

The Cynosophium recommends such as are παραπλήσιοι λέουσι, πάρδοις, λύκοις: and adds to its Materia Medica (p. 275.) amongst other ridiculous nostrums, a formula by which the colour of the hair may be changed from white to black—credat Judæus!

In accordance with the general prejudice which bestowed superior virtue on parti-coloured, (for such was Xenophon’s opinion,) Pan confers on the Goddess of the Chase pie-bald and mottled hounds:

τὶν δ’ ὁ γενείητης δύο μὲν κύνας ἥμισυ πηγοὺς, τρεῖς δὲ πόρ’ οὐατίους, ἕνα δ’ αἰόλον.

Pollux would mix a little variety of colour, ἑκάστῳ παραμεμίχθω τι καὶ ἑτέρας χρόας.

The modern Cynegetica are as fickle and capricious as to colour as their ancient models: