Part 44

Ἐπισκύνιον—supercilii ruga, frontis ruga: very prominent in our highland breed:

πᾶν δέ τ’ ἐπισκύνιον κάτω ἕλκεται ὄσσε καλύπτων.

Ἄκρον. So the Paris and Amsterdam editions, quasi ἐπ’ ἄκρων ὀνύχων. Schneider reads ἁβρὸν, a delicate tread, a light tread; but the signification is nearly the same. Linnæus’s definition corresponds with Arrian’s as to the dog’s gait: “obliquè currit, incedit supra digitos,” μεταβάλλουσι τὰς πλευρὰς, “tranversis incedunt lateribus.”

Λαμπρύνωσιν. “De equo altiùs progrediente,” Zeune. See Xen. de Re Equestri, c. +x.+

κυδιόων ὀρθοῖσιν ἐπ’ οὔασιν αὐχέν’ ἀείρει.

Xenophon uses the term γαυριᾶσθαι, perhaps, with the same meaning. I take λαμπρύνω (magnificè me ostento) to signify the artificial posture in which the horse is placed by a skilful rider, with the aid of rein, whip, spur, &c. as described by Xenophon in the chapter referred to. To this graceful attitude of the well-disciplined war-horse, we may suppose our author to liken that of the Celtic hound in the strictest propriety:

Now I behold the steed curvet and bound, And paw with restless hoof the smoking ground.

The watchful eye of the Veltrarius is required at the time of feeding: indeed it is best for each hound to have his separate allotment of food; so difficult is it to check the voracious, and encourage the delicate, when placed at the same trough. Τροφῆς δὲ τὴν κοινωνίαν ἥκιστα ἐνδέχονται κύνες· πολλάκις γοῦν καὶ ὑπὲρ ὀστέου ἀλλήλους σπαράττουσιν ὡσπεροῦν ὁ Μενέλεως καὶ ὁ Πάρις ὑπὲρ τῆς Ἑλένης.

Τὸ κόσμιον γενναιότερον τοῦ ἀκόσμου. I never knew a very gross-feeding dog to possess any excellence.

Ἄρτῳ. Demetrius devotes a few sections to the subject of feeding, recommending “milk to be gradually added to bread (the dog’s usual diet) when it is wished to raise him in flesh, until it becomes his only nutriment, morning and evening. From this he is to be again weaned, by the gradual abstraction of the milk, when we desire to reduce him. In the former case, he is not to have his liberty; in the latter, he is to be daily exercised. A second kind of nutritious food consists of oatmeal gruel with fat; and a third, of bean flour, oil, and fat bacon.” Wheaten bread or biscuit, with gruel made from the farina of oats, is the best nutriment for all hounds.

“When you have a perfect and well-shapt greyhound, your next rule is to apply yourselfe to the dyetting and ordering of him, for the pleasure to which you keepe him, that bringing him to the uttermost height or strength of winde, you may know the uttermost goodnesse that is within him, which disorderly and foule keeping will conceale, and you lose a jewell, for want of knowledge of the value. Dyetting then of greyhounds consisteth in four especiall things, viz. foode, exercise, ayring, and kennelling; the first nourishing the body, the second the limbes, the third the winde, and the last the spirits.”

Ἄμεινον δὲ εἰ καὶ ξηρᾷ τῇ τροφῇ χαίροιεν. Hounds readily support themselves with dry oat or wheat meal. Maza is variously interpreted—flour mixed with oil and water, and flour beat up with milk:

Hordea quotidiana illis sint pabula; avenam Si mediam addideris, sic sponte resolvitur alvus. In panem coquit ille, cavo hic in robore caldâ Digerit in pultem, lambendaque cœna paratur. Nec durum sit sæpe tibi, quâ luce quietem Artemidi debes, illos recreare calenti Jure, minutatim scissis è vilibus extis: Currentem, ilignisve bibant in vasibus undam.

Καμούσῃ δὲ ἐμβάλλειν ἢ ὕδωρ, &c. Arrian says nothing on the treatment of canine disease beyond this hint on diet.

The Cynosophium substitutes the lungs for the liver of a bullock, as nutriment for puppies, when deprived of milk—εἰ γάλα μὴ ἔχεις. See Cynosoph. p. 271.

On the feeding of puppies Nemesian observes, that it should be regulated by the season of the year, atmospheric temperature, &c.

Interdumque cibo Cererem cum lacte ministra, Fortibus ut succis teneras complere medullas Possint, et validas jam tunc promittere vires:

but during the intense heat of summer the puppies are to be kept on lighter food, and then again on meal and whey,

Tunc rursus miscere sero Cerealia dona Conveniet, fortemque dari de frugibus escam.

Ἀγαθὸν δὲ καὶ ἡ ἀσιτία καμνούσῃ. Arrian probably wrote τῇ ἀσιτίᾳ καμνούσῃ: “prodest etiam lac quando cibi fastidio laborat canis.” The remedy suggested by Demetrius of Constantinople for anorexis, “bad feeding,” I should consider more likely to increase, than cure the disease; ἐὰν ἀνορεκτῇ κύων, κόπριαν ἀνθρωπίαν δίδου φαγεῖν, κ. τ. λ.

A short section of the Cynosophium is given to kennel management—κύνας μετὰ ἀνθρώπων κοιμᾶσθαι καλόν· πραεῖς γὰρ ἐκ τούτου γίνονται, καὶ φιλάνθρωποι, καὶ εὐκόλως καλοῦνται—a practical allurement of canine affection heretofore more common than at present. Modern refinement would ill bear the intimate association recommended by Arrian and Demetrius, and practised by James V. of Scotland, with his favourite Bagsche, who was wont

To lap upon the king is bed, With claith of gold thoch it were spred.

Indeed, we rarely see the high-bred and elegant Celtic hound within the vestibule of a modern dwelling; though heretofore, in the hall of banquet,

The stag-hounds, weary of the chase, Lay stretch’d upon the rushy floor, And urged in dreams the forest race From Teviot-stone to Eskdale-moor.

Whether the Duke of York’s “childe” lay with the hounds, I know not; but it seems that he did, though not with the intention specified by our author: “alway bi nyght and bi day I wil that some childe lye or be in the kenel with the houndes for to kepe hem from fyghteng,” &c.

I no where find the close cutaneous contact of man and dog, enjoined in the text, recommended in the ancient Cynegetica; but Xenophon advises an intimate acquaintance between the parties in the kennel at the hours of feeding, &c.: if the hounds be fed by the huntsman, they become attached to his person, τὸν διδόντα στέργουσιν, &c. (c. +vi.+): and so if the Veltrarii (“les valets de lévriers, qui exercent les lévriers, et qui les lâchent à la courre”) superintend the feeding their charge, the attachment thereby produced will render actual cohabitation unnecessary.

Quod superest, celeris catuli cui credita cura, Nutriat illecebris hunc, et sibi jungat amore. Sic facilè et noto domino parere jubenti Disceret, acceptisque sequi vestigia signis.

Εἰ γὰρ ἀγρυπνήσειεν, ἐξάγειν ἐπὶ θήραν οὐκ ἀσφαλές. We find in the Hieracosophium, undisturbed sleep is deemed necessary for the hawk the night preceding a flight, ἀταράχου ὕπνου μετεχέτω.