Part 46

πάντη δὲ πλάζονται, ὄπη γένυς, ἔνθα κελεύει γαστὴρ, καὶ λαίμαργος ἔρως ἀκόρητος ἐδωδῆς.

Compare Xenophon de Venatione c. +iv.+ 9. on exercising hounds.

“The child shuld lede the houndes to scombre twies in the day, in the mornyng and in the evenyng, so that the sonne be up, specially in wynter. Than shuld he lat hem renne and play longe in a faire medew in the sonne, and than kembe every hounde after other, and wipe hem with a grette wispe of straw; and thus shal he do every mornyng.”

These simple instructions of Duke Edmund are amplified by old Gervase: “Touching ayring or walking of greyhounds, which is a great nourisher and increaser of winde, it must be dewly done every morning before sun-rise, and every evening before or after sunne-set in this manner; as soone as you have opened your kennel and rub’d your dogge over with a cleane haire cloath, you shall let him play a little about you before the kennel dore, then take him up into your leashe, and walke him forth into the fields, where for the most parte are no sheepe or other smal cattell, which they may out of wantonness indaunger, and there let him loose, and give him leave to play and scope about you, so that he may skummer and emptie his body; which when he hath done sufficiently, you shall then take him up in your leash againe, and so walk him home and kennell him; this you shall doe after the same manner in the evening; and also if your dogge bee stronge and lustie, at night after supper, and then bringing him home, bring him to the fire, and there let him stretch and beake themselves, and with your hand grope and cleanse them from ticks and other filth, which done leade them to the kennell, and shut them up for all night.”

Ἐμπίπτουσαι γὰρ ἀλλήλαις ἔστιν ὅτε μεγάλα κακὰ ἐργάζονται.

——θοοὶ κύνες ἀμφιθορόντες Ἀλλήλους βρυχηδὸν ἐδήϊον.

For oft in sport Begun, combat ensues; growling they snarl, Then on their haunches rear’d, rampant they seize Each other’s throats; with teeth and claws in gore Besmear’d, they wound, they tear, till on the ground Panting, half dead the conquer’d champion lies, &c.

Blancard’s reading of φίλαι is adopted instead of that of the first edition of Paris, ἄφιλαι.

Arrian has already spoken on the subject of feeding, as an indication of good blood, in c. +viii.+

“Adulti siccis vescantur edulibus: pane videlicet et ossibus, et hoc fiat digestis horis, ut concoctio peragatur, et potiùs famescant paululùm, quàm non exactis horis pascantur.”

It is occasionally necessary to administer food twice a day to delicate hounds: but the more usual practice accords with the text. Gervase Markham, however, recommends the courser to feed twice a day on his prescribed diet-bread, “to wit, halfe an houre after sunne-rise, and halfe an houre before sun-set, when he comes from walking or ayring his dogge, and it will bring him to exceeding great strength of body and purenesse of winde.”—“Upon his coursing days you must by no means give him any meat more than a white bread toast and butter, or a toast and oil,” &c.

Tardif, a French writer cited by Conrad Gesner, agrees with Arrian on the utility of a second meal in summer: “Canis æstate frequentiùs quàm hyeme cibandus est, ut æstivis diebus longis et calidis durare possit. Infringatur ei panis in aquam. Si tamen sæpiùs quàm par est cibetur, ventriculus ei subvertitur, lac aut panis lacte madidus optimè alunt.”

Θέρους δὲ ἀγαθὸν καὶ ἄρτου ὀλίγον δοῦναι ἐμφαγεῖν—as a morning meal, a breakfast.

Στέαρ ταριχευόμενον—salted suet or fat. Στέαρ appears from Pollux, L. +ii.+ c. +v.+ 3. to be the same as πιμελὴ, white adipose substance adherent to the membranes of the abdomen and viscera of men and animals: but if Hesychius be correct in his explanation of ἀπομαγδαλία as στέαρ ἐν ᾧ τὰς χεῖρας ἀπεμάττοντο ἐν τοῖς δείπνοις· βαλόντες δὲ τοῖς κυσὶν ἀναλύοντες ἀπὸ τῶν δείπνων, it must have possessed saponaceous qualities of detergency; for if it were pure fat, with Bochart we might well ask “unde abstergantur, qui inde absterguntur?” For the distinctive difference between πιμελὴ and στέαρ, see Aristot. Hist. Animal. L. +iii.+ c. +xvii.+ The properties of each are evidently distinct.

“Sæpè etiam languor et nausea discutitur, si integrum gallinaceum ovum jejunis faucibus inferas,” &c. So also Tardif, as cited by Gesner, “si canis inter venandum nimiâ siti laboret, duo aut tria ova confracta in gulam ei immittes: sic enim sitim extingues, et à periculo hecticæ vel marasmi canem liberabis.”

Ancient sportsmen were accustomed to follow their field sports through the whole year; and often prolonged the chase till midnight. Hor. L. +i.+ od. +i.+

ποτὲ δ’ ἑσπερίου, ποτὲ αὖτε καὶ ὄρφνῃ θῆρας ὑπ’ ἀκτίνεσσι σεληναίης ἐδάμασσαν.

But the more humane of modern days have abridged this perpetuity of warfare with the animals of the field and forest by legislative enactment.

Nemesian alone, of all the cynegetical writers of Greece and Rome, enjoins us to commence coursing at the period usually adopted:

Hiemis sub tempus aquosæ Incipe veloces catulos immittere pratis, Incipe cornipedes latos agitare per agros.

Dame Juliana, seemingly careless of the “her-hounde’s” impatience of heat, held on till Midsummer;

At myghelmas begynneth huntynge of the haare: And lastyth tyll mydsomer there wyll no man it spare.

Natalis Comes allows us to sport during the whole spring, preferring that season for the reasons stated in the text—

Nam neque tunc horrent torpentia frigora brumæ, Nec nimio uruntur florentia prata calore.

but the prudent and humane courser will not slip his greyhound later than the month of February.

Θέρους δὲ ὀλιγάκις. It is not customary with British sportsmen to course in summer.

ἐν δὲ θέρει, χρειὼ φυγέειν φλογόεσσαν ἐνιπὴν ἄζαν τ’ ἠελίου.

The Paris and Amsterdam editions read διαπνίγονται, for which Schneider substitutes διαλείποντα (χρόνον)—an emendation which I have adopted in the translation.