Part 48

For the indications of speed, and strength of course, in the hare, see L’Ecole de la Chasse, c. +iv.+ “Lièvre vigoureux, bon à chasser,” &c. “The hare that renneth,” says De Langley, “w^t. right stondyng eeres is but litel a ferd and is strong; and zit whan she holdeth that oone eere upryght stondyng and that other y leyde lowe upon her ryge, she fereth but litel the houndes. An hare that crompes hure tayle upon hure rumpe whan she sterteth out of here forme, as a conyng, it is token she is stronge and wele rennyng.”

Xenophon enters most fully into the description of the hare, her habits, haunts, &c.—ποδωκέστατοι μὲν οὖν εἰσὶν οἱ ὄρειοι, οἱ πεδινοὶ δὲ ἧττον, βραδύτατοι δὲ οἱ ἕλειοι. And so also Ælian, with some difference as to the speed of the mountain and plain hares—Λαγῲ δὲ ὄρειοι οὐκ οὕτως ταχεῖς ὡσπεροῦν οἱ τοῖς πεδίοις ἐνοικοῦντες, εἰ μή ποτε ἄρα κἀκεῖνοι πεδίον ἔχοιεν ὑποκείμενον, ἐν ᾧ κατίοντες διαθέουσι. See also Polluc. Onomast. L. +v.+ c. +xii.+ and varr. de r. r. l. +iii.+ c. +xii.+ Much of Xenophon’s description is versified by Oppian:

πτῶκας ἀείδωμεν, θήρης ἐρίδωρον ὀπώρην· σῶμα πέλει τυτθὸν, λάσιον· δολιχώτατον οὖας· βαιὸν ὕπερθε κάρη, βαιοὶ πόδες, οὐκ ἴσα κῶλα, κ. τ. λ.

“Of hares soom goon faster and ben stronger than other, as of men and of other beestis. And also the pasture and the contre wher thei abiden helpeth moche thereto; ffor whan an hare abideth and formeth in a playn contre ther as no busshes be, suche hares ben comonly strengest and wel rennyng. And also whan thei pasture of too herbes, that oon is clepyd sorpol and that other pulegium, thei be stronge and fast rennyng.”

This superiority of the upland over the lowland hare continues, according to Paullini, after death. The flavour of its flesh on the table is as superior in the former to what it is in the latter, as the prowess of the one during life surpassed that of the other—“Lumbi et clunes, seu coxæ,” says the credulous epicure of Eisenach, “gratissimum præbent alimentum et pulmentum, imprimis marium, qui femellis in cibatu meritò præferuntur, præsertim si montium fuerint incolæ planorumque locorum, serpyllo, pulegio, et similibus herbis vescentes. Qui enim in palustribus locis degunt, vilioris conditionis sunt carnis et succi deterioris.” The cause of the inferiority of the latter is furnished by Simon Paulli, “quia illorum intercus et excrementitia humiditas, quæ carnem reddit manu contumacem, non attenuata et consumpta est, uti horum, qui fugati sunt.”

Turberville observes a hare will take to the open country, if the horsemen stand on the covert-side, “then peradventure when shee ryseth, shee will take towards the champayne;” but I have often seen a hare voluntarily start directly away from the covert, without any such obstacle existing to her nearer escape.

Οὐ μὴν ἀναλίσκει τὴν ἑαυτοῦ δύναμιν ἀταμιεύτως, τηρεῖ δὲ τοῦ διώκοντος τὴν ὁρμήν· καὶ ἐὰν μὲν ᾖ νωθὴς, οὐ πάνυ ἀνῆκε τὸ ἑαυτοῦ τάχος· ἀλλὰ καί τι καὶ ἀνέστειλεν, ὡς προεκθεῖν μὲν τοῦ κυνὸς, οὐ μὴν ἀπαγορεῦσαι ὑπὸ τοῦ συντόνου τοῦ δρόμου αὐτός. Οἶδε γὰρ ἀμείνων ὢν, καὶ ὁρᾷ εἰς τὸ μὴ ὑπερπονεῖσθαι οἱ τὸν καιρὸν ὄντα. Ἐὰν δὲ καὶ ὁ κύων ᾖ ὤκιστος, τηνικαῦτα ὁ λαγὼς φέρεται θέων ᾗ ποδῶν ἔχει, κ. τ. λ.

Οὐ γάρ τοι ἐπὶ τῷ ἁλῶναι τὸ θηρίον ἐξάγουσι τὰς κύνας, ἀλλὰ ἐς ἀγῶνα δρόμου καὶ ἅμιλλαν κ. τ. λ. With the fine feelings of a genuine courser, the author considers the pleasure of the sport as arising solely from the struggle for victory between the hare and dog;—a trial of the former’s speed, its distinctive excellence, (so elegantly alluded to by Anacreon in his complimentary ode to the ladies,

φύσις κέρατα ταύροις, ὁπλὰς δ’ ἔδωκεν ἵπποις, ποδωκίην λαγωοῖς)

against that of the latter, whose shape marks its natural designation for such a competition. Coursing does not seem to have been otherwise practised as an emulative sport in the classic ages; nor indeed till a very modern period of its annals.

Καὶ καταφυγόντα ἐς ἀκάνθας ἔστιν ὅτε ὀλίγας οἵδε καὶ ἰδόντες ἐπτηχότα κ. τ. λ.—A noble paragraph! conceived and penned in the true spirit of an enlightened sportsman—Read it all ye who dare calumniate, with Savary and Somerville,

The mean, murderous, coursing crew, intent On blood and spoil!

Zeune would read διαγωνίσαιτο, as referring to the hare, whose life is spared for having run well. Such a reading, if tenable, (which, I fear, for the reasons given by Schneider, it is not,) would add much to the beauty of the passage.

How different the sentiments of the Bithynian courser from those of the Sciluntian huntsman: like a modern thistle-whipper or pot-hunter, Xenophon bids us search every hiding-place for the worn-out hare, that we may catch her at force, κατὰ πόδας, or drive her into the snares! while Arrian rejoices in her safety and grieves over her accidental capture and destruction.

Ἔπαισα τὴν κεφαλήν. Blane supposes Arrian to strike the greyhound’s head as a chastisement for having killed the hare: but this interpretation is too absurd to be admitted. Many are the examples of the custom of striking the head with the hand, in indication of sudden grief and vexation. Priam is fearfully apprehensive of Hector’s death, and strikes his head with sorrow:

————κεφαλήν δ’ ὅγε κόψατο χερσὶν ὕψοσ’ ἀνασχόμενος.

Psammetichus expresses his grief in the same way over the rich Egyptian monarch, reduced to mendicancy in his old age, ἐπλήξατο τὴν κεφαλὴν—and Plutarch tells us that Solon began παίειν τὴν κεφαλὴν καὶ τ’ ἄλλα ποιεῖν καὶ λέγειν, ἃ συμβαίνει τοῖς περιπαθοῦσι, as soon as he heard of the death of his son.

The joys of the hare-chase have been celebrated, in prose and verse, by the successors of the Athenian, in even higher strains than by himself:

Tantus amor lepores venandi, gaudia tanta! Hîc mens, hîc animus, hîc est et tota voluntas! Præponunt reliquis una hæc solatia cunctis!

“The hare is a good lityl beest and moch good sport and lyking is the huntyng of hur more than in eny othere beest that eny man knoweth, &c.” “the sechyns for the hare is a wel faire thing, and the enchasyng of the hare is a wel faire thing, and the sleyng of hym with strength is a faire thing,” &c.

The latter, it is singular, are the very sentiments of Xenophon, reprobated by Arrian; and the passage affords one of many proofs of De Langley’s acquaintance with the Grecian Cynegeticus. See Markham C. C. B. +i.+ p. 33. and Somerville’s Chace.

See Xenophon Cyneg. v. 33. Arrian has spoken throughout his treatise with the greatest respect of his predecessor’s opinions; but ventures to differ from him in this place, as to the feelings which the poor hare, when caught, should excite—

ὦ τῶν ἁπάντων δὴ θεαμάτων ἐμοὶ ἄλγιστον, ὧν προσεῖδον ὀφθαλμοῖς ἐγώ—

and yet he almost immediately palliates Xenophon’s contrary sentiments, and excuses them on account of his ignorance of the Celtic greyhound.

See Herodot. L. +i.+ sect. 85. ὁ δὲ παῖς οὗτος ὁ ἄφωνος, ὡς εἶδε ἐπίοντα τὸν Πέρσην, ὑπὸ δέους τε καὶ κακοῦ ἔῤῥηξε φωνήν· εἶπε δὲ, Ὤνθρωπε, μὴ κτεῖνε Κροῖσον. The tale of the father of history is somewhat differently told by Solinus:—Atys, filius regis, mutus ad id locorum, in vocem erupit vi timoris: exclamâsse enim dicitur: “Parce patri meo, Cyre, et hominem te esse, vel casibus disce nostris.”

Xenophon de Venat. c. +vi.+ 9. ἀναβοᾷν εὖγε, εὖγε ὦ κύνες, ἕπεσθε ὦ κύνες. He gives a different cheer at different parts of the chase. Pollux explains the whistling halloo by the significant verb ἐπισίξαι—jubilationibus solitis canes cohortari et feris immittere—

At comites rabidum solitis hortatibus agmen Ignari instigant.

So Venus in pursuit of her beloved Adonis,