Part 50

Οἱ φελλεῶνες. I have not met with this word elsewhere. Xenophon has τὰ φέλλια, chap. +v.+ De Ven., to signify the same kind of stony ground. The Scholia on the Acharnenses of Aristophanes, Act +ii.+ sc. +ii.+ explains φελλεὺς as rocky ground, stony beneath, with a superficial covering of earth—such as we see on the slopes of hills, perhaps. Φελλὸς occurs in Hesychius: σκληρὸς τόπος καὶ δυσεργὴς, καὶ ἐξ ἐπιπολῆς πετρώδης. Possibly the English term “fell” may be derived from the Greek φελλὸς or φελλεύς.

Πόδας τοὺς πρόσθεν ἄκρως ὑγροὺς, στενοὺς, ὀρθούς· τοὺς δὲ ὄπισθεν στερεοὺς, πλατεῖς· πάντας δὲ οὐδενὸς τραχέος φροντίζοντας.

Πέφυκε γὰρ δασὺς τοὺς πόδας καὶ δὴ καὶ τῶν τραχέων ἀνέχεται. The term δασύπους is evidently derived from the woolly covering of the hare’s feet; originally an adjective expressive of this peculiarity, but subsequently used to designate the hare herself. To the same origin Junius refers the English term rabbet—“cuniculus:” “Quotquot unquam observarunt Anglos, in linguæ vernaculæ pronuntiatione, o sonare ut a, facilè mecum credent olim fuisse robbet, quod nunc rabbet pronuntiant et scribunt. Atque ita robbet illud fortasse corruptum fuerint ex roughfet, quod exprimit Gr. δασύπους.”

The English word hare is derived by the same Etymologist from the Anglo-Saxon hara. “A. S. hara videtur esse ab hær, pilus; quoniam, ut est apud Plinium, ‘villosissimum animalium lepus.’”

Let him be made to feel in the words of Ovid,

non tam Turpe fuit vinci, quàm contendisse decorum.

It is a great point to encourage a young hound, whether he kill or not.

Plutarch remarks in his treatise on the Comparative Instinct of Land and Water Animals, that the Canes Venatici, generally, tear their game and lick up the blood greedily, when they kill it themselves; but if the animal, of which they are in pursuit, expire from exhaustion, before they reach it, they merely wag their tails, and do not lacerate it; showing thereby that the contest was not for the flesh of the animal, but rather for the glory of victory.

Κιῤῥὰ—derived probably from the red colour of the dog.

Βόννα—the derivation of this canine name is unknown to me.

Ὁρμὴ—Arrian’s own much-valued hound: to the same kennel perhaps belonged Cirras and Bonnas.

ἔοικε δὲ ἔχειν τι καὶ φιλοτιμίας ἐν ἑαυτῷ φυσικῆς· μὴ γὰρ δεῖσθαι κρεῶν, ἀλλὰ νίκης ἐρᾷν.

“Trahimur omnes laudis studio,” says Cicero, “et optimus quisque maximè glorià ducitur.”

Pliny also makes the same remark, “Canes à cursu volutatio juvat, ut veterina à jugo.”

In the Paris edition of 1644, in Blancard’s of 1683, and in Zeune’s, this Chapter stands after Chap. +xiv.+; but, on the authority of Schneider, it is more appropriately introduced in this place. Indeed the present, and two following chapters, treat of the different modes of coursing among the Celts, and might all be united under one title.

Ὅσοι μὲν πλουτοῦσιν αὐτῶν καὶ τρυφῶσιν—the superior class of Celtic gentry, nobility, &c.

Τοὺς κατοπτεύσοντας—finders to look over, &c. The French say, “aller à la vue.”—“c’est découvrir s’il y a dans le pays des bêtes courables.”

Ἀναπαυόμενος λαγώς. No description can surpass in accuracy and elegance that of the hare in her form by the elder Xenophon: Κατακλίνεται δὲ ὑποθεὶς τὰ ὑποκώλια ὑπὸ τὰς λαγόνας, τὰ δὲ πρόσθεν σκέλη τὰ πλεῖστα συνθεὶς καὶ ἐκτείνας, ἐπ’ ἄκρους δὲ τοὺς πόδας τὴν γένυν καταθεὶς, τὰ δὲ ὦτα ἐπιπετάσας ἐπὶ τὰς ὠμοπλάτας· εἶτα δὲ ὑποστέγει τὰ ὑγρά· ἔχει δὲ καὶ τὴν τρίχα στεγανήν· πυκνὴ γὰρ καὶ μαλακή.

The example of the Celtic nobility of Arrian’s days was followed by those of a later date. Bruyerinus relates (de Re Cib. c. 24.) “Gallia omnis leporibus scatet, ideoque horum venatio peculiaris est mediocri nobilitati et primariæ non invisa.” And Baptista Guarinus notes of the Veronese territory, that it abounds with hares, and affords opportunities for long courses:

Namque hic si studeas lepores agitare fugaces, Cursibus effusis æquora longa patent.

Αὐτουργοὶ κυνηγεσίων. Upon this expression Henry Stephens merely remarks, “quod loquendi genus observatione dignum est,”—offering no explanation: Zeune interprets “qui pedites venantur, studio rei capti:” Holsten, “qui ipsi per se venationis studio incumbunt:”—those who have to do with the practical part of the sport, as the slippers, leaders of the hounds, &c. the actual workmen. Such were the ἐργοπόνοι κρατεροὶ of Oppian, the bearers of the hunting gear to the covert, &c.

Ἐκπεριΐασι δὲ ἐπὶ μετώπου ταχθέντες. We here see the military tactician: after the lapse of nearly seventeen centuries, no improvement has taken place in the mode of beating for a hare. One of our best English manuals of coursing, whose author was probably as expert in the field as his predecessor of Bithynia, thus describes the plan adopted in the days of good Queen Bess: “To course y^e. hare you must send either hare-finders before you to find some hare sitting, or els yourself w^h. your company may range and beat over the fields until you either find a hare sitting, or start her. I have marked y^e. hare-finders in their seeking of a hare in Northamptonshyre, and they will never beat but one end of a furlong: and that shall be the end which is downe the wind or from the wind; for they hold opinion that a hare will not (by her wil) sit with her head into the wind. He that will seeke a hare must go overthwart the lands; and every land that he passeth over, let him beginne with his eye at his foot, and so looke downe the land to the furlong’s end, first on the one side and then on the other; and so shall he find y^e. hare sitting in her forme: assoone as he espyeth her he must cry Sa how. Then they which lead the greyhounds may come neare: and you may appoynt which greyhounds shall course. Then let him which found the hare, go towards her and say, Up, pusse, up! untill she rise out of her forme.”

Ἄρχοντα—“the judge expert in coursing” of Turberville, p. 249.

It appears to me from this passage that the Celts coursed with each hound held in a single slip and collar, and started probably simultaneously with his appointed compeer, held in juxta-position by a second person. Some commentators, however, are of opinion, from the term συνδυαζέτω, that the dogs were held in double collars, or couples; but if so, we must still suppose, from the words σὺ καὶ σὺ ἐπιλύειν, that two persons were appointed to let the dogs loose at the same time:

Copula detrahitur canibus.

Xenophon particularly enjoins, in his instructions on hare-hunting, that the Spartan hounds should be held in separate collars at the covert-side: ἑκάστην χωρὶς, (each apart) ὅπως ἂν εὔλυτοι ὦσι.

The ancient slip or slippe (ab elabendo Vlit. p. 94.) was formed by a leading thong or lyam, passed through the ring of the dog’s collar, the two ends being held in the hand of the slipper, or keeper. When the dog was loosed, the slipper let go one end of the thong, and drew the other with his hand from the eye of the collar, whereby the dog was liberated with the collar on his neck, the lyam remaining in the slipper’s hand. (See Xenophon, Pollux, and Conrad Gesner, on these accoutrements: the latter is copious on the subject in his Hist. Quadrup. “Canis.”) Such a representation of greyhounds coursing, with collars on their necks, we have in Montfaucon, Tom. +iii.+ liv. +iv.+ pl. 176. (Chasse au Lièvre.) Nor are the incumbrances, which envelop the necks of Chrysis and Aura in this beautiful gem, got rid of in the coursing plates of “The Gentleman’s Recreations,”—so few are the improvements in the practical department of the leash, from the days of Arrian till those of Richard Blome. The modern method of slipping a brace of greyhounds, at the same instant of time, from double spring or wedge collars, is of recent introduction; having its origin, probably, at the institution of public coursing meetings.

Οἱ δὲ ἐμπεδούντων τὸ ταχθέν. Obedience to the orders of the ἄρχων or ἀγωνοθέτης, in a coursing field, is an essential point of discipline: indeed, we could not select any more important for the regulation of such an assemblage than the brief and emphatic injunction of our author in his Tactics, “silence and attention to orders”—σίγα καὶ πρόσεχε τῷ παραγγελλομένῳ.