Part 55

Φυλάττειν δὲ καὶ ἀπὸ ὀχείας.

Venus imminuit vires!

——non ulla magis vires industria firmat, Quàm Venerem et cæci stimulos avertere amoris.

Columella, who admits the dog and bitch to copulate much earlier than Arrian, is still aware of the mischievous consequences of the practice; “si teneris conceditur,” says he, “carpit et corpus et vires, animosque degenerat.”

Blanda Venus canibus non permittenda tenellis.

As to the exact period at which the εὐνῆς ἔργα of Oppian (Hal. i. 532.) should commence, and their probable duration, without risk of breeding from animals too far advanced in years, there is some difference of opinion. According to Pollux, ὥρα ἀρίστη κυνῶν πρὸς πλήρωσίν τε καὶ γένεσιν, τῷ μὲν ἄῤῥενι τετάρτου ἔτους ἀρξαμένου, τελευταῖον τὸ ὄγδοον· ἡ δὲ θήλεια τριετὶς, μέχρι ἑξαετίδος συνδυαζέσθω.

“Mares juveniliter usque in annos decem progenerant: post id tempus ineundis fœminis non videntur habiles, quoniam seniorum pigra soboles existit. Fœminæ concipiunt usque in annos novem, nec sunt utiles post decimum,” according to Columella: while Pliny admits both dog and bitch at a year old—“canum generibus annui partus, justa ad pariendum annua ætas.”

Conrad Gesner cites an ancient, nameless authority, to the following effect: “Mares quarto anno gignere incipiant, (operâ scilicet hominum admittentium tunc primùm robustioris generandæ sobolis gratiâ,) fœminæ tertio usque in nonum.”

If a courser follow Virgil’s rule as to milch kine, in limiting the age of his brood bitch for the purposes alluded to, he will find it perfectly applicable:

Ætas Lucinam justosque pati hymenæos Desinit ante decem, post quatuor incipit annos.

After the fourth year, no greyhound can be depended on for fair running, and therefore may be well spared, to keep up the kennel stock, when no longer useful in the field:

——ut generosa canum tibi copia nunquam Desit.

Ἀπὸ τρίτου μὲν ἔτους ἐφίεσθαι—“You shall observe,” says Markham, “to have your dogges and bitches of equal and indifferent ages, as about three or foure years old at the most. But in case of need, your bitch will endure a great deale longer than your dogge, and to breed with a young dogge on an old bitch, may bring forth an excellent whelpe.” “Frigidus in Venerem senior—.”

After describing a good-shaped bitch, Nemesian adds:

Huic parilem submitte marem, sic omnia magnum, Dum superant vires, dum læto flore juventus, Corporis et venis primævi sanguis abundat. Namque graves morbi subeunt, segnisque senectus: Invalidamque dabunt non firmo robore prolem. Sed diversa magis fœturæ convenit ætas. Tu bis vicenis plenum jam mensibus acrem In Venerem permitte marem: sit fœmina, binos Quæ tulerit soles. Hæc optima cura jugandis.

Gratius would have a general parity of character in both male and female,

Junge pares ergo, et majorum pignore signa Fœturam.

And Bargæus agrees with him that the similarity should extend to the essential points of age, shape, and bodily powers:

——conjunge unà qui corpore, quique Sint ætate pares, atque iisdem viribus, ut mox Ipsa tuis votis similis fœtura sequatur.

Columella is mistaken if he intends his observations on breeding in general, (delivered in his chapter on swine-breeding), to apply to the canine race. “In omni genere quadrupedum,” says he, “species maris diligenter eligitur, quoniam frequenter patri similior est progenies quàm matri.” Markham’s comparative view of the merits of the male and female in breeding for the Celtic kennel will be found more practically correct. See Countrey Contentments, B. +i.+ The dam should be selected with the greatest attention to shape, pedigree, and character in the field; nor should the same points be disregarded in the sire, but they are not so important in the latter. The chances, however, of producing a good litter are greater in the ratio of excellence (γενναιότης) in both parents, their genealogical distinction, the blood of their “proavorum atavi,” &c. for the reasons stated by the philosophic poet:—

Fit quoque ut interdum similes existere avorum Possint, et referant proavorum sæpè figuras, Proptereà quia multa modis primordia multis Mista suo celant in corpore sæpè parentes, Quæ patribus patres tradunt à stirpe profecta, &c.

It is evident from what the elder Xenophon says on the accoutrements of the dog, in the sixth chapter of his Cynegeticus, that the Grecian sportsmen took some pains to preserve the purity of breed of certain varieties of the dog. Sharp spikes were attached to the στελμονίαι or body-clothes; ἐγκατεῤῥαμέναι δὲ ἐγκεντρίδες, ἵνα τὰ γένη φυλάττωσι, to prevent promiscuous connexion.

The remarks of the text are defective on the subject of breeding, leaving much to be supplied by experience and reference to other authorities. Arrian, however, was too good a judge of the importance of purity of blood in the greyhound kennel to attend to the mongrel crosses recommended by other cynegetical writers, whose object seems to have been to induce sportsmen to correct the faults or defects of one species by crossing it with another in which the opposite excellencies abounded. The ancients, before the time of Arrian at least, had no idea of correcting the imperfections of individuals of the same species by selecting from it other individuals in which the same defects were not apparent, but rather “a redundancy of the desired excellency, coveted in the imperfect animal.” Such is the plan of Gratius:

Idcirco variis miscebo gentibus usum. Quondam inconsultis mater dabit Umbrica Gallis Sensum agilem, traxêre animos de patre Gelonæ Hyrcano, et vanæ tantum Calydonia linguæ Exibit vitium patre emendata Molosso. Scilicet ex omni florem virtute capessunt, Et sequitur natura favens.

Varro, however, speaking of the breed of the shepherd’s dog, says “magni interest ex semine esse canes eodem;” by which he means that it should not be crossed with any hunting breed. But in the “Geoponica” we are cautioned against allowing those of the same litter to have sexual connexion with each other, φυλάττεσθαι μή ποτε οἱ ἐκ τῆς αὐτῆς μητρὸς ὄντες κύνες τῇ πρὸς ἀλλήλους μίξει χρήσαιντο—a circumstance the more remarkable, because breeding in and in (φωνᾶντα συνέτοισι) was general in other animals, though not practised in the canine tribe:

Coeuntque animalia nullo Cætera delicto, nec habetur turpe juvencæ Ferre patrem tergo, fit equo sua filia conjux.

Oppian’s tale to the contrary is not worthy of attention.

The Greek poet of the Chase goes a little farther than his Cynegetical predecessors on the subject of breeding. His concubinage is promiscuous, and he seems indifferent whether the varieties united be both of a mild, or both of a savage disposition, or each different in its type and character. The male and female are to be suited to each other, and of superior excellence—