Part 8

If it be stigmatised with the title of superstitious credulity in the priest of Ceres, that he supposed himself led by divine inspiration to write the history of a man, οὐδενὶ ἄλλῳ ἀνθρώπων ἐοικὼς, I would plead his enthusiastic admiration of his hero in palliation of the fond supposition, qualified as it is, with equal good sense and piety, in the concluding sentences of the Anabasis; where he states that as so extraordinary a person as Alexander could not have risen up in the world without divine interference—οὐδ’ ἔξω τοῦ θείου; so, with admiration of his good qualities, and reprobation of his bad ones, with a strict regard to truth, and public utility, he professes himself his historian, writing, as he verily believes, under the same divine influence that first gave being to the subject of his memoir.

Surely such a belief in heavenly interference, exciting its professor to what is just and honourable, and deterring him from every breach of propriety, as an historian of truth, must be applauded by every fair and impartial judge of human character; and more particularly so, when in the person of a Stoic, unenlightened by any philosophy but that of Epictetus, it could have no other foundation than innate rectitude of mind.

Under the conviction that Arrian’s expectation of posthumous fame has been realized in general, and that my brethren of the leash will award him particular honour as the first writer of a Courser’s Manual, I conclude this brief sketch of his life and literary labours; which might have been more full, if his biography by Dion Cassius had come down to us.

As the compiler of the Stoical philosophy of “the Phrygian Slave,” the historian of the son of Philip, the hydrographer of the Euxine, a military tactician, a warrior-prefect, and a classic courser, he has left works behind him which will endure as long as literature itself;—he has done all in his power to benefit and instruct mankind in various departments of human learning;—has contributed his mite to the advancement of rational science and healthful recreation, and proved himself worthy of the immortality he so fondly anticipated.

ARRIAN ON COURSING.

Οὐ γάρ τοι οὐδ’ ἴσος ὁ ἀγὼν λαγωῷ καὶ κυνί· ἀλλ’ ὁ μὲν, ὅποι βούλεται, θεῖ, ἡ δὲ ἄλλῳ ἐφομαρτεῖ· καὶ ὁ μὲν ἐξελίξας τὸν δρόμον καὶ διαῤῥίψας τὴν κύνα ἴεται τοῦ πρόσω, ἡ δὲ, εἰ διαῤῥιφθείη, πλάζεται· καὶ ἀνάγκη φθάσαντα αὖ μεταθεῖν καὶ ἀναλαβεῖν, ὅσον ἐξηνέχθη τοῦ δρόμου.—+Arrian. de Venat.+ c. +xvii.+

——Canis in vacuo leporem cum Gallicus arvo Vidit; et hic prædam pedibus petit, ille salutem: Alter inhæsuro similis, jam jamque tenere Sperat, et extento stringit vestigia rostro; Alter in ambiguo est, an sit deprensus, et ipsis Morsibus eripitur; tangentiaque ora relinquit.

+Ovid. Metam.+ L. +i.+ 533.

——If for sylvan sports thy bosom glow, Let thy fleet greyhound urge his flying foe. With what delight the rapid course I view! How does my eye the circling race pursue! He snaps deceitful air with empty jaws, The subtle hare darts swift beneath his paws: She flies, he stretches: now with nimble bound Eager he presses on, but overshoots his ground: She turns, he winds, and soon regains the way, Then tears with gory mouth the screaming prey.

+Gay’s Rural Sports+, Canto +ii.+ 289.

- - - Tibi veloces catulos reparare memento Semper, et in parvos iterum protendere curas.

Nemesian Cyneg V. 200.

BRITISH MUSEUM ]

ARRIAN ON COURSING.

The advantages that accrue to mankind from hunting, and the regard of the Gods for those instructed in it by Chiron, and their honourable distinction throughout Greece, have been related by Xenophon, the son of Gryllus.

He has pointed out the similitude between Cynegetical and Military science; and the age, constitution, and frame of mind, that essentially qualify for entering on the chase;—has given a description of purse-nets, hayes, and road-nets, such as are necessary to be prepared—the mode of fixing snares for animals that may be entrapped—the natural history of hares, their food, haunts, forms, and the method of searching for them—what dogs are clever at scenting, and what faulty—and how, by their shape and work, each may be ascertained. Some few remarks are also left by him on the boar-hunt, the stag, bear, and lion chases—how these animals may be taken by cunning and stratagem.

The omissions of his work (which do not appear to me to have arisen from negligence, but from ignorance of the Celtic breed of dogs, and the Scythian and African horses,) I shall endeavour to fill up: being his namesake and fellow-citizen, of similar pursuits with himself, as a sportsman, a general, and a philosopher—writing under the same feeling that actuated him, when he thought fit to amend the imperfections of Simon’s work on horsemanship; not out of rivalry with its author, but from a conviction that his labours would be useful to mankind.

In my opinion no proof is required that Xenophon was ignorant of the Celtic breed of dogs, beyond this: that the nations inhabiting that district of Europe were unknown, except the parts of Italy occupied by the Greeks, and those with whom they had commercial intercourse by sea. And that he was unacquainted with any other breed of dogs, resembling the Celtic in point of swiftness, is evident from these words:—“whatever hares,” he says, “are caught by dogs, become their prey, contrary to the natural shape of the animal, or accidentally.” Now, if he had been acquainted with the Celtic breed, I think he would have made the very same remark on the dogs; “whatever hares the dogs do not catch at speed, they fail of catching in contradiction of their shape, or from some accidental circumstance.” For assuredly when greyhounds are in good condition, and of high courage, no hare can escape them; unless the country present some obstacles, either a covert to conceal her, or a hollow deep pit to break off the course, or a ditch to favour her escape while out of sight of the dogs.

To this ignorance, in my opinion, is to be attributed the length of his instructions on driving the hare into nets, and if she pass them, pursuing and recovering her by scent, till she be taken, at last, completely tired out. But he has no where said either that fleet dogs altogether supersede the necessity of a sportsman having nets, or of his hunting by scent after the hare has escaped them. Indeed he has described only the mode of hunting which is practised by the Carians and Cretans.

But such of the Celts as hunt for the beauty of the sport, and not as a means of livelihood, never make use of nets. And yet they have a variety of dog not less clever at hunting on scent than the Carian and Cretan, but in shape sorry brutes. In pursuit these give tongue with a clanging howl like the yelping Carians, but are more eager, when they catch the scent. Sometimes, indeed, they gladden so outrageously, even on a stale trail, that I have rated them for their excessive barking,—alike on every scent, whether it be of the hare going to form, or at speed. In pursuing and recovering her, when started, they are not inferior to the Carians or Cretans, save in the one point of speed.

It is good sport, if they kill but a single hare in the winter season, so much resting-time do they give her in the chase; unless, indeed, by being frightened out of her wits at the tumultuous uproar of the pack, she become an easy prey.

These dogs are called Segusians, deriving their name from a Celtic people, amongst whom, I suppose, they were first bred, and held in repute. But all that can be said about them has been anticipated by the elder Xenophon. For they manifest nothing different from others in their mode of finding, or hunting their game;—having no peculiarity, unless one were inclined to speak of their shape, which I scarce think worth while, except merely to say, that they are shaggy and ugly; and such as are most high-bred are most unsightly. So that the comparison of them to mendicants on the highways is popular with the Celts. For their voice is dolorous and pitiful; and they do not bark on scent of their game, as if eager and savage, but as if plaintively whining after it.

About these, then, I do not think any thing memorable can be written. But the swift-footed Celtic hounds are called in the Celtic tongue οὐέρτραγοι;—not deriving their name from any particular nation, like the Cretan, Carian, or Spartan dogs: but, as some of the Cretans are named διάπονοι from working hard, ἰταμαὶ from their keenness, and mongrels from their being compounded of both; so these Celts are named from their swiftness. In figure, the most high-bred are a prodigy of beauty;—their eyes, their hair, their colour, and bodily shape throughout. Such brilliancy of gloss is there about the spottiness of the parti-coloured, and in those of uniform colour such glistening over the sameness of tint, as to afford a most delightful spectacle to an amateur of coursing.

I will specify the indications of speed and good breeding in greyhounds, and by attention to what points ill-bred and slow ones may be distinguished from them.

In the first place, let them be lengthy from head to tail; for in every variety of dog, you will find, on reflection, no one point so indicative of speed and good breeding as length; and on the other hand, no such mark of slowness and degeneracy as shortness. So that I have even seen dogs with numerous other faults, that have been, on account of their length, both swift and high-couraged. And farther, the larger dogs, when in other respects equal, show higher breeding than small ones on the very score of size. But those large dogs are bad, whose limbs are unknit, and destitute of symmetry; being indeed, when so formed, worse than small dogs, with an equal share of other faults attached to them.

Your greyhounds should have light and well-articulated heads; whether hooked or flat nosed is not of much consequence: nor does it greatly matter whether the parts beneath the forehead be protuberant with muscle. They are alone bad which are heavy-headed, having thick nostrils, with a blunt instead of a pointed termination. Such then are well-headed hounds. Their eyes should be large, up-raised, clear, strikingly bright. The best look fiery, and flash like lightning, resembling those of leopards, lions, or lynxes. Next to these are black eyes, provided they are wide-open and grim-looking; and last of all, grey: nor are these to be considered bad, nor indicative of bad dogs, provided they are clear, and have a savage look.

For I have myself bred up a hound whose eyes are the greyest of the grey; a swift, hard-working, courageous, sound-footed dog, and, in his prime, a match, at any time, for four hares. He is, moreover, (for while I am writing, he is yet alive), most gentle, and kindly-affectioned; and never before had any dog such regard for myself, and friend and fellow-sportsman, Megillus. For when not actually engaged in coursing, he is never away from one or other of us. But while I am at home he remains within, by my side, accompanies me on going abroad, follows me to the gymnasium, and, while I am taking exercise, sits down by me. On my return he runs before me, often looking back to see whether I had turned any where out of the road; and as soon as he catches sight of me, showing symptoms of joy, and again trotting on before me. If I am going out on any government business, he remains with my friend, and does exactly the same towards him. He is the constant companion of whichever may be sick; and if he has not seen either of us for only a short time, he jumps up repeatedly by way of salutation, and barks with joy, as a greeting to us. At meals he pats us first with one foot and then with the other, to put us in mind that he is to have his share of food. He has also many tones of speech—more than I ever knew in any other dog—pointing out, in his own language, whatever he wants.

Having been beaten, when a puppy, with a whip, if any one, even at this day, does but mention a whip, he will come up to the speaker cowering and begging, applying his mouth to the man’s as if to kiss him, and jumping up, will hang on his neck, and not let him go until he has appeased his angry threats.