——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.
[Illustration:
- - - Tibi veloces catulos reparare memento Semper, et in parvos iterum protendere curas.
_Nemesian Cyneg V. 200._
_BRITISH MUSEUM_ ]
[Illustration: GORLÆUS.]
ARRIAN ON COURSING.
[Sidenote: +Chap. I.+ Preface.]
The advantages that accrue to mankind from hunting, and the regard of the Gods for those instructed in it by Chiron,[34] and their honourable distinction throughout Greece, have been related by Xenophon, the son of Gryllus.
[Sidenote: Summary of Xenophon’s Cynegeticus.]
He has pointed out the similitude between Cynegetical and Military science;[35] and the age, constitution, and frame of mind,[36] that essentially qualify for entering on the chase;—has given a description of purse-nets, hayes, and road-nets,[37] such as are necessary to be prepared—the mode of fixing snares for animals that may be entrapped[38]—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.
[Sidenote: Omissions therein.]
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,[39] and the Scythian and African horses,) I shall endeavour to fill up: being his namesake and fellow-citizen,[40] 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;[41] not out of rivalry with its author, but from a conviction that his labours would be useful to mankind.
[Sidenote: +Chap. II.+]
[Sidenote: Proofs of Xenophon’s ignorance of Celtic Dogs.]
In my opinion no proof is required that Xenophon was ignorant of the Celtic breed of dogs, beyond this:[42] that the nations inhabiting that district of Europe were unknown,[43] except the parts of Italy occupied by the Greeks,[44] 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.”[45] 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,[46] and if she pass them,[47] 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,[48] 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.[49]
[Sidenote: +Chap. III.+]
[Sidenote: Celtic Sagacious Hounds.]
[Sidenote: Their Qualities.]
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,[50] but in shape sorry brutes.[51] In pursuit these give tongue with a clanging howl like the yelping Carians, but are more eager, when they catch the scent.[52] 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.[53] 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.
[Sidenote: Name.]
[Sidenote: Shape, &c.]
These dogs are called Segusians,[54] deriving their name from a Celtic people, amongst whom, I suppose, they were first bred, and held in repute. But[55] 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.
[Sidenote: Celtic Swift-footed Hounds.]
[Sidenote: Vertragi.]
[Sidenote: Their Beauty.]
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;[56]—not deriving their name from any particular nation, like the Cretan, Carian, or Spartan dogs: but, as some of the Cretans are named διάπονοι[57] from working hard, ἰταμαὶ[58] 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;[59]—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.
[Sidenote: +Chap. IV.+[60]]
[Sidenote: Marks of Speed and good Blood.]
I will specify the indications of speed and good breeding in greyhounds,[61] and by attention to what points ill-bred and slow ones may be distinguished from them.
[Sidenote: Derived from Shape.]
In the first place, let them be _lengthy_ from head to tail;[62] 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,[63] 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;[64] being indeed, when so formed, worse than small dogs, with an equal share of other faults attached to them.
[Sidenote: External Character generally.]
Your greyhounds should have light and well-articulated heads;[65] whether hooked[66] or flat nosed is not of much consequence: nor does it greatly matter whether the parts beneath the forehead be protuberant with muscle.[67] 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.[68] Next to these are black eyes, provided they are wide-open and grim-looking; and last of all, grey:[69] nor are these to be considered bad, nor indicative of bad dogs, provided they are clear, and have a savage look.
[Sidenote: +Chap. V.+]
[Sidenote: Episode on Arrian’s dog Hormé.]
For I have myself bred up a hound whose eyes are the greyest of the grey;[70] a swift, hard-working, courageous, sound-footed dog, and, in his prime, a match, at any time, for four hares. He[71] is, moreover, (for while I am writing, he is yet alive), most gentle, and kindly-affectioned;[72] and never before had any dog such regard for myself, and friend and fellow-sportsman, Megillus.[73] 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,[74] 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;[75] 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;[76] 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,[77] to put us in mind that he is to have his share of food.[78] He has also many tones of speech[79]—more than I ever knew in any other dog—pointing out, in his own language, whatever he wants.