et unà Præcipites pedibus catulos habuêre sagaces,—
the names derived from Sparta and Molosse were still kept up, and prostituted in many instances on most degenerate brutes.
[Sidenote: Spelmanni Glossar. p. 113.]
With regard to the original geographical distribution of the three varieties of _bellicosi_, _sagaces_, and _celeres_, and of their respective chases,[335] the most prevalent opinion of continental writers, who have devoted their attention to the Cynegetica of Greece and Rome, is that the last mentioned originally came from Gaul, the sagacious from Greece, and the bellicose from Asia. War-dogs of pure blood are nearly extinct in the British islands, and are becoming more rare on the continent of Europe; being much crossed with the sagacious and swift-footed tribes. Vlitius, himself a Dutchman, naturally espouses the Belgic origin of the Belgic, or, more correctly speaking, the Celtic dog. Spelman, on the contrary, claims him for the honour of Britain; and, in addition, we have always deemed some sorts of _bellicosi_ and _sagaces_ indigenous of this country. Mr. Whitaker, in his History of Manchester, gives to the ancient Britons the old English hound, or talbot, as the parent stock of the celebrated sagacious hounds of our island: and it is found, by experience, that this dog degenerates in every other part of the world—a strong presumptive proof of his being indigenous of Britain. The earliest record of the greyhound allots him to Gallia; and we have no hesitation in considering him of Celtic origin, notwithstanding the offensive disclaimer of Savary of Caen—
[Sidenote: Venationis Cervinæ Leges. L. +i.+]
Gallos non hæc infamia tangit.
No exclusive national claim can be made for the pugnacious tribe, almost every nation of antiquity having had its particular variety; of which none surpassed the Britannus and Molossus, natives of regions remote from each other, unconnected, probably, in their lineage, and united alone in untameable ferocity of character.
[Sidenote: Certaine Illustrations of the Cynegeticall Poem, &c. p. 34.]
The translator of Gratius, after enumerating the various sorts of the British hound, greyhound, and mastiff, (which he calls “_indigena_, or native of England,”) observes:—“all these dogs have deserved to be famous in adjacent and remote countries, whither they are sent for great rarities, and ambitiously sought for by their lords and princes, although only the fighting dogs seem to have been known to the antient authors: and perhaps in that age hunting was not so much cultivated by our own countrymen.”
CANES VENATICI. +Class I.+
CANES BELLICOSI +or+ PUGNACES.
[Sidenote: Gratii Halieut. vs. 98.]
_Quibus est audacia præceps._
The type of this class is given by Gratius in the following lines, which must be taken as a general description, requiring some latitude in its application to individuals:[336]
[Sidenote: Gratii Cyneg. vs. 269.]
Sint celsi vultus, sint hirtæ frontibus aures, Os magnum, et patulis agitatos morsibus ignes Spirent, adstricti succingant ilia ventres, Cauda brevis, longumque latus, discretaque collo Cæsaries, non pexa nimis, non frigoris illa Impatiens: validis tum surgat pectus ab armis, Quod magnos capiat motus, magnisque supersit. Effuge, qui latâ pandit vestigia planlâ, Mollis in officio, siccis ego dura lacertis Crura velim, et solidos hæc in certamina calces.
By its side we may place its counterpart in Greek;—for, notwithstanding the Oppianic sketch has been appropriated by Bodinus to the Albanese, it certainly may be viewed in a broader light, as a picture in outline of the whole pugnacious family, without reference to individuals:
[Sidenote: Oppian. Cyneg. L. +i.+ 413.]
θοῦροι δ’ αὖθ’ ἕτεροι, τοῖσιν μενεδήϊος ἀλκὴ, ὅσσοι καὶ ταύροισιν ἐπέχραον ἠϋγενείοις, καὶ σύας ὑβριστῆρας ἐπαΐξαντες ὄλεσσαν ὅσσοι μηδὲ λέοντας ἑοὺς τρείουσιν ἄνακτας, ζατρεφέες, πρώνεσσιν ἐοικότες ἀκρολόφοισι. σιμότεροι μὲν ἔασι προσώπατα, δεινὰ δ’ ὕπερθε νεύει ἐπισκυνίοισι μεσόφρυα, καὶ πυρόεντες ὀφθαλμοὶ χαροπῇσιν ὑποστίλβοντες ὀπωπαῖς· ῥινὸς ἅπας λάσιος, κρατερὸν δέμας, εὐρέα νῶτα· κραιπνοὶ δ’ οὐ τελέθουσιν, ἀτὰρ μένος ἔνδοθι πολλὸν καὶ σθένος ἄφραστον, κραδίη καὶ θυμὸς ἀναιδής.
The introduction of a third, more recent portrait, will be justified by the chaste Latinity of Peter Angelio, and the faithful accuracy of his pen:
[Sidenote: P. Angelii Bargæi Cyneg. L. +v.+]
Ille tibi ingentes tauros aggressus, et ursos Sistat, et imposito fugientes vulnere tardet: Cui summæ pendent aures, cui laxa supernè Labra fluant, cui vultus atrox, cui maxima cervix, Obtusumque caput, pressumque ante omnia rostrum: Præterea magnique pedes, unguesque recurvi: Molle solum, sublime femen, suppressior alvus: Ipsaque rectorum longa internodia crurum: Spina duplex, pingues lumbi, color helvus,[337] honestum Pectus: et è patulis efflet qui naribus ignem, Latratu quoties sylvas implevit, et amplo Pectore conceptas subitus decurrit ad iras. Tum verò splendent oculi, collumque tumescit, Et caudam crebrò villosa in terga retorquet.
The quarry of these savage hounds consisted of animals more ferocious than their assailants—such as
[Sidenote: Gratii Halieut. vs. 73.]
Trahit in præceps non sana ferocia mentis.
Following the order of the poetical manual, to which we are indebted for our first-cited outline of the race, the Mede and Celt arrest our earliest attention, followed by the Ser, Lycaonian, Hyrcanian, Briton, Molossian, and others:
[Sidenote: Gratii Cyneg. vs. 155.]
——magna indocilis dat prælia Medus, Magnaque diversos extollit gloria Celtas.[338]
The Persian appears to have been a connecting link between the pugnacious and sagacious classes, though his neighbours of Media and Hyrcania were a purely savage breed. The Persian was a mongrel variety—
[Sidenote: Ejusd. vs. 158.]
Perses in utroque paratus.
[Sidenote: De Naturâ Animal. L. +iii.+ c. +ii.+]
The character of the “indocilis Medus” we may infer from Ælian’s description, already cited, of the men and horses of the country—which at the conclusion he also extends to the dogs—ταῦτά τοι καὶ περὶ τῶν κυνῶν ἔπεισι νοεῖν μοι. The latter were fierce, impetuous, and of great size.
There is evidently no connexion between the Celtæ of Gratius and κύνες Κελτικαὶ of Arrian, though deriving their name from the same source, and seemingly of the same country. The former were originally perhaps the only varieties of the canine species inmates of the kennels of Gaul,
[Sidenote: Savary Venat. Cervin. Leges. L. +i.+]
Gallia cùm pridem coleret devota Dianam,
the sagacious and swift-footed hounds being subsequently admitted therein;—but not until the older mode of hunting ferocious animals with savage dogs had fallen into disrepute, from the superior attraction of the improved style; or into disuse, from the gradual extirpation of beasts of prey. As the latter disappeared, or were driven into remote fastnesses, we may suppose the more timid and fugacious creatures supplied their place; and, multiplying in the ratio of the others’ diminution, afforded abundant quarry to the Vertragus, and the archetype of the _chien courant_ of modern France.
How beautifully are the more innoxious sports of sylvan life, and superior claims of the hare and deer hunt, touched by Ovid in the fable of Venus and Adonis. The goddess of love turns huntress:
[Sidenote: Ovid. Metam. L. +x.+ 537.]
Per juga, per sylvas, dumosaque saxa vagatur Nuda genu, vestem ritu succincta Dianæ: Hortaturque canes; tutæque animalia prædæ, Aut pronos lepores, aut celsum in cornua cervum, Aut agitat damas; à fortibus abstinet apris. Raptoresque lupos, armatosque unguibus ursos Vitat, et armenti saturatos cæde leones. Te quoque, ut hos timeas (si quid prodesse monendo Possit) Adoni, monet. ‘Fortisque fugacibus esto,’ Inquit; ‘in audaces non est audacia tuta. Parce meo, juvenis, temerarius esse perîclo. Neve feras, quibus arma dedit natura, lacesse; Stet mihi ne magno tua gloria. Non movet ætas, Nec facies, nec quæ Venerem movêre, leones Setigerosque sues, oculosque animosque ferarum. Fulmen habent acres in aduncis dentibus apri; Impetus est fulvis et vasta leonibus ira.’
No wonder that the Celtic people by degrees discontinued the warlike chase, fraught with innumerable perils, and substituted the harmless pursuit of fugacious quarry, with keen-scented and swift-footed hounds, according to the injunctions of the meretricious queen to her disobedient “sweete boy;”
[Sidenote: Sir A. Golding Ovid’s Metam. B. 10.]
Pursuing game of hurtlesse sort, as hares made lowe before, Or stagges with lofty heades, or buckes;—
which, in the days of Arrian, constituted their principal field sport.
[Sidenote: Strabo L. +iv.+ p. 138.]
[Sidenote: L. +viii.+ c. 40. ex Vlitii Emend.]
Julius Pollux, in his Onomasticon, mentions the Celtic war-dogs, and Oppian also includes Κελτοὶ in the muster-roll of his first cynegetic.[339] It is probable that they were a-kin to those of ancient Britain; for we are told by Strabo, who lived soon after Gratius, that the exports from this island to Gaul consisted of δέρματα, καὶ ἀνδράποδα, καὶ κύνες εὐφυεῖς πρὸς τὰς κυνηγεσίας. Κελτοὶ δὲ καὶ πρὸς τοὺς πολέμους χρῶνται, καὶ τούτοις, καὶ τοῖς ἐπιχωρίοις. Whence it appears that the Celts had native Canes Venatici which they employed in war,[340] as well as those imported from Britain.[341] In this adaptation of canine ferocity the Celtæ were not peculiar; but as dogs, thus applied, can scarce be considered in their sporting character, it is unnecessary to multiply citations. Let the few instances hereafter adduced suffice on this head. Whether these Celtic dogs are the Gallic hybrids of the natural historian I cannot say: “hoc idem,” says Pliny, “è lupis Galli, quorum greges suum quisque ductorem è canibus et Lyciscam habent. Illum in venatu comitantur, illi parent. Namque inter se exercent etiam magisteria.” There were whole packs of these dogs in every chase or forest, “that had for their leader some particular demi-wolf, which the rest accompanied in hunting, obeyed, and were directed by; keeping an order among themselves of government and mastership.”