The noisy bark of the Etolian breed Gratius contrasts with the mute cunning of its neighbour of Acarnania, already considered in the first class:[382]
[Sidenote: Cyneg. vs. 186.]
At clangore citat, quos nondum conspicit, apros Ætolâ quæcunque canis de stirpe (malignum Officium) sive illa metus convicia rupit, Seu frustra nimius properat furor. Et tamen illud Ne vanum totas genus aspernere per artes, Mirum quàm celeres, et quantum nare merentur: Tum non est victi cui concessêre labori.
Too much addicted to _gladdening_, when near the lair of his game, the Etolian is not admitted into the class of Canes Bellicosi, whose general character was closeness till the game was started; at which time a _cry_, however loud, was not objected to by classic huntsmen,—but the dog, that roused the game by giving tongue beforehand, was strongly reprobated. Such was the faulty dog of Calydon, who needed all his other better qualities to counterbalance this latrant propensity. That he had some valuable properties Gratius allows, and recommends them to be turned to account by judicious commixture with the mute Molossian’s blood:
[Sidenote: Cynegeticus vs. 106.]
vanæ tantum Calydonia linguæ Exibit vitium patre emendata Molosso.[383]
In consequence of the common Canes Venatici giving tongue or _opening_, before the game was roused, it was customary with classic sportsmen to employ Inductores, mute finders, “canes tacitæ,” (Senecæ Hippolyt.,) to search out the quarry by the trail;[384]
[Sidenote: Sir W. Davenant, Cant. +ii.+ stanza 30.]
Dogs such whose cold secrecy was meant By nature for surprise— Wise temperate limehounds, that proclaim no scent, Nor harb’ring will their mouths in boasting spend.
[Sidenote: Wase, p. 79.]
These are the Metagontes of the Faliscian poet—so called from “drawing after their game”—μετάγοντες:
[Sidenote: Gratii Cyneg. vs. 207.]
maturo pressantes gaudia lusu Dissimulare feras tacitique accedere possent.
Steadiness and a _close_ mouth are essential attributes of the limehound tribe.[385] Gratius, Lucan, Seneca, Ælian, and others, insist on silence. And Oppian, seemingly forgetful of this negative quality in the Armenian bear-hound, (whom I consider a limehound,) inculcates _closeness_ in sagacious dogs, generally, from their very puppyhood;
[Sidenote: Oppian. Cyneg. L. +i.+ 448.]
μηδ’ ὑλάειν ἐθέλοιεν, ἐπεὶ μάλα θηρευτῆρσι σιγὴ τέθμιός ἐστι, πανέξοχα δ’ ἰχνευτῆρσιν.
They are to be taught it with their names, and other matters of kennel discipline.
The _limiers_ of classical antiquity, more numerous perhaps than the reader may suppose, are found widely distributed. We gather traces of them in Homer, Lucretius, Virgil, Pliny, Gratius, Ælian, Seneca, Nemesian, Oppian, Silius Italicus, and others. The Belgic hound of the poet of the Second Punic War is certainly an _inductor_ or _limier_:
[Sidenote: Silii Italici de 2^{do} B. P. L. +x.+ vs. 77.]
Ut canis ocultos agitat quum Belgicus apros, Erroresque feræ sollers per devia mersâ Nare legit, _tacitoque_ premens vestigia _rostro_ Lustrat inaccessos venantum indagine saltus: Nec sistit, nisi conceptum sectatus odorem, Deprendit spissis arcana cubilia dumis.
And it strikes me, that the Gelonian and Umbrian of Gratius, the Tuscan of Nemesian, and the Armenian bear-hound of Oppian, are all varieties of limehound. Of the Metagon, already mentioned, there can be no doubt—he is clearly of the class described by the Greek poet of the Halieutics:
[Sidenote: Oppian. Hal. L. +i.+ 18.]
σκύλακες δὲ συνέμποροι ἡγεμονῆες κνώδαλα σημαίνουσι, καὶ ἰθύνουσιν ἄνακτας εὐνὴν εἰς αὐτὴν—
The Homeric inductors occur in the boar-hunt of Mount Parnassus, in the van of which Ulysses, οὐτάμεναι μεμαὼς, distinguishes himself, with the sons of Autolycus:
[Sidenote: Odyss. L. +xix.+ 435.]
οἱ δ’ ἐς βῆσσαν ἵκανον ἐπακτῆρες· πρὸ δ’ ἄρ’ αὐτῶν ἴχνη ἐρευνῶντες κύνες ἤϊσαν,[386] κ. τ. λ.
and the abstract phraseology of Lucretius affords a second early notice of them:
[Sidenote: De Rerum Naturâ L. +iv.+ 684.]
tum fissa ferarum Ungula quo tulerit gressum, præmissa canum vis Ducit.
The first limehound in the annals of sporting was Glympicus, tutored in the art of _harbouring_ by the Bœotian Hagnon, a huntsman immortalized by Gratius:
[Sidenote: Gratii Cyneg. vs. 213.]
Sed primum celsâ lorum cervice ferentem, Glympice, te silvis egit Bœotius Hagnon, Hagnon Astylides, Hagnon, quem plurima semper Gratia per nostros unum testabitur usus. Hic trepidas artes et vix novitate sedentes Vidit, quà propior patuit via: nec sibi turbam Contraxit comitem, nec vasa tenentia longè. Unus præsidium, atque operi spes magna petito, Assumptus Metagon lustrat per nota ferarum Pascua, per fontes, per quas trivêre latebras, Primæ lucis opus: tum signa vapore ferino Intemerata legens, si qua est, qua fallitur, ejus Turba loci, majore secat spatia extera gyro. Atque hic egressu jam tum sine fraude reperto Incubuit spatiis, qualis permissa Lechæis Thessalium quadriga decus, quam gloria patrum Excitat, et primæ spes ambitiosa coronæ. Sed ne qua ex nimio redeat jactura favore, Lex dicta officiis: ne voce lacesseret hostem, Neve levem prædam, aut propioris pignora lucri Amplexus, primos nequicquam effunderet actus. Jam vero impensum melior fortuna laborem Quum sequitur, juxtaque domus quæsita ferarum, Ut sciat, occultos et signis arguat hostes: Aut effecta levi testatur gaudia caudâ, Aut ipsa infodiens uncis vestigia plantis Mandit humum, celsasve apprensat naribus auras. Et tamen, ut ne prima faventem pignora fallant, Circa omnem, aspretis medius qua clauditur orbis, Ferre pedem, accessusque, abitusque, notâsse ferarum Admonet, et, si forte loci spes prima fefellit, (Rarum opus) incubuit spatiis ad prospera versis, Intacto repetens prima ad vestigia gyro.
[Sidenote: Hist. Nat. L. +viii.+ c. +xl.+]
[Sidenote: De Naturâ Animalium L. +viii.+ c. +ii.+]
We here see the limier’s style of _harbouring_ portrayed to the life—falling on the trail—coming to a fault—recovering the scent—and following it up to the lair. The _harbourer_ of more modern days is the _inquisitor_ of Pliny’s short sketch; “Scrutatur vestigia atque persequitur, comitantem ad feram inquisitorem loro trahens: quâ visâ quàm silens et occulta, quàm significans demonstratio est!” But of all descriptions in the range of classical literature the most exquisitively beautiful is Ælian’s—no painter can surpass this graphic hunting-piece:—προηγεῖται τοῦ κυνηγέτου (ὁ κύων ὁ θηρατικὸς) ἱμάντι μακρῷ προσημμένος, καὶ ῥινηλατεῖ, τῆς φωνῆς ἔχων ἐγκρατῶς καἰ σιωπῶν, κ. τ. λ. The hound’s busy manner,—his steady search, even where there is no game,—his burst of silent joy at catching a scent,—his salutation of the harbourer as if sympathizing in his glee at being successful,—his drawing on up to the boar’s couch,—the start—and final pæan of exultation and victory, are all described in masterly style.
The Gelonian breed is very cursorily mentioned by Gratius, as timid and sagacious;
Arma negant contrà, martemque odêre Geloni, Sed natura sagax....
and is recommended to be crossed with the tigrine Hyrcanian; whence spiritless Gelonian bitches have derived that courage and pluck, of which they stood in need:
[Sidenote: Gratii Cyneg. vs. 195.]
traxêre animos de patre Gelonæ Hyrcano.
The Umbrian had much of the Gelonian character—timorous and _soft_—but remarkably keen of nose. Wishing to incorporate every good quality in the same mongrel breed, Gratius ejaculates—
[Sidenote: Gratii Cyneg. vs. 171.]
At fugit adversos idem quos reperit hostes Umber.[387] Quanta fides, utinam et solertia naris, Tanta foret virtus, et tantum vellet in armis!
Silius Italicus notes the sagacity of the Umber, and seems to indicate his _closeness_ of mouth in the contrasted barking of the Spartan,
[Sidenote: Silii Ital. de 2^{do} Bello Punico L. +iii.+]
Ceu pernix cum densa vagis latratibus implet Venator dumeta Lacon, aut exigit Umber Nare sagax è calle feras perterrita latè Agmina præcipitant volucres formidine cervi.
But his habits are most vividly sketched in an elegant simile of Seneca’s Thyestes, where Atreus, exulting in his artful entrapping of his brother, (as a wild beast enveloped in the hunter’s toils—plagis.....clusa dispositis fera,—) exclaims in a strain of ill-dissembled self-gratulation,
[Sidenote: Senecæ Thyestes. Act. +iii.+ 493.]
venit in nostras manus Tandem Thyestes; venit, et totus quidem. Vix tempero animo, vix dolor frenos capit: Sic, cum feras vestigat, et longo sagax Loro tenetur Umber, ac _presso_ vias Scrutatur _ore_; dum procul lento suem Odore sentit, paret, et _tacito_ locum _Rostro_ pererrat: præda cum propior fuit; Cervice totâ pugnat, et gestu vocat Dominum morantem, seque retinenti eripit.