Insula quos gignit septem vicina trioni, Terra canum laudata fide, damnata virorum Perfidiâ, Regisque sui execranda cruore, &c.
He is also mentioned by Angelinus Gazæus—see the Lagographia Curiosa of Paullini. Of the Greek portrait of Arrian we shall presently speak, under the Segusian dog.
[Sidenote: Countrey Contentments, B. +i.+ c. +iv.+ 14.]
It is to Gervase Markham, our “English master of economical philosophy,” as Wase calls him, that we are indebted for the fullest description of “the little beagle, which may be carried in a man’s glove;”—“bred,” says Gervase, “for delight only, being of curious scents, and passing cunning in their hunting, for the most part tiring, but seldome killing the prey, except at some strange advantage.” “Their musicke is very smalle, like reeds, and their pace like their body, onely for exercise, and not for slaughter.”
[Sidenote: Animadvers. in Oppian. Cyneg. +i.+ 373.]
The Segusian dog mentioned by Arrian, in the third chapter of his Treatise on Coursing, as a sorry brute, quick-scented, with a pitiful and dolorous whine, instead of bark—rough and unsightly, and the more high-bred the more ugly—I believe to be identical with the last variety. The Bithynian has devoted an entire chapter of his entertaining and original manual to a description of the Ἑγουσίαι κύνες: whose name, he tells us, is derived from a Celtic people,[406] amongst whom they were first bred, and held in repute for their nasal sagacity. For a full description of these smaller hounds of Gaul, the reader is referred to the cited chapter; and attached to my translation of the same, he will find a few illustrative notes. The remarks of Belin de Ballu, in his Animadversiones in Oppianum, show strange misapprehension of the ancient distinctions in the Celtic kennels. The _chiens courans_ of modern France are not the οὐέρτραγοι κύνες of the younger Xenophon; nor are the latter’s Ἑγουσίαι the “genus canum, quorum pili instar velleris ovium crispantur,” as incorrectly stated by this most learned editor of the Greek poet of the chase. The Segusians are rather the _bigles_ of the present day—perhaps the _bassets_, a small variety of terrier-beagle, used in rabbit-hunting.[407]
CANES VENATICI. +Class III.+
CANES CELERES.
[Sidenote: Claudian. de laud. Stilicon. L. +iii.+]
_Hæ pedibus celeres._
This class,[408] by far the least numerous of the three, contains only the Vertragus or Vertraha,[409] and possibly the Sicamber;—of the latter of whom I have nothing to communicate—being neither mentioned by Xenophon, Pollux, Oppian, nor Nemesian. If he be, as has been supposed, a Belgic hound, he cannot be the boar-hound of Silius Italicus, without losing his claim to admission on our present file. No Canis Venaticus can be enrolled here, who runs otherwise than on _sight_ of his game;—it is his characteristic property—[410]
[Sidenote: Gratii Cyneget. vs. 205.]
premit inventas, non inventura latentes Illa feras.
and therefore the Belgian—Canis _occultos_ agitat cum Belgicus apros—must be banished from hence to the sagacious class: amongst the inductores of which division, I have already placed him as a lime-hound.
The best description of the type of the present class will be found in the copious Manual of Arrian, c. +iv.+ +v.+ and +vi.+—introduced by the memorable summary at the conclusion of c. +iii.+—τὴν δὲ ἰδέαν, καλόν τι χρῆμά εἰσι, κατά τε τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς αἱ γενναιόταται αὐτῶν καὶ κατὰ τὸ σῶμα ἅπαν καὶ τὴν τρίχα καὶ τὴν χρόαν· οὕτω ταῖς τε ποικίλαις ἐπανθεῖ τὸ ποικίλον, καὶ ὅσαις ἁπλῆ ἡ χρόα ἐστὶν ἀποστίλβει καὶ αὕτη, καί ἐστιν ἥδιστον θέαμα ἀνδρὶ θηρευτικῷ. And the following of Nemesian, who may be designated the poet of the _pedibus celeres_, as Gratius of the _bellicosi_, is correct as far as it goes;
[Sidenote: Nemesian. Cyneget. vs. 106.]
Elige tunc cursu facilem, facilemque recursu, Non humili de gente canem. Sit cruribus altis, Sit rigidis, multamque gerat sub pectore lato Costarum sub fine decenter prona carinam, Quæ sensim rursùs siccâ se colligat alvo, Renibus ampla satis vadis, diductaque coxas, Cuique nimis molles fluitent in cursibus aures.
Nor must I omit the beautiful and minutely faithful portrait of the Greek poet of Anazarbus, though aware that it has been appropriated to a variety of the _nare sagaces_, and that Rittershusius does not allude to any supposed resemblance to the Celtic dog in his commentary on Oppian. Bearing in mind, however, that this erudite scholar had only the writings of Xenophon and Pollux, and the scanty lines of the Faliscian and African poets, to aid his attempt to give name and place to a doubtful animal;—had no authorities to consult, particularly dedicated to the _pedibus celeres_ in opposition to the _nare sagaces_, to whose cause, and that of the _bellicosi_, the Greek Cynegetica were exclusively, and the Latin principally confined, (for the treatise of Arrian was at that period undiscovered in the Vatican,)—and therefore could not assimilate the Oppianic hound to the Celtic type;—I am not at all surprised that he has left this resemblance unnoticed. Subsequent commentators following in his footsteps, the Celtic dog has been as entirely disregarded on Oppian’s page, as if he had been never admitted on his muster-roll. The courser, I am confident, will recognize many of the features, as well as the wonted quarry, of his favourite hound, in the following extract;—which, if it cannot be exclusively appropriated to the Vertragus of Celtica, will assuredly admit only the swiftest of the sagacious class to a participation of its type:
[Sidenote: Oppian. Cyneget. +i.+ vs. 401.]
μηκεδανὸν κρατερὸν δέμας, ἄρκιον ἠδὲ κάρηνον, κοῦφον ἐΰγληνον, κυαναὶ στίλβοιεν ὀπωπαί· κάρχαρον, ἐκτάδιον τελέθοι στόμα, βαιὰ δ’ ὕπερθεν οὔατα λεπταλέοισι περιστέλλοινθ’ ὑμένεσσι· δειρὴ μηκεδανὴ, καὶ στήθεα νέρθε κραταιὰ, εὐρέα· τὼ πρόσθεν δέ τ’ ὀλιζοτέρω πόδε ἔστων, ὀρθοτενεῖς κώλων ταναοὶ δολιχήρεες ἱστοὶ, εὐρέες ὠμοπλάται, πλευρῶν ἐπικάρσια ταρσὰ, ὀσφύες εὔσαρκοι, μὴ πίονες· αὐτὰρ ὄπισθε στριφνή τ’ ἐκτάδιός τε πέλοι δολιχόσκιος οὐρή. τοῖοι μὲν ταναοῖσιν ἐφοπλίζοιντο δρόμοισι δόρκοις, ἠδ’ ἐλάφοισιν, ἀελλόποδί τε λαγωῷ.
The advocate of the Celtic hound may allege, in support of his interpretation, that such ancient dogs as ran on scent were more or less long-eared,[411]—being so represented on the monuments of antiquity;—and may ask how the small ears of Oppian’s dog, if interpreted of the sagacious class, are to be reconciled with the representations of Tempesta, Montfaucon, and others, and the down-hanging ears of modern Canes Venatici of the keen-nosed class? Again—as the Cilician was a perfect adept at versifying with the materials furnished by his predecessors, and certainly made the best use of their labours, is it not improbable that he should have altogether omitted the Celtic greyhound, so faithfully portrayed by the younger Xenophon, (with whose description that of the poet in no essential point differs,) and have mentioned _two_ varieties of sagaces and _one_ of bellicosi, to the entire neglect of the Vertragus type?
The deficiencies, if any, of his classical predecessors have been judiciously and tastefully supplied by the elaborate pen of Bargæus:
[Sidenote: P. A. Bargæi Cyneget. L. +v.+]
Sin autem tete oblectant, qui præmia cursu Certa petunt, celerique fugâ lata æquora verrunt: Elige quos vultus tristes, demissaque cervix Ornat, et argutum supra stant lumina rostrum Nigra quidem, sed quæ multo splendore coruscant. Ollis os ingens ad tempora penè dehiscit, Lataque frons tenues consurgere suspicit aures. Ac veluti coluber frigus perpessus in altis Terrarum latebris hyemes effugit aquosas, Moxque adeò sub vere novo jam sole calente Exiit, et multo se suscitat improbus æstu, Ac si fortè aliquem propiùs persensit euntem, Explicat immensos orbes, atque arduus effert Cervicem, et rigido summum capite aëra findit. Vergat humi propior stomachus, latèque patescat Pectus: et haud longis insistant cruribus armi Sublimes: tum prona suis extantia costis Et latera, et lumbis quà jungitur alvus obesis, Pressa animis calidum ostendant, et viribus acrem. Præcipuè clunes inter si stricta supremos Ilia demittant caudam, quæ currat ad imum Tenuis, ubi extremâ vix tandem in parte residat: Et parvum sese sinuans deflectat in orbem. At verò tereti pronat vestigia plantâ, Quæ spatiis digitos nusquam discludat apertis, Et multùm solidos paulatim curvet in ungues. Lælapis haud aliam formam mirata vetustas Esse refert, &c.
Let the κύων Κελτικὸς of Arrian be the classic prototype of the modern greyhound—the Canis Gallicus of Ovid[412]—whose style of coursing is sketched to the life in the well-known, and often-cited simile;
[Sidenote: Ovid. Metam. L. +i.+ vs. 533.]
Ut 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.