of the lynx,
[Sidenote: Cyneg. +iii.+ v. 90.]
βλεφάροισιν ἀπ’ ὀφθαλμῶν ἀμαρυγαὶ ἱμερόεν στράπτουσι.
[69]
[Sidenote: =Mayster of Game=, c. +xv.+ fol. 66.]
Xenophon de Venat. c. +iii.+ condemns blink-eyed and grey-eyed hounds as bad and unsightly, αἰσχραὶ ὁρᾶσθαι: but Oppian particularly specifies blue eyes as preferable to all others; and I have known many azure-eyed dogs of great merit. The darker the eye, however, the better. “Her eynne shuld be,” according to De Langley, “reed or blak as of a sphauke:”—“full and clear, with long eye-lids,” according to Markham. The reader of Anacreon will understand the sort of eye admired in the greyhound, from the
[Sidenote: Anacreon. Od. +xxix.+]
μέλαν ὄμμα γοργὸν ἔστω κεκερασμένον γαλήνῃ—
of the 29th Ode; and at the same time, perhaps, smile at the quotation.
[70] The early part of this chapter, devoted to the portraiture of the author’s beloved Hormé, interrupts his general description of the greyhound’s shape, which he again resumes after gratifying his personal feelings in an affectionate interlude of canine biography; ostensibly introduced to prove that a blue-eyed hound (κύνα χαροπὴν, οἵαν χαροπωτάτην) may possess all the essential excellencies of his race.
[71]
[Sidenote: Stephani Schediasm. L. +iv.+]
[Sidenote: Eustath. ad Il. H. p. 692.]
I have taken the liberty of changing the sex of this favourite dog, according to the example of Holsten; because I think it probable that Arrian may have used the feminine gender here, and generally through the treatise, not from the animal spoken of having been really of that sex, but from its being usual with Xenophon and other classic authors to employ the feminine gender when speaking of the dogs of the chase. Indeed, it has been remarked by Eustathius and others, that such was the custom of the ancient Greek writers, whenever they spoke of any kind of animals collectively. But Arrian does not apply the feminine gender to dogs _gregatim_ only, but also individually: and the same prevalence of this gender is also observable in the Latin poets. It must be confessed, however, that the name Hormé (Angl. _Rush_) is more applicable to a bitch than a dog.
[72]
[Sidenote: Chronique de Froissart, and note to Johnnes’s Transl. V. +iv.+ 657.]
It is generally believed that greyhounds have very weak attachments; and the fickle companions of Charles de Blois and of Richard II. favour such an opinion. But against these well-known examples of canine infidelity, we may place others of extraordinary attachment to their lords; at the head of which let Hormé stand, πρᾳοτάτη καὶ φιλανθρωποτάτη, the beloved and affectionate hound of the founder of the leash:
[Sidenote: Natalis Comes de Venat. L. +i.+]
Possem multa canum variorum exempla referre, Ni pigeat studium parvarum noscere rerum.
[Sidenote: =Mayster of Game=, c. +xii.+ fol. 47-49.]
To the tales of inviolable attachment recorded by the royal pen of Edmund Duke of York, of “the greihounde boothe good and faire of Kyng Apollo of Lyonnys,” and the “wel good and faire greihounde that was Aubries of Mondidert,” the reader is referred for farther examples; nor should he forget the martyr Charles’s dying eulogy of the Celtic hound.
Vide J. C. Scaliger de Subtil. ad Card. Exerc. +ccii.+ the last of the Historiæ Duæ Nobilissimæ;, sect. 6.
[73]
[Sidenote: Cicero de Naturâ Deor.]
“Amans dominorum adulatio.”
——nulla homini magè prodiga grati Officii quadrupes, dominisque fidelior ipsis!
says the kind-hearted poet of Venusium: and again,
[Sidenote: J. Darcii Venusini Canes.]
Usque sequetur ovans, tua nec vestigia quoquam Deseret, at lateri semper comes ibit herili. Sistis iter? sistit—properas? velociùs Euro Scindit in obliquum campos, &c.
[74] The following lines from a canine epitaph, “De Mopso fidissimo cane,” are not inapposite:
[Sidenote: Septem Illust. Vir. Poëmata Amst. 1672.]
Custos assiduus domi forisque Nostri principis, et comes fidelis: Equo seu fuit ire, sive curru, Seu tritâ pedibus viâ voluptas. Hinc me carior haud erat; nec alter Posthac est aliis futurus annis Me carus magis, aut magis peritus Blandiri domino, &c.
[75] Ἐπανίοντος πρόεισι, θαμινὰ ἐπιστρεφομένη, κ. τ. λ.
[Sidenote: J. Darcii Venusini Canes.]
——si post terga relinquas, (Nam dominum crebrò aspiciens observat euntem) Ille moram cursu pensat, viden’ ecce repentè A tergo ut vultuque hilaris blanditur amico, &c.
[76]
[Sidenote: Vanierii Præd. Rustic. L. +iv.+]
——fidas ad limina custos Excubias agit, et nutus observat heriles; Ut quò jussa vocant velocior advolet: idem Nunc hilari congaudet hero, nunc _tristior ægro Assidet_.
[77] So Calpurnius of the pet stag:
[Sidenote: Eclog. +vi.+ 35.]
——sequiturque vocantem Credulus, et mensæ non improba porrigit ora.
[78] The ancients cleansed their hands with the soft crumb of bread after meals, and threw it to their dogs. These pieces of bread were called ἀπομαγδαλίαι: the μειλίγματα of the Homeric simile:
[Sidenote: Homer. Odyss. +x.+ 216.]
ὡς δ’ ὅταν ἀμφὶ ἄνακτα κύνες δαίτηθεν ἰόντα σαίνωσ’, (αἰεὶ γάρ τε φέρει μειλίγματα θυμοῦ).
Hence probably Juvenal’s “sordes farris mordere canini.”
[79] Πολύφθογγος.
[Sidenote: Martial. Issa Publii.]
Hanc tu si queritur, _loqui_ putabis. Sentit tristitiamque gaudiumque.
[Sidenote: Anyta Epidauria.]
Did Hormé’s “verba canina” (Ovid, in Ibin) extend to the imitation of spoken language, as in the memorable case of M. Leibnitz’s dog, recorded by him (“témoin oculaire”) in the Hist. de l’Acad. Royale des Sciences, ann. 1715? or are we to understand that this most musical of hounds, φιλοφθόγγων ὠκυτάτη σκυλάκων, only “gave tongue,” like his congeners, with various intonations of bark?
[Sidenote: Apollon. Rhod. L. +iii.+ 1216.]
ὀξειῇ ὑλακῇ χθόνιοι κύνες ἐφθέγγοντο—
making up by intelligence, and significancy of action, for deficiency of speech:
[Sidenote: Nonni Dionysiac. L. +xvi.+]
εἰσὶ καὶ ἐν σκυλάκεσσιν ἐχέφρονες, οἷσι Κρονίων ἀνδρομέην φρένα δῶκε καὶ οὐ βροτέην πόρε φωνήν.
[Sidenote: Andreas Naugerius, Carm. +v.+ Illustr. Poetar.]
Nunc blandè assiliebat hùc et illùc Ludens, atque avido appetebat ore. Erectis modo cruribus, bipesque Mense adstabat herili, heroque ab ipso Latratu tenero cibum petebat.
[80] Ὑποπτήξασα λιπαρεῖ—
[Sidenote: The Chace. B. +i.+]
The fawning hound Salutes thee cow’ring.
[Sidenote: Lucretius. L. +v.+ 1071.]
Plorantes fugiunt summisso corpore plagas.
[81]
[Sidenote: Buffon, H. N. Le Chien.]
“Plus sensible au souvenir des bienfaits qu’à celui des outrages, il ne se rebute pas par les mauvais traitemens, il les subit, les oublie, ou ne s’en souvient que pour s’attacher davantage; loin de s’irriter ou de fuir, il lèche cette main, instrument de douleur, qui vient de le frapper; il ne lui oppose que la plainte, et la désarme enfin par la patience et la soumission.”
[82] Σοφωτάτη. Plato also has κύων σοφωτάτος.
[83] Ἱεροτάτη—“holiest;” Encycl. Metropol., article “Hunting.” It is scarcely possible to express this epithet in English. Zeune’s Index Græcitatis gives “præstantissima.” I do not like Mr. Smedley’s translation, E. M.; and yet I cannot suggest a better in its place than that of the version. A coursing friend substitutes “perfectly divine.”
[84] He now returns from his beautiful episode on Hormé to the physical indications of excellence in greyhounds generally. The _conque_ of the ear is semi-pendulous, and yet the greyhound has the power of elevating it with as much ease as the less reclaimed varieties of dog. This particular structure gives the appearance, noticed in the text, of the ear being broken; and also adds to its seeming magnitude.
[85] The modern courser prefers the small ears of the Oppianic hound,
[Sidenote: Oppian. Cyneg. +i.+ +v.+ 403.]
βαιὰ δ’ ὕπερθεν οὔατα λεπταλέοισι περιστέλλοινθ’ ὑμένεσσι:
[Sidenote: =Chap.= +xv.+ =fol.= 66.]
and excludes the pricked ear, the “rectæ aures” of Fracastor. Albertus recommends “aures acutæ retrorsùm directæ, et parvæ:” the Mayster of Game, “the eerys smal and hie in the maner of a serpent:” Gervase Markham, “a sharp ear, short, and close-falling:” but the most correct notion of the ears of a perfect greyhound is imparted in the line
[Sidenote: Nemesian. Cyneget. 113.]
Cuique nimis molles fluitent in cursibus aures—
of the Carthaginian poet.
[86]
[Sidenote: Oppian. Cyneg. +i.+ 405.]
δειρὴ μηκεδανὴ, καὶ στήθεα νέρθε κραταιὰ, εὐρέα.
[Sidenote: =Mayster of Game.= c. +xv.+ fol. 66.]
[Sidenote: Belisar. Aquiv. Aragoneus de Venatione.]
[Sidenote: Booke of Hawkyng, &c.]
On the necessity of a long neck all the Cynegetica, ancient and modern, are agreed; but there is a difference of opinion on the formation of the chest. “The neke,” according to De Langley, should be “grete and longe, bowed as a swannes nek.” “Pectore acuto,” says Belisarius, “costis inferiùs longis, et ad ima paululùm trahentibus: præcordiis lateribusque ita amplis, ut sine difficultate canes spiritum trahant. Nam quò facilior respiratio fuerit, tantò expeditiores ad cursum erunt.” Albertus agrees with him in all points of importance. Juliana’s portrait is “neckyd lyke a drake:” Markham’s, “a long neck, a little bending, with a loose hanging wezand; a broad breast, straight fore-legs, and side-hollow ribs.”