[Sidenote: H. in Dian. v. 17. De Canibus et Venatione Libellus.]
[Sidenote: Hist. of Inventions.]
The θοαὶ κύνες were certainly clothed in parti-coloured habiliments in the age of Blondus, and their feet were also protected with shoes: “Canibus venaticis dorsum integunt pannis diversorum colorum, adversus frigoris injuriam, præcipuè leporariis; et pedibus adhibent calceamenta, quò faciliùs illæsi cursum exerceant.” Beckman states that the dogs of Kamschatka are furnished with shoes, so ingeniously made, that their claws project through small apertures—a plausible contrivance for heavy dogs of draught; but how a greyhound is to exhibit his speed on the coursing plain with such incumbrances, I know not.
[124] Arrian recommends confinement for full-grown dogs; but we must not suppose that the same treatment is suited to puppies. They, on the contrary, should have their entire liberty, as Nemesian remarks:
[Sidenote: Cyneget. v. 172.]
Sed neque conclusos teneas, neque vincula collo Impatiens circumdederis, noceasque futuris Cursibus imprudens.
This freedom from restraint is to be continued until they are eight months old, when they should be put into couples, and habituated to confinement:
[Sidenote: Cyneget. v. 184.]
Libera tunc primùm consuescant colla ligari, Concordes et ferre gradus, clausique teneri.
The whole of this department of kennel discipline is elegantly explained by the classic poet of Barga:
[Sidenote: Petr. Angel. Bargæi Cyneget. L. +v.+]
Ergo age duro Assuescant victu catuli, imperioque magistri Unius addiscant parere, atque unius omnes Nutus observare, et jussa facessere læti, Collaque præduris ultrò præbere capistris, Cum primùm teneros artus duraverit ætas, Et se jam sua per vestigia volverit annus. Antè autem cave imprudens concluseris usquam Aut loris vinctum, aut angusti pariete septi. Namque urent tenerum circumdata vincula collum, Impatiensque moræ sese conatibus anget: Ostiaque arrodens denteis obtundet, et ungues.
[Sidenote: Blondus de Canibus &c. Libellus.]
“Dùm non venatur, loris in stabulo vinciendus est; et siccis potiùs eduliis alendus quàm pinguibus jusculentis: hæc enim graviorem reddunt. Educendus tamen nonnunquam est è stabulo vinctus, in vicos tantùm, ut excrementis se exoneret promptiùs; mox iterum coercendus usque ad tempus venationis.”
“Now for the kennelling of greyhounds,” says Gervase Markham, “it is a right necessary action and must be performed with all diligence; for it breeds in the dog lust, spirit, and nimbleness, prevents divers mischances, and keeps the powers from spending till time of necessity: and therefore you shall by no means suffer your dog to be out of the kennel, but in the hours of feeding, walking, coursing, or when you have other necessary business to do about him.” But Arrian means more than mere confinement within the walls of a kennel by the term δεδέσθαι.
The greyhounds are to be actually fastened with a collar and strap or chain; and such, I am informed, is the customary restraint of the boar-hound of continental Europe. The dogs are chained along the walls of their kennel equidistant from each other, a row on each side of the sleeping-room.
A celebrated modern courser adheres very strictly to the system of restraint alternated with exercise, as recommended in this chapter, and appears to have found it conducive to his success at public meetings. Vide Sport. Mag. Vol. 71. p. 256.—Hounds accustomed to such privation of liberty, are said to start from the slips with great fire and speed:
[Sidenote: Fracastorii Alcon.]
Ita demùm libera colla, Cum res ipsa, ususque vocat, majore feruntur Impete.
[Sidenote: p. 41.]
According to the old proverb, cited by Rittershusius in his Commentary on Oppian,
Difficile est canem vetulum assuescere loro.
[125] Ἐσθίειν δὲ ἀνάγκη λελυμένην κύνα πᾶν τὸ ἐμπεσόν.
[Sidenote: Oppian. Halieut. +i.+ v. 250.]
πάντη δὲ πλάζονται, ὄπη γένυς, ἔνθα κελεύει γαστὴρ, καὶ λαίμαργος ἔρως ἀκόρητος ἐδωδῆς.
[126] Compare Xenophon de Venatione c. +iv.+ 9. on exercising hounds.
[Sidenote: =Mayster of Game.= c. +xxi.+ fol. 72.]
“The child shuld lede the houndes to scombre twies in the day, in the mornyng and in the evenyng, so that the sonne be up, specially in wynter. Than shuld he lat hem renne and play longe in a faire medew in the sonne, and than kembe every hounde after other, and wipe hem with a grette wispe of straw; and thus shal he do every mornyng.”
[Sidenote: Countrey Content. B. +i.+ p. 52.]
These simple instructions of Duke Edmund are amplified by old Gervase: “Touching ayring or walking of greyhounds, which is a great nourisher and increaser of winde, it must be dewly done every morning before sun-rise, and every evening before or after sunne-set in this manner; as soone as you have opened your kennel and rub’d your dogge over with a cleane haire cloath, you shall let him play a little about you before the kennel dore, then take him up into your leashe, and walke him forth into the fields, where for the most parte are no sheepe or other smal cattell, which they may out of wantonness indaunger, and there let him loose, and give him leave to play and scope about you, so that he may skummer and emptie his body; which when he hath done sufficiently, you shall then take him up in your leash againe, and so walk him home and kennell him; this you shall doe after the same manner in the evening; and also if your dogge bee stronge and lustie, at night after supper, and then bringing him home, bring him to the fire, and there let him stretch and beake themselves, and with your hand grope and cleanse them from ticks and other filth, which done leade them to the kennell, and shut them up for all night.”
[127] Ἐμπίπτουσαι γὰρ ἀλλήλαις ἔστιν ὅτε μεγάλα κακὰ ἐργάζονται.
[Sidenote: Apollon. Rhod. L. +iii.+ 1372.]
——θοοὶ κύνες ἀμφιθορόντες Ἀλλήλους βρυχηδὸν ἐδήϊον.
[Sidenote: Somerville’s Chace. B. +i.+]
For oft in sport Begun, combat ensues; growling they snarl, Then on their haunches rear’d, rampant they seize Each other’s throats; with teeth and claws in gore Besmear’d, they wound, they tear, till on the ground Panting, half dead the conquer’d champion lies, &c.
[128] Blancard’s reading of φίλαι is adopted instead of that of the first edition of Paris, ἄφιλαι.
[129] Arrian has already spoken on the subject of feeding, as an indication of good blood, in c. +viii.+
[Sidenote: Blondi Libellus, &c.]
“Adulti siccis vescantur edulibus: pane videlicet et ossibus, et hoc fiat digestis horis, ut concoctio peragatur, et potiùs famescant paululùm, quàm non exactis horis pascantur.”
[Sidenote: Countrey Content. B. +i.+ p. 51.]
[Sidenote: p. 52.]
It is occasionally necessary to administer food twice a day to delicate hounds: but the more usual practice accords with the text. Gervase Markham, however, recommends the courser to feed twice a day on his prescribed diet-bread, “to wit, halfe an houre after sunne-rise, and halfe an houre before sun-set, when he comes from walking or ayring his dogge, and it will bring him to exceeding great strength of body and purenesse of winde.”—“Upon his coursing days you must by no means give him any meat more than a white bread toast and butter, or a toast and oil,” &c.
[Sidenote: Tardivus de Venatione.]
Tardif, a French writer cited by Conrad Gesner, agrees with Arrian on the utility of a second meal in summer: “Canis æstate frequentiùs quàm hyeme cibandus est, ut æstivis diebus longis et calidis durare possit. Infringatur ei panis in aquam. Si tamen sæpiùs quàm par est cibetur, ventriculus ei subvertitur, lac aut panis lacte madidus optimè alunt.”
[130] Θέρους δὲ ἀγαθὸν καὶ ἄρτου ὀλίγον δοῦναι ἐμφαγεῖν—as a morning meal, a breakfast.
[131]
[Sidenote: Hierozoicon L. +ii.+ c. +iv.+]
Στέαρ ταριχευόμενον—salted suet or fat. Στέαρ appears from Pollux, L. +ii.+ c. +v.+ 3. to be the same as πιμελὴ, white adipose substance adherent to the membranes of the abdomen and viscera of men and animals: but if Hesychius be correct in his explanation of ἀπομαγδαλία as στέαρ ἐν ᾧ τὰς χεῖρας ἀπεμάττοντο ἐν τοῖς δείπνοις· βαλόντες δὲ τοῖς κυσὶν ἀναλύοντες ἀπὸ τῶν δείπνων, it must have possessed saponaceous qualities of detergency; for if it were pure fat, with Bochart we might well ask “unde abstergantur, qui inde absterguntur?” For the distinctive difference between πιμελὴ and στέαρ, see Aristot. Hist. Animal. L. +iii.+ c. +xvii.+ The properties of each are evidently distinct.
[132]
[Sidenote: Columel. de R. R. +vi.+ 4. 2.]
[Sidenote: Historia Quadruped. &c.]
“Sæpè etiam languor et nausea discutitur, si integrum gallinaceum ovum jejunis faucibus inferas,” &c. So also Tardif, as cited by Gesner, “si canis inter venandum nimiâ siti laboret, duo aut tria ova confracta in gulam ei immittes: sic enim sitim extingues, et à periculo hecticæ vel marasmi canem liberabis.”
[133] Ancient sportsmen were accustomed to follow their field sports through the whole year; and often prolonged the chase till midnight. Hor. L. +i.+ od. +i.+