CHAP. XXIV. for this chase; and yet the Libyan boys, some at eight years of age, and others not much older, mounted on their naked steeds, and guiding them with a switch, as the Greeks employ Lucret. L. iv. Livii L. v. 8. Ἐπὶ γυμνῶν τῶν ἵππων. Gens quæ nudo residens Massylia dorso The allu-ions to the tractable and fleet Numidian horse, and his expert rider, are too numerous in the authors of antiquity for citation of more than a few. The barbs, in the language of our great dramatist, will follow where the game Makes way, and run like swallows o'er the plain. In the army of Hannibal, the "equi hominesque paululi, discinctus et inermis eques, equi sine frænis," are eulogized by the Roman historian: and Strabo notices the docility of the African little steeds to be such ὥς τ ̓ ἀπὸ ῥαβδίου οἰακίζεσθαι. Virgil speaks of the “Numidæ infræni,” (Æneid. L. iv. 41.): Silius Italicus of the velocior Euris Oppian. Cyneg. 1ν. 45. Et doctus virgæ sonipes :-L. 111. and again, in the first book of his Punic War: Hic passim exultant Numidæ gens inscia fræni, Queis inter geminas per ludum nobilis aures But the poets of the chase, Oppian and Nemesian, have left us in detail their shape and qualifications : the rein, press these wild asses so closely in pursuit, that at CHAP. XXIV. last they throw a noose around their necks and lead them away quite subdued.9 Such are the methods of coursing adopted by those who have fleet hounds and horses: they neither ensnare the animals with toils, nets, or springes; 10 nor employ, in short, any other tricks. or wily inventions, but contend with them in a straight-forward trial of speed. 11 And to me, the two spectacles appear nowise Comparison of Quemque coloratus Mazax deserta per arva Paulatimque avidos comites post terga relinquunt. 9. The same fact is related by Ælian, in his Natural History of Animals, L. xiv. c. 10.; and Beckman (Hist. of Inventions, Vol. IV. p. 292.) observes, on the authority of Vancouver, that the ẞpóxos, or noose-rope, is still employed by the Hungarians, for the subjugation of wild horses. 10. See these instruments of predatory hunting described in the early part of the Appendix, and accurately represented in the spirited engravings of the "Venationes Ferarum" of Stradanus and Galle. The metrical skill of A. C. Kilian Dufflæus, the poet of the annexed quatrains, is not commensurate with that of the engraver. 11. Ἐκ τοῦ εὐθέος διαγωνιζόμενοι. Many are the instances recorded in which the agency of the hound of chase was despised by "the light-footed sons of Chiron's school." The heroes and heroines of old were all-sufficient for the capture of the fleetest animals of the forest and plain. This was indeed coursing in good earnest, and is well illustrated by the simile of the text. In this way Diana furnished her chariot with deer, her #pwrάyptov, the swiftest beasts of draught— πίσυρας δ ̓ ἕλες ὦκα θέουσα, νόσφι κυνοδρομίης, ἵνα τοι θοὸν ἅρμα φέρωσι. In this way, the son of Peleus arrested the attention of her sylvan ladyship and the goddess Pallas, Nemesian. Cyneg. vs. 261. Callimach. H. in Dian. vs. 105. R CHAP. XXIV. akin: the former being like thievish depredation; the latter, like a battle fought out with main strength: the one class of sportsmen resembling pirates in their clandestine attack, while the other are as openly victorious as were the Athenians over the Medes in the naval engagement at Artemisium, 12 or at Salamis and Psyttalia, or again at Cyprus. CHAP. XXV. Age and mode of entering bitch-puppies. 1 As to the age at which greyhounds should begin coursing, 1 you may take a bitch out after the eleventh month; or, if she Lee's Pindar. Nem. Od. III. Justin. H. Description of Pindar. Fragm. XL. p. 75. edit. Heyne. when, if we credit tales believed of old, His speed subdued the bounding stag, his spoilBy hounds unaided and the treach'rous toil. Mithridates, in later days, was wont, during his rustication, "feras cursu aut fugare, 12. Περὶ ̓Αρτεμίσιον. ὅθι παῖδες Αθηναίων ἐβάλοντο φαεννὰν κρηπῖδ ̓ ἐλευθερίας. Plato (Adyos èzirápios) gives the first and principal honours (àpiσreîa) to the victors of Marathon—τὰ δὲ δευτερεία, τοῖς περὶ Σαλαμῖνα καὶ ἐπ ̓ Ἀρτεμισίῳ ναυμαχήσασι καὶ Vikhoao. Artemisium was a northern promontory of the island of Eubœa; Psyttalia, a small, rocky, and barren isle, off the coast of Attica, and near to Salamis; Cyprus, an island of the Mediterranean Sea. The naval victories of Themistocles and Cimon are too well known to need any detail. 1. Having taken a summary view of the different modes of coursing amongst the Celts, and elsewhere, he now enters in detail into the treatment, initiation, &c. of young hounds. 2. The elder Xenophon mentions an earlier date for entering puppies-bitches at eight months, dogs at ten months old; but he does not allude to greyhounds. Pollux would introduce bitches at six months, and dogs at eight; Onomast. L. v. c. Ix. The courser will follow the example of his Bithynian predecessor, whose instructions, indeed, are in exact accordance with modern practice. be well set, and not loose-limbed, you may let go a hare from CHAP. XXV. your hand before her, in an open field, a month earlier than this, starting the pup close to the hare, that she may enjoy the sight of her game, and, by seeing it quite close, may work with eagerness. But presently slip another good dog to the hare, that the puppy may not suffer by too long a course, nor flag from over-fatigue; and the second dog turning the hare with ease again and again, will drive her into the puppy's mouth, when the latter should be allowed to tear her with her teeth till she has killed her. 3. He recommends a later period for entering dog-puppies; see the next Chapter. Nemesian makes no distinction between the dog and bitch on this point: Jam cum bis denos Phoebe reparaverit ortus, His leporem præmitte manu, non viribus æquis, Nec cursus virtute parem; sed tarda trahentem Nec semel indulge catulis moderamine cursus; Sed donec validos etiam prævertere suescant, Seu cursus revocent, jubeant seu tendere cursus, Quinetiam docti victam contingere prædam, Exanimare velint tantùm, non carpere sumptam. Less diffuse than the Carthaginian poet, the Veronese physician enters his "catuJus venaticus" in the following lines of his Alcon, without specifying his age : Illi igitur plenis ubi nondum viribus ætas Hinc tenerum leporem, vel crura infirma trahentem 4. Αλισκομένου δὲ τοῦ λαγῷ, says the elder Xenophon, διδόναι αὐταῖς ἀναῤῥηγνύναι. Every sportsman is fully aware of the importance of blooding young hounds: kówv Nemesian. vs. 186. Fracastorii De Venat. C. VII. CHAP. XXV. As soon as the season arrives for taking out your puppies, let them be first walked over such roads as are rough; ἀγρευτικὺς ἅπας αὐτὸς μὲν λαβὼν θηρίον ἥδεται, καὶ κέχρηται τῇ ἄγρᾳ ὡς ἄθλῳ, ἐὰν αὐτὸν συγχωρήσῃ ὁ δεσπότης : and a greater than Xenophon or Alian has declared that the curée, or quarry, is to the Spartan hound the object of his chase, ovdè Taîs ὀσμαῖς τῶν λαγωῶν αἱ κύνες χαίρουσιν, ἀλλὰ τῇ βρώσει—ὅτι βορὰν ἕξουσιν. But Plutarch tells us that they will not touch the game, nor lap the blood of it, unless they kill it themselves; while, in the other case, ἥδονται διασπώντες, καὶ τὸ αἷμα λάπτουσι προθύμως, &c. Ergo ubi plena suo rediit victoria fine In partem prædæ veniat comes, et sua norit Præmia. Sic operi juvet inservîsse benigno. Hoc ingens meritum est: hæc ultima palma trophæi. Julius Pollux advises that puppies be well blooded, ἵνα προσεθίζωνται τῇ κυνηγε τικῇ τροφῇ. Atque in parva secant spoliatum segmina corpus, "Ye shal gif yo1. houndys the bowellis boyled wh. breed, and it is callyd reward for cause that it is etyn on the erthe and not on the skyn." "Goodnesse of greyhoundes cometh of ryght corage and of the good nature of her fader and modir, and also men may wel helpe to make hem good in the encharmyng of hem with other good greihoundes and feede hem wel in the beest that he taketh." “In coursing,” says Markham," you shall observe two things, bloud and labour ; bloud, which is a hartening and animating of your dogge to delight in the pleasure, when he findes the reward of his paines taking; for if a dog course continually, and never kill, the sport will growe yrksome to him, and therefore, now and then, give him such advantage that he may kill the hare-then labour, which is contrary to killing; for in it you must give the hare all indifferent advantage, both by lawe and otherwise, whereby she may stand long before the dogge and make him shewe his uttermost strength before he be able to reach her." 4. So Xenophon : ἔστι δὲ καὶ, ἄνευ τοῦ εὑρίσκειν τὸν λαγῶ, ἀγαθὸν, ἄγειν τὰς κύνας εἰς τὰ τραχέα· καὶ γὰρ εὔποδες γίγνονται, καὶ τὰ σώματα διαπονοῦσαι ἐν τόποις τοιούτοις ὠφελοῦνται. Nec nulla hinc merces sequitur te digna laborum In loca dura canes si duxeris, aspera montis Per juga sylvestri populo vix pervia sæpè. |