CANES VENATICI. Class II.
William Dansey translation
CANES SAGACES.
Claudian. de Laud. Stilicon. L. iii.
Hæ nare sagaces.
The multitudinous varieties of this class have one common quality, by which they are united in the same family, and which Gratius terms “venandi sagax virtus,” diversified in its phenomena, and operative under great dissimilarity of external shape.[367]
Of the larger and more powerful varieties the type is given by Xenophon in the third and fourth chapters of his Cynegeticus, and by Julius Pollux in the fifth book of his Onomasticon:—that of the smaller and more nimble sorts will be found hereafter in the examples of the Canis Petronius of Gratius, and the Canis Agassæus of Oppian. The names of the hounds, principally derived from the countries of which they were supposed to be indigenous, have been already enumerated. Their mode of hunting is faithfully struck off by the Latin poet of the Halieutica, a fragment of disputed authorship, heretofore attributed to Ovid, but latterly to Gratius:
Halieutic. vs. 100.
Quæ nunc elatis rimantur naribus auras, Et nunc demisso quærunt vestigia rostro, Et produnt clamore feram, dominumque vocando Increpitant. Quem si collatis effugit armis, Insequitur tumulosque canis camposque per omnes.
In our descriptions of the pugnacious class, we followed, where able, the order of the Faliscian’s Cynegeticon,—filling up lacunæ, when apparent, from extraneous sources; but, in the present class, we have no such text-book by which to regulate our progress, and must be beholden to the Greek and Latin Cynegetica, collectively, for an arrangement of the individuals of this class in such sequence, as the scale of their importance in the kennels of antiquity may seem to justify. And first, and foremost, we place the well-known hound of Lacedæmon.
Xenophon Cyneg. c. iii.
The Spartan dog, in its two varieties of Castorian and Foxite, was employed by Xenophon for the common purposes of hunting.[368] The Καστόριαι were so called Pollucis Onomast. L. v. c. v. 39.ὅτι Κάστωρ ἡσθεὶς τῷ ἔργῳ μάλιστα αὐτὰς διεφύλαξεν; or, in the words of the Onomasticon, because they were Κάστορος θρέμματα, Ἀπόλλωνος τὸ δῶρον.
Nonni Dionysiac. L. xvi.
ἄξομαι ἐκ Σπάρτης ἑτέρους κύνας, οὓς ἀτιτάλλει ἠϊθέων ἐς ἔρωτα ἐμὸς κάρνειος Ἀπόλλων.
Xen. Cyneg. c. iii.
The ἀλωπεκίδες had their name διότι ἐκ κυνῶν καὶ ἀλωπέκων ἐγένοντο; Castor, according to Nicander, having united the dog to the fox, and produced a hybrid sort of sporting hound of great repute.
Natalis Comes de Venat. L. i.
Castorides venatori gratissima turba.
But as if Castor and Pollux, being twin brothers, born ὠδῖνι μιῇ, (Apollon. L. i.) possessed a common identity, the honour of having first initiated the canine race in the pursuit of game, is indifferently awarded to both. Oppian, we have already seen, bestows it on Pollux, and Xenophon on Castor—“ovo prognatus eodem.” Aristotle considers all the Canes Laconici to be of the sort called ἀλωπεκίδες—not that they were all sprung from the fox and dog, but were fox-like in appearance:—and on the same authority, we hold that the bitches of a Spartan kennel were superior to the dogs—Hist. Animal. L. ix. c. i.Λάκαιναι κύνες αἱ θήλειαι εὐφυέστεραι τῶν ἀῤῥένων εἰσί.
Although the eloquent compiler of the Cynegeticus distinguishes his harriers, as above stated, into Castorian and Foxite hounds, he notes no characteristic peculiarities in either: but Themistius, the Paphlagonian philosopher, induces us to believe that each possessed the distinctive features of a particular family—Oratio xxvii.ἕτερον μὲν κάλλος καστορίδων κύνων, ἕτερον δὲ ἀλωπεκίδων. Vlitius’s fanciful emendation of the text of the Onomasticon has led him into an error, and produced the monstrous birth of a third variety, which he ascribes to Julius Pollux, called ἀλωπεκικαστόρες; but which that learned man’s work will not admit.
Of the whole Spartan tribe the swiftest, perhaps, were the κυνοσουρίδες of Callimachus—deriving their name from Cynosura of Laconia—
Statii Thebaid. L. iv.
Dives et Orchomenos pecorum, et Cynosura ferarum.
They were the gift of the Arcadian God Pan to Diana, and possessed sagacity of nose equal to their speed of foot:[369]
Callimach. H. in Dian. vs. 93.
ἑπτὰ δ’ ἔδωκε θάσσονας αὐράων κυνοσουρίδας, αἵ ῥα διῶξαι ὤκισται νεβρούς τε καὶ οὐ μύοντα λαγωὸν, καὶ κοίτην ἐλάφοιο, καὶ ὕστριχος ἔνθα καλιαὶ σημῆναι, καὶ ζορκὸς ἐπ’ ἴχνιον ἡγήσασθαι....
—and near a-kin to them, we may suppose, if not of the same blood, were the brace presented by the worshipful Agrotera to her much-favoured Cyrene:
Ejusd. vs. 207.
—θηρητῆρε δύω κύνε, τοῖς ἔνι κούρη Ὑψηῒς παρὰ τύμβον Ἰώλκιον ἔμμορ’ ἀέθλου.
But of fable, enough—The Spartan’s shape, qualities, and style of hunting, singly and in pack, are fully described by Xenophon in the third, fourth, and sixth chapters of his Manual. The quarry is here that of which the Athenian was most enamoured, viz. the hare,—with which the woods and parks of his Scilluntian retreat abounded. But for the boar-chase the hound of Lacedæmon is also employed. To the Indian, Cretan, and Locrian dogs,Xenophon de Venat. c. x. the sportsman, who would successfully combat the savage boar, must add the choicest individuals of the Spartan kennel. And in this chase, he will find one of the latter hounds most useful as a limier,[370] to follow up the trail to the boar’s couch in silence, and then, with the rest of the pack, to bay the started quarry:
Silii Italici de 2do bello Punico L. i.
Fulmineus seu Spartanis latratibus actus, Cum sylvam occursu venantum perdidit, hirto Horrescit sævus dorso, et postrema capessit Prælia, candentem mandens aper ore cruorem: Jamque gemens geminum contra venabula torquet.
Onomastic. L. v. 37.
Propert. L. ii. 13.
Julius Pollux, on the authority of Nicander, has transmitted to us subordinate varieties of the Spartan, entitled Menelaides from Menelaus, Harmodii from Harmodius, and others from other persons, and places of inferior note. Virgil applies the epithets Taygetan to the race, from the “juga longa Taygeti” which traverse Laconia, a favourite resort of the Sylvan Goddess:
Virgil. Georg. L. iii. 43.
vocat ingenti clamore Cithæron, Taygetique canes:
and Amyclean, from the birth-place of Castor and Pollux:
Ejusdem vs. 343.
omnia secum Armentarius Afer agit, tectumque laremque, Armaque Amyclæumque canem, Cressamque pharetram;
a local epithet also found in a supposed fragment of Pindar, cited by Plutarch, Quæst. Conviv. ix. 15. 748. and admitted amongst the Fragmenta ex Hyporchematibus. Vol. ii. of Heyne’s edition. (Oxon. 1807.)
But a few words, before we proceed farther, on the lineage of the ἀλωπεκίδες.
Bulletin Universel.
Modern naturalists, with the exception of Mons. Desmoulins, are pretty generally agreed that the Canis aureus is the real origin of the domestic dog. And if so, being a native of Asia Minor, and of a dirty fulvous colour, may we not suppose him to have been the cross, from which the foxite hounds of Xenophon were bred? The latter had more or less of a ferine aspect, and fulvous colour, softened down by the admixture of hair of a different hue about the muzzle. Still tawny was the predominant colour—“fulvus Lacon,” (Hor.)
Philosoph. Transact. Vol. 77. p. 24.
Mr. Hunter denies the existence of a genuine foxite, as the dog and fox are of different species, and will not produce together. Guldenstadt allows the jackal may be the Thos of Aristotle. May he not also be the Thos of Gratius, and “Cat o’ mountaine”[371] of his translator? May not Hagnon’s pack,[372]
Gratii Cyneg. vs. 250.
Hagnon magne, tibi Divôm concessa favore,
derived from a Thoan cross, and other such semiferous commixtures, be founded in fact?
Ejusdem vs. 253.
Hic et semiferam Thoum de sanguine prolem Finxit. Non alio major sua pectore virtus, Seu nôrit voces, seu nudi ad pignora Martis. Thoës commissos (clarissima fama) leones Et subiêre astu, et parvis domuêre lacertis. Nam genus exiguum, et pudeat quàm informe fateri Vulpinâ specie, &c.
May not these possible tales have given currency and belief to the supposed, impossible, fictitious, engendering of the fox and dog, and the breed of semi-wild ἀλωπεκίδες?—Aristotle says roundly, when animals resemble each other in size, outward character, and time of gestation, they may breed together; and that it positively happens with the dog, fox, and wolf—οἱ δὲ θῶες, says the Stagirite also, ὁμοίως κυΐσκονται τοῖς κυσὶ, καὶ τίκτουσι τυφλὰ, κ. τ. λ.—and therefore, by his own canons, may engender with dogs. Galen, Hesychius, and Gesner, seem to allow the possibility of vulpi-canine issue: Caius accounts for such a birth by the “pruriens libido” of the parties concerned:[373] even Blumenbach and Desmoulins, on the authority of others, have given credency to it. Pennant’s Quadrupeds.Pennant reports a case of prolific engendering of the fox and dog, on the word of an Oxfordshire woodman; and Daniel’s Field-Sports. Vol. i. p. 12.Daniel cites a second in London. Hunter, who assumed nothing in natural history of doubtful character as fact, till he had put it to the test, denies this cross, à priori, not from actual experiment; for he did not live to make the trial. The former crosses he fully established: see Phil. Trans. Vol. 77.
May not Ovid be supposed to allude to the cross of the Thos and dog, and to exemplify it in the individual of Actæon’s pack whom he calls Thous?
Ovid. Metam. L. iii. 220.
Et Thous, et Cyprio velox cum fratre Lycisca.
Cyneg. L. iii. vs. 336.
The fanciful origin of Oppian’s Thos from the wolf and panther, ὅθεν κρατερόφρονα φῦλα, baffles all elucidation.
Let the ἀλωπεκίδες, then, be considered as possible hybrids, the produce of authenticated crosses.[374] The wolf, jackal, and dog, all differ but little. “The dog himself,” says Philosoph. Transactions. Vol. 77.Mr. Hunter, “may be the wolf tamed, and the jackal may probably be the dog returned to his wild state.”
All animals having been originally wild, the more a specific class may differ from its prototype in appearance, the further it is removed in consequence of variation arising from cultivation. Where dogs have been least cultivated, they still retain most of their original character, or similarity to the wolf, or jackal, both in shape and disposition. Thus the shepherd’s dog, all over the world, has strongly the character of these wild animals—and so I have no doubt had the dog of Laconia.
The wild dogs of modern travellers, as found in Congo, Lower Æthiopia, and towards the Cape of Good Hope, somewhat resemble the Spartan type. They are stated to be “greyhound-like in shape, red-haired, with upright ears, rough tails, and extremely fierce.” The Dingo of Australasia, and Dhole of the East Indies, look very like ἀλωπεκίδες. The North and South-American half-reclaimed varieties have the elongated jaws of the semi-barbarous breeds, and tend to prove from their general shape, their character of countenance, their quick manner, and pricked and erect ears, identity of species in the dog, wolf, and jackal.
But on this subject enough:—let us now return within the pale of the kennel of Lacedæmon. The true Spartan dogs of the olden time were strong, swift, and courageous; and barked on scent of their game. We know that they were strong, on the authority of Ovid’s “prævalidusque Lacon;” and swift, from Virgil calling them “Veloces Spartæ catulos,” and Pindar alluding to the same excellence in the fragment beginning
Apud Athenæi Deipnosoph. Epist. L. i. c. 21.
ἀπὸ Ταϋγέτου μὲν Λάκαιναν ἐπὶ θηρσὶ κύνα τρέχειν πυκινώτατον ἑρπετόν.
Still their speed, like that of the Etolian of Gratius, was of a qualified character, and very much below the Vertragus.
Their strength and courage recommended them to shepherds and herdsmen, as guardians of their flocks—the goatherd Lacon’s dog, from his venatico-pastoral cast, being probably, of this variety.
Theocriti Idyll. v. 106.
χ’ ἁμῖν ἐντὶ κύων φιλοποίμνιος, ὃς λύκος ἄγχει· ὃν τῷ παιδὶ δίδωμι τὰ θηρία πάντα διώκεν.
Virgil enjoins feeding the Spartan and Molossian on fattening whey, for the safe custody of cattle;
Virgil. Georg. L. iii. 404.
Veloces Spartæ catulos, acremque Molossum Pasce sero pingui: nunquam custodibus illis Nocturnum stabulis furem, incursusque luporum, Aut impacatos à tergo horrebis Iberos....
and briefly runs through the ordinary chases in which the canine tribe generally are used;
Ejusdem vs. 409.
Sæpè etiam cursu timidos agitabis onagros; Et canibus leporem, canibus venabere damas. Sæpè volutabris pulsos sylvestribus apros Latratu turbabis agens: montesque per altos Ingentem clamore premes in retia cervum.
The trailing quality of the Spartan, and keenness of scent,[375] Plato refers to, in his Parmenides—ὥσπεργε αἱ Λάκαιναι σκύλακες μεταθεὶς καὶ ἰχνεύεις τὰ λεχθέντα, (Zeno Socrati)—and Sophocles in the prologue of the Ajax Flagellifer, where the wily son of Laertes, tracking the murderous maniac, Αἴαντι τῷ σακεσφόρῳ, is likened to a sharp-nosed Spartan hound,
Sophoclis Ajac. Flagell. vs. 7.
εὖ δέ σ’ ἐκφέρει κυνὸς Λακαίνης ὥστις εὔρινος βάσις.
Homer’s kindly and vivid description of the hunting excellencies of the faithful Argus, his keenness of sight and smell, and speed of foot, would lead us to place him amongst the swiftest of the sagacious class: and where can we assign him a more honourable station than in a Spartan kennel?—I am aware some ancient Greek writer (to whom I have lost my clue of reference) considers this far-famed hound an isolated variety of no particular family—ὅμως ἡ φύσις καὶ ἐν ἄλλοις καὶ ἅπασι τόποις διασπείρει κύνας ἀγαθοὺς, ὁποῖός τις καὶ ὁ Ἄργος—not reducible within the pale of a general classification founded on geographical distribution; but he has evidently all the characteristic qualities of a genuine Spartan, and I never heard of any breed peculiar to Ithaca.
Odyss. L. xvii. 292.
Pope’s Odyssey. B. xvii. 348.
Ἄργος Ὀδυσσῆος ταλασίφρονος, ὅν ῥά ποτ’ αὐτὸς θρέψε μὲν, οὐδ’ ἀπόνητο· πάρος δ’ εἰς Ἴλιον ἱρὴν ᾤχετο· τὸν δὲ πάροιθεν ἀγίνεσκον νέοι ἄνδρες αἶγας ἐπ’ ἀγροτέρας, ἠδὲ πρόκας, ἠδὲ λαγωούς. Bred by Ulysses, nourish’d at his board, But ah! not fated long to please his lord! To him his swiftness and his strength were vain; The voice of glory call’d him o’er the main. Till then in every sylvan chase renown’d, With Argus, Argus, rung the woods around; With him the youth pursued the goat or fawn, Or traced the mazy lev’ret o’er the lawn.
The answer of Eumæus, in which he fondly dilates on the prowess of the old dog in the better days of his youth, throws farther light on his supposed connexion with a Spartan kennel:
Odyss. L. xvii. 316.
οὐ μὲν γάρ τι φύγεσκε βαθείης βένθεσιν ὕλης κνώδαλον ὅττι ἴδοιτο· καὶ ἴχνεσι γὰρ περιῄδη....
—evidently showing that he ran on sight of his game as well as scent: for the common reading ἴδοιτο is preferable to the δίοιτο of Eustathius, and is followed by Pope in his inimitable translation:
Pope’s Odyssey. B. xvii. 380.
Oh! had you seen him, vig’rous, bold and young, Swift as a stag, and as a lion strong; Him no fell savage on the plain withstood, None ’scaped him, bosom’d in the gloomy wood; His eye how piercing, and his scent how true, To wind the vapour in the tainted dew!
See Scott’s “Maida:” a Scene at Abbotsford.
A Spartan huntsman might value such omnifarious qualifications; but we cannot allow such a hound, εἰ δὴ καὶ ταχὺς ἔσκε θέειν, within the precincts of a coursing kennel, where speed and keen-sightedness are essential properties, according to the modern canons of the leash; but to stoop to “the tainted green” with the sagacity of a harrier, or even of a Caledonian deer-hound, of which Argus has been deemed a prototype, invalidates the claim to εὐγένεια in the breed.[376]
Diana having been particularly worshipped in Crete,[377]
Ovid. Fast. L. iii.
Pallada Cecropiæ, Minoïa Creta Dianam, Vulcanum tellus Hypsipilæa, colit,...
we naturally look for a race of dogs deriving a local name from her favourite isle. And, accordingly, connected with the last-mentioned tribe of Canes Venatici, we have the Cretan and Carian, powerful, quick-scented, nimble hounds; whom it would be wrong unnaturally to dissever, as having no marked physical peculiarities. Indeed from their parity of character, and supposed identity of origin, the hounds of Crete, and its neighbouring continent of Caria, have generally been united in one family.
De Naturâ Animal. L. iii. c. ii.
De Venat. c. iii.
Ælian describes the κύων Κρῆσσα κούφη, καὶ ἁλτικὴ, καὶ ὀρειβασίαις σύντροφος. By Seneca the Cretans are called pugnacious—“pugnaces Cressæ;” and by Claudian, wire-haired—“Hirsutæque fremunt Cressæ.” Arrian, when speaking of the Segusian hounds of Celtica, their unsightly aspect, their noisy howl, and extraordinary sagacity of nose, indirectly proves the speed and keen-scentedness of the Carian and Cretan. Oppian enjoins the hound of Crete to be crossed with that of Pannonia, and the Carian, as if different, with the Thracian,
Cyneg. L. i. vs. 394.
ἐπιμίσγεο Παίοσι Κρῆτας, Κᾶρας Θρηϊκίοις....
but, it is probable, the Pannonian and Thracian resembled each other as much as the Cretan and Carian.
Two sub-varieties are recorded by Julius Pollux under the titles of διάπονοι and πάριπποι:—the former so called from their bustling, indefatigable character—Pollucis Onomast. L. v. c. v.τὰς νύκτας ταῖς ἡμέραις ἐν ταῖς πρὸς τὰ θηρία μάχαις ἐπιλαμβάνειν, καὶ πολλάκις παρευνασθέντας τοῖς θηρίοις μεθ’ ἡμέραν ἄρχεσθαι τῆς μάχης; the latter, from their running at the horse’s side—τοῖς ἵπποις συνθέουσιν οὔτε προθέοντες οὔτε μὴν ἀπολειπόμενοι.
Natalis Comes de Venat. L. i.
Cecropius catulus est quem dixêre parippum.
To these the courser of Nicomedia adds a third sub-variety, seemingly produced by the union of the former two—Arriani de Venat. c. iii. αἱ διάπονοι ἀπὸ τοῦ φιλοπονεῖν, καὶ αἱ ἰταμαὶ ἀπὸ τοῦ ὀξέως, καὶ αἱ μικταὶ ἀπ’ ἀμφοῖν; the ἰταμαὶ probably answering to the πάριπποι of the philologist. On the authority of Ejusdem c. ii.Arrian, we conclude the Cretan and Carian modes of hunting to have been the same as generally practised in Greece—such as are described at large by the elder Xenophon in his Cynegeticus. See Meursii Opera, Tom. iii. c. vii. Creta.
Though not used by the elder Xenophon in the common hare-chase, the Cretans are recommended for boar-hunting, and were sometimes employed in pursuit of deer.
Incert. Auctor apud Stephani Schediasm. L. v. sch. xvii.
Κρῆσσα κύων ἐλάφοιο κατ’ ἴχνιον ἔδραμε γόργως—
Hor. Lib. i. Od. vi.
How beautifully is their style of hunting described by the poet Varius, “Mæonii carminis ales,” in the fragment preserved by Macrobius!
Varius apud Macrob. L. vi. c. ii.
Seu canis umbrosam lustrans Gortynia vallem, Si veteris poterit cervæ comprendere lustra, Sævit in absentem, et circum vestigia latrans Aëra per nitidum tenues sectatur odores: Non amnes illam medii, non ardua tardant, Perdita nec seræ meminit decedere nocti.
—affording the Cilician copyist one of a profusion of highly poetical similes, with which he depicts the polypus, or preke, searching for its beloved olive-tree:
Oppian. Halieut. L. iv. vs. 272.
ἔνθα γὰρ ἀγλαόκαρπος ἁλὸς σχεδόν ἐστιν ἐλαίη γείτοσιν ἐν γουνοῖσιν ἐπακταίη τεθαλυῖα, κεῖθι δὲ πουλύποδος νόος ἕλκεται, ἠΰτ’ ἐπ’ ἴχνος Κνωσσίου εὐρίνοιο κυνὸς μένος, ὅστ’ ἐν ὄρεσσι θηρὸς ἀνιχνεύει σκολιὴν βάσιν ἐξερεείνων ῥινὸς ὑπ’ ἀγγελίῃ νημερτέϊ, καί τέ μιν ὦκα μάρψε, καὶ οὐκ ἐμάτησεν, ἑὸν δ’ ἐπέλασσεν ἄνακτα· ὣς καὶ τηλεθόωσαν ἄφαρ μάθεν ἐγγὺς ἐλαίην πούλυπος, ἐκδύνει δὲ βυθῶν, καὶ γαῖαν ἀνέρπει καγχαλόων, πρέμνοισι δ’ Ἀθηναίης ἐπέλασσεν.
In connexion with the kindred Spartans, the Cretans are briefly mentioned by See Wernsdorf in loco.Gratius,—an allusion being, probably, intended to an intermixture of the two allied breeds in order to produce the Metagon,[378] whose praises are subsequently sung:
Gratii Cyneg. vs. 211.
Wase’s Illustrations. c. 5. p. 38.
At vestrum non vile genus, non patria vulgò, Sparta suos et Creta suos promittit alumnos. To your high breed countries of dogs not base, Sparta and Creta do conferre their race.
Ovid specifies them by name in Actæon’s blood-thirsty pack,
Ovid. Metam. L. iii. 206.
primusque Melampus Ichnobatesque sagax latratu signa dedêre; Gnossius Ichnobates, Spartanâ gente Melampus;
and subsequently a litter,
Golding’s Ovid’s Metam. B. iii.
that had a sire of Crete And dam of Sparta,
as sings Sir Arthur Golding:
Ovid. Metam. vs. 223.
Et patre Dictæo, sed matre Laconide nati, Labros et Agriodos, et acutæ vocis Hylactor.
Indeed almost all the Ovidian pack were of Cretan, Spartan, and Arcadian blood, well chosen by the poet for the fabled chase of the son of Autonoë,[379] “falsi sub imagine cervi”—[380]
Nonni Dionysiac. L. v.
εὖτε τανυπρέμνοιο καθήμενος ὑψόθι φηγοῦ, λουομένης ἐνόησεν ὅλον δέμας ἰοχεαίρης· θηητὴρ δ’ ἀκόρητος ἀθηήτοιο θεαίνης ἁγνὸν ἀνυμφεύτοιο δέμας διεμέτρεε κούρης ἀγχιφανὴς, κ. τ. λ.
The whole of the Spartan family, inclusive of the Cretan and Carian, appear to have barked, as I have already observed, on scent of their game[381]—a quality reprobated by Gratius (malignum officium!) when shown before the quarry was started from his lair.
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]
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:
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]
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.
Wase, p. 79.
These are the Metagontes of the Faliscian poet—so called from “drawing after their game”—μετάγοντες:
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;
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:
Silii Italici de 2do 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:
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:
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:
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:
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.
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 Hist. Nat. L. viii. c. xl.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:De Naturâ Animalium L. viii. c. ii.—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:
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—
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,
Silii Ital. de 2do 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,
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.
The Virgilian Umbrian, to which Æneas in pursuit of Turnus is likened in the last book of the Æneid, may be taken to signify any Canis venaticus, and not that of Umbria particularly:
Virgilii Æneid. L. xii. 749.
Inclusum veluti si quandò flumine nactus Cervum, aut puniceæ septum formidine pennæ, Venator cursu, canis et latratibus instat; Ille autem, insidiis et ripâ territus altâ, Mille fugit refugitque vias: at vividus Umber Hæret hians, jam jamque tenet, similisque tenenti Increpuit malis, morsuque elusus inani est.
The true Umbrian, I conceive, was mute—certainly so, until his game was on foot; as were all the other finders spoken of. But another reason against the dog of Maro being the native dog of Umbria is this—the poet would never have compared the brave and victorious Æneas to a notoriously timid animal, who “fugit adversos idem quos repperit hostes—” while the hero was dealing death and destruction on all sides of him;
Virgil. Æneid. L. xii. 760.
Æneas mortem contrà præsensque minatur Exitium, si quisquam adeat; terretque trementes Excisurum urbem minitans; et saucius instat.
If the character of the hounds of Umbria be such as stated, on the authority of the ancient Cynegetica, the epithet “audaces” bestowed on them by the Latin poet of Barga must be unmerited;
P. Angelii Bargæi Cyneg. L. v.
—— Celtis velocibus Umbros, Audaces Umbros, et odoris naribus acres.
Barthius, erroneously in my opinion, identifies the Tuscan dogs of Nemesian with the fierce Molossian-like animals of Oppian’s first Cynegetic (vs. 413.). To the passage already cited under the Canes Bellicosi, the reader is referred, for the purpose of comparison with the following from the Carthaginian poet:
Nemesian. Cyneg. vs. 231.
Quin et Tuscorum non est extrema voluptas Sæpè canum: sit forma illis licet obsita villo, Dissimilesque habeant catulis velocibus artus; Haud tamen injucunda dabunt tibi munera prædæ. Namque et odorato noscunt vestigia prato, Atque etiam leporum secreta cubilia monstrant.
Oppian’s boar and lion-killers have very little resemblance to these indices of the form or seat of the timorous hare. The latter poet recommends the Tuscans (whom he is also supposed to designate under the title of Ausonians in his first kennel-roll) to be crossed with the Spartan race;
Oppian. Cyneg. L. i. vs. 395.
Τυρσηνὰ γένεθλα Λάκωσι—
The Armenian bear-dog was a sort of lyemmer used by sportsmen of the East for tracking bears;[388]
Oppian. Cyneg. L. iv. vs. 356.
πουλὺς ὄχλος βαίνουσι τανύσκια βένθεα δρυμῶν, ἴδριες, αὐτολύτοις σὺν ἐϋρίνεσσι κύνεσσιν, ἴχνια μεστεύσοντ’ ὀλοῶν πουλύπλανα θηρῶν. ἀλλ’ ὁπότ’ ἀθρήσωσι κύνες σημήϊα ταρσῶν, ἕσπονται, στιβέας τε ποδηγετέουσιν ὁμαρτῆ ῥῖνας μὲν ταναὰς σχεδόθεν χέρσοιο τιθέντες, ἐξοπίσω δ’ εἴπερ τι νεώτερον ἀθρήσειαν ἴχνος, ἐπειγόμενοι θόρον αὐτίκα καγχαλόωντες, ληθόμενοι τοῦ πρόσθεν· ἐπὴν δ’ εἰς ἄκρον ἵκωνται εὐπλανέος στιβίης, θηρός τε παναίολον εὐνὴν, αὐτίχ’ ὁ μὲν θρώσκει παλάμης ἀπὸ θηρητῆρος, οἰκτρὰ μάλ’ ὑλακόων, κεχαρημένος ἔξοχα θυμόν.
The poet concludes this part of his description with a singularly beautiful simile of a bare-footed little damsel in joyful search of mountain violets, (discovered by their grateful odour, and plucked for the decoration of her head,) with which she returns singing to the home of her peasant parents:
ὣς κυνὸς ἰάνθη θυμὸς θρασύς. αὐτὰρ ἐπακτὴρ καὶ μάλα μιν θύνοντα βιησάμενος τελαμῶσι, καγχαλόων παλίνορσος ἔβη μεθ’ ὅμιλον ἑταίρων.
The δίκτυα and ἄρκυες, the δεῖμα πολύχροον of the feathered line, and the other instruments of the savage chase, combine to secure the ursine quarry. See Oppian. Cyneg. iv. vs. 354 ad vs. 424.
Having already noticed the wary employment of the mute finder to search out the lair of animals obnoxious to the chase, let us look at the subsequent proceedings.[389] When the nets and snares were set, the game found, and started by the Canes ductores, the attendants, it seems, slipped the latrant pack, which were held in couples at hand. That this was the ordinary routine is proved by Xenophon, Lucan, Seneca, and others. The Greek sportsman of Scillus does not, indeed, say that the dog first slipped should be mute, but merely quick-scented. Lucan, however, particularly states his quality of closeness in the lines of his Pharsalia, where he likens the naval tactics of Octavius, “Illyricæ custos Octavius undæ,” to the wily stratagems of a huntsman preparing for the attack of his game;
Lucani Pharsal. L. iv. 437.
— Sic dum pavidos formidine cervos Claudat odoratæ metuentes aëra pennæ: Aut dum dispositis attollat retia varis Venator, tenet ora levis clamosa Molossi; Spartanos Cretasque ligat; nec creditur ulli Sylva cani, nisi qui presso vestigia rostro Colligit, et prædâ nescit latrare repertâ, Contentus tremulo monstrâsse cubilia loro.
—and Seneca implies the same,
Senecæ Hippolyt. Act. i. 30.
at vos laxas Tacitis canibus mittite habenas: Teneant acres lora Molossos, Et pugnaces tendant Cressæ Fortia trito vincula collo. At Spartanos (genus est audax Avidumque feræ) nodo cautus Propriore liga. Veniet tempus Cum latratu cava saxa sonent: Nunc demissi nare sagaci Captent auras, lustraque presso Quærant rostro.[390]
Hitherto we have said nothing of the race of sagacious hunting-dogs, most commonly known by the name of hounds,[391] the Petronius of Gratius,[392] the Ἀγασσεὺς of Oppian, and the Segusian of Arrian.[393] The Petronius belongs to the family of fleet sagacious hounds;
Gratii Cyneg. vs. 199.
at te leve si qua Tangit opus, pavidosque juvat compellere dorcas, Aut versuta sequi leporis vestigia parvi: Petronios (sic fama) canes, volucresque Sicambros, Et pictam maculâ Vertraham delige falsâ. Ocyor affectu mentis pinnâque cucurrit, Sed premit inventas, non inventura latentes Illa feras; quæ Petroniis benè gloria constat.
We here see the distinction between the harrier and greyhound, the former running on scent, the latter on sight.[394] That the Petronii opened as soon as they hit upon the trail of their game, before it was roused, is much regretted by the poet—
Ejusdem vs. 207.
Quod si maturo pressantes gaudia lusu Dissimulare feras tacitique accedere possent: Illis omne decus, quod nunc, Metagontes, habetis, Constaret sylvis; sed virtus irrita damno est!
Herein, however, they strikingly resemble their modern representatives; for, with Ducange, I readily grant that the Canes Petronii “ii sunt quos vulgò chiens courans appellamus.” Whoever has heard the din of the fox or hare-chase,
Titus Andronicus, Act ii. Sc. iii.
— whilst the babbling echo mocks the hounds, Replying shrilly to the well-tuned horns, As if a double hunt were heard at once,
will grant that no Petronian pack could have been more noisy on the trail than their modern representatives.
Pope’s Essay on Man.
The Britannus sagax, “the hound sagacious on the tainted green,” next claims our attention. Of the Britannus bellicosus we have already spoken under the first class. The earlier cynegetical writers are silent on the subject of British hounds: nor do they appear to have been known in Italy till towards the decline of the Roman empire; when, having been introduced into Celtic Gaul, their merits became gradually known in southern Europe. And here, in spite of the French Encyclopédie Méthodique: sur les Chasses, p. 138.encyclopedists, (the copyists of Messieurs D’Yauville and Le Verrier de la Conterie,) who gratuitously assume “qu’en général les chiens Anglois n’ont pas autant de noblesse que les beaux chiens François,”—and that where the breed is improved, as they allow it to be in some cases, the amelioration is attributable to Norman crosses,—we must, with our native poet, claim the palm for Britain;
Somerville. Chace, B. i.
In thee alone, fair land of liberty! Is bred the perfect hound, in scent and speed As yet unrivall’d, while in other climes Their virtue fails, a weak degenerate race!
By name, British hunting-dogs (as distinct from the pugnacious class) are mentioned by the poets of Carthage and Anazarbus alone; by the former, where singing the praises of different canine breeds, the merits of the blood of distant countries;
Nemesian. Cyneg. vs. 123.
Sed non Spartanos tantùm, tantùmve Molossos Pascendum catulos: divisa Britannia mittit Veloces,[395] nostrisque orbis venatibus aptos;
—by the latter, in the conclusion of his first cynegetic, vs. 467, hereafter cited. Of Nemesian’s “veloces,” probably not of the sagacious class, I shall, in the sequel, speak. In the absence of any assigned habitat for the Petronius, may we not consider him indigenous of Britain?[396] Our happy isle has ever been famous for excellent breeds of hunting-dogs, for skilful sportsmen, and horses both fleet and patient of the chase. All the Celtic nations indeed, and our ancestors among the rest, were passionately addicted to the diversions of the field, considering the prosecution of such laborious callings a kind of apprenticeship and initiation for war. Thence the superiority of the Celtic breeds of sporting-dogs, and more especially of the Britannus sagax and Britannus bellicosus. With the latter, perhaps, the former may have been sent to Italy by the resident Procurator Cynegii, as worthy of admission into Roman kennels; for at this early period I believe there were only these two native varieties of the canine race in Britain. In the field of battle, in public spectacles, and in the wolf and boar-chases, the bellicosus, the rival of the truculent Epirote, stood pre-eminent: and in the ordinary hunting of timid and fugacious quarry, the hound “naribus utilis,” acquired an early name and character.[397] For hideousness of aspect, and ugliness of shape, both were remarkable;
Gratii Cyneg. vs. 177.
Si non ad speciem, mentiturosque decores Protinùs: hæc una est catulis jactura Britannis:
—a notification of Ovid’s contemporary, which may be interpreted of the sagacious with as much truth as of the pugnacious sorts.
Modern ingenuity has taught British hounds of chase to pursue many varieties of prey. J. Caii de Canibus Britan. Libellus.“Alius leporis, alius vulpis, alius cervi, alius platycerotis, alius taxi, alius lutræ, alius mustelæ, alius cuniculi tantùm odore gaudet.” The dog does not himself necessarily differ, for adaptation to different game; and possibly, the old English Talbot was the parent stock, whence all the sub-varieties, at present found in the kennels of Great Britain, originally sprung,[398] modified in shape and character by judicious breeding, and careful management as to quarry:[399]
Somerville’s Chace, B. i.
strong, heavy, slow, but sure, Whose ears down-hanging from his thick round head, Shall sweep the morning dew; whose clanging voice Awake the mountain echo in her cell, And shake the forest: the bold Talbot kind Of these the prime, &c.
The hounds of Theseus would be correctly placed, from the description of our great dramatic poet, under the old English breed. With it they have more points in common than with their fabled progenitors;
Midsummer Night’s Dream.
My hounds are bred out of the Spartan kind, So flew’d, so sanded, and their heads are hung With ears that sweep away the morning dew; Crook-knee’d, and dew-lap’d, like Thessalian bulls; Slow in pursuit; but match’d in mouth like bells, Each under each. A cry more tuneable Was never halloo’d to, nor cheer’d with horn, In Crete, in Sparta, nor in Thessaly.
The vigorous and fleet Leverarius being a supposed representative of some ancient types, I cite the masterly picture of Somerville for the purpose of comparison with the classic poets of the Chase:
Somerville’s Chace, B. i.
See there with countenance blithe, And with a courtly grin, the fawning hound Salutes thee cowering; his wide opening nose Upwards he curls, and his large sloe-black eyes Melt in soft blandishments, and humble joy; His glossy skin, or yellow-pied, or blue, In lights or shades by nature’s pencil drawn, Reflects the various tints; his ears and legs Fleckt here and there, in gay enamell’d pride, Rival the speckled pard; his rush-grown tail O’er his broad back bends in an ample arch; On shoulders clean, upright and firm he stands; His round cat-foot, straight hams, and wide-spread thighs, And his low-dropping chest, confess his speed, His strength, his wind, or on the steepy hill, Or far-extended plain; in every part So well-proportion’d, that the nicer skill Of Phidias himself can’t blame thy choice.
The Talbot, whose portrait is also sketched by the Latin poet of Barga,P. A. Bargæi Cyneg. v. as well as by the authors cited, is at present fallen into disrepute—his slowness of foot being scarce compensated by his keenness of scent. The fleeter Leverarius, whose consimilarity with the Gratian Petronius almost approaches to identity, was apparently unknown to M. A. Biondi; for he holds it quite impossible (like the elder Xenophon in regard to the fair capture of the hare with his De Canibus et Venatione Libellus.ἀλωπεκίδες at force) that any hounds should have speed sufficient to run down a fox, without the aid of wily instruments of destruction.[400] But the largest varieties of Somerville’s last picture are found a match for the arch-felon, “vulpem captare dolosam,”—the only approach to the modern mode of pursuing whom, which the classics afford, is in the fourth book of Oppian’s Cynegetics, where the κύνες ἀολλέες are evidently a pack of hounds, though we look in vain for the well-mounted hunters;
Cyneg. iv. vs. 448.
κερδὼ δ’ οὔτε λόχοισιν ἁλώσιμος, οὔτε βρόχοισιν, οὔτε λίνοις· δεινὴ γὰρ ἐπιφροσύνῃσι νοῆσαι, δεινὴ δ’ αὖτε κάλωα ταμεῖν, ὑπὸ δ’ ἅμματα λῦσαι, καὶ πυκινοῖσι δόλοισιν ὀλισθῆσαι θανάτοιο· ἀλλὰ κύνες μιν ἄειραν ἀολλέες, οὐδ’ ἄρ’ ἐκεῖνοι καὶ κρατεροί περ ἐόντες ἀναιμωτεὶ δαμάσαντο.
In no case does he fall an easy prey to the disturbers of his cunningly-wrought latibulum:
Cyneg. iii. vs. 450.
μάλ’ ἀρήϊος ἐν πραπίδεσσι, καὶ πινυτὴ ναίει πυμάτοις ἐνὶ φωλειοῖσιν, ἑπταπύλους οἴξασα δόμους, τρητάς τε καλιὰς τηλόθ’ ἀπ’ ἀλλήλων, μή μιν θηρήτορες ἄνδρες ἀμφὶ θύρῃ λοχόωντες ὑπὸ βροχίδεσσιν ἄγωνται· ἀργαλέη γενύεσσι καὶ ἀντία δηρίσασθαι θηρσί τ’ ἀρειοτέροισι, καὶ ἀγρευτῆρσι κύνεσσιν.[401]
Even when, with the din of huntsmen and hounds, driven into nets, the entangled felon, according to Martial, still fights it out, to the no little discomfiture and injury of his canine antagonists;
Martial. Epigr. L. x. Ep. 37.
Hic olidam clamosus ages in retia vulpem, Mordebitque tuos sordida præda canes...[402]
Identical with the least of the hound tribe of the British isles, the Canis venaticus minor of Ray’s Synopsis, and Charleton’s Onomasticon, is the Oppianic Agassæus; the derivation of whose name has puzzled Brodæus in Oppianum, p. 46.Broadæus and other classic commentators not a little.[403] With the hint that Ἀγασσεὺς may be connected with Agassa of Macedonia, Agasus a port of Apulia, the Thracian Agessus, and Agathia a city of Phocis, no reason is alleged why a British dog should deduce his name from countries and places so remote. Of the existence of such a tiny hound of chase in this country, Rittershusius in Oppianum, p. 42.Rittershusius seems not to have been aware. British dogs, he remarks, are exceedingly keen-scented, but he cannot divine why called small, βαιὸν γένος, being, in his days at least, of great size. Brodæus, too, ignorant of any other than the Britannus of Claudian, cannot reconcile the “Anglici canes prodigiosæ staturæ” of this poet, and his own experience, with the portrait of the Oppianic Ἀγασσεύς.[404]
It is scarce necessary to observe that the dog in question has no affinity with the Agasæus of Dr. Caius, who very absurdly borrows, for his gazehound, a name previously engaged by a totally different dog; as if to gratify his etymological mania by connecting the terms Agasæus, a gaze, a gazehound—“neque enim odoratu, sed prospectu attento et diligenti feram persequitur iste canis—(Agasæus, a gazehound)—etsi non sum nescius etiam apud Latinos Agasæi vocabulum inter canum nomina reperiri”—J. Caii de Can. Brit. Libellus.“Agasæum nostri abs re quòd intento sit in feram oculo vocant.”
Camden has fallen into the same error with Caius, and confounded the Agasseus of Oppian with the gazehound of Britain; and even Ray has made the gazehound a variety of the Canis venaticus sagax, distinguished from his supposed consimilars of the same family by running on sight of his game—Synopsis Animalium. Countrey Contentments, B. i. c. iv.“qui aspectu feras insequitur.”
From the following portrait, compared with that drawn by Markham, we may decide the identity of the Agassæus and Beagle:
Oppian. Cyneg. L. i. vs. 467.
ἔστι δέ τι σκυλάκων γένος ἄλκιμον ἰχνευτήρων, βαιὸν, ἀτὰρ μεγάλης ἀντάξιον ἔμμεν’ ἀοιδῆς· τοὺς τράφεν ἄγρια φῦλα Βρετανῶν αἰολονώτων, αὐτὰρ ἐπικλήδην σφὰς Ἀγασσαίους ὀνόμῃναν· τῶν ἤτοι μέγεθος μὲν ὀμοίϊον οὐτιδανοῖσι λίχνοις οἰκιδίοισι τραπεζήεσσι κύνεσσι, γυρὸν, ἀσαρκότατον, λασιότριχον, ὄμμασι νωθές· ἀλλ’ ὀνύχεσσι πόδας κεκορυθμένον ἀργαλέοισι, καὶ θαμινοῖς κυνοδοῦσιν ἀκαχμένον ἰοφόροισι. ῥίνεσι δ’ αὖτε μάλιστα πανέξοχός ἐστιν Ἀγασσεὺς, καὶ στιβίῃ πανάριστος, ἐπεὶ κατὰ γαῖαν ἰόντων ἴχνιον εὑρέμεναι μέγα δὴ σοφὸς, ἀλλὰ καὶ αὐτὴν ἴδμων ἠερίην μάλα σημῄνασθαι ἀϋτμήν.
Let the reader compare these little pet-like, weakly, crooked, lank, wire-haired, dull-looking creatures, keen however, and excellent of nose, with his own experience of the beagle’s type and properties, and the representations of authors.[405]
The poet gives some amusing instructions for breaking in the puppy of the Agassæus;
Ejusd. vs. 489.
αὐτὰρ ὅγ’ αἶψα ὠρίνθη, φριμάα τε λαγωείης ὑπ’ ἀϋτμῆς, ἴχνια μαστεύει τε κατὰ χθονὸς, κ. τ. λ.
comparing his restlessness to that of a young woman in travail with her first child,
Ejusd. vs. 493.
ὡς δ’ ὅτε τις κούρη δέκατον περὶ μῆνα σελήνης πρωτοτόκος λοχίῃσιν ὑπ’ ὠδίνεσσι τυπεῖσα, κ. τ. λ.
Lib. ii. p. 18.
The praises of the little beagle have been celebrated in Greek and Latin, verse and prose. Amongst the modern poets, he is found in the Album Dianæ Leporicidæ of Jac. Savary, under the title of “ululatorum ordo minorum”—“gens parvis devota feris;” and placed in the kennels of Britain—still sufficiently marked by her insular, geographical position, and the staunchness of her canine breed, but, unfortunately for the loyalty of Savary’s own countrymen, no longer exclusively characterized by the traitorous, regicide spirit of her inhabitants:
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.
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.” Countrey Contentments, B. i. c. iv. 14.“Their musicke is very smalle, like reeds, and their pace like their body, onely for exercise, and not for slaughter.”
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 Animadvers. in Oppian. Cyneg. i. 373.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]