Complete Works of Xenophon (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics) (163 page)

Through the heed they paid to hounds and hunting and the rest of their scholarship they excelled greatly and were admired for their virtue. Cephalus was carried away by a goddess.
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Asclepius won yet, greater preferment — to raise the dead, to heal the sick; and for these things he has everlasting fame as a god among men.
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Meilanion was so peerless in love of toil that, though the princeliest of that age were his rival suitors for the greatest Lady of the time, only he won Atalanta. Nestor’s virtue is an old familiar tale to Greek ears; so there is no need for me to tell of it.
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Amphiaraus when he fought against Thebes, gained great praise and won from the gods the honour of immortality. Peleus stirred a desire even in the gods to give him Thetis and to hymn their marriage in Cheiron’s home.
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Telamon waxed so mighty that he wedded from the greatest city the maiden of his choice, Periboea, daughter of Alcathus: and when the first of the Greeks, Heracles son of Zeus, distributed the prizes of valour after taking Troy, to him he gave Hesione/.
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As for Meleager, the honours that he won are manifest; and it was not by his own fault that he came to sorrow when his father in old age forgot the goddess. Theseus single-handed slew the enemies of all Greece; and because he enlarged greatly the borders of his country he is admired to this day.
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Hippolytus was honoured by Artemis and held converse with her; and for his prudence and holiness he was counted happy when he died. Palamedes far outstripped the men of his generation in wisdom while he lived; and being unjustly slain he won from the gods such vengeance as fell to the lot of no other mortal. But his end was not compassed by those whom some imagine, else could not the one of them have been well-nigh the best, and the other the peer of the good; but bad men did the deed.
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Menestheus through the heed he paid to hunting, so far surpassed others in love of toil that the first of the Greeks confessed themselves his inferiors in feats of war, all save Nestor; and he, it is said, outdid not, but rivalled him.
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Odysseus and Diomedes were brilliant in every single deed, and in short, to them was due the capture of Troy. Castor and Polydeuces, through the renown that they won by displaying in Greece the arts they learned of Cheiron, are immortal.
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Machaon and Podaleirius, schooled in all the selfsame arts, proved in crafts and reasonings and wars good men. Antilochus, by giving his life for his father, won such glory that he alone was proclaimed among the Greeks as “the Devoted Son.”
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Aeneas saved the gods of his father’s and his mother’s family, and withal his father himself; wherefore he bore away fame for his piety, so that to him alone among all the vanquished at Troy even the enemy granted not to be despoiled.
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Achilles, nursed in this schooling, bequeathed to posterity memorials so great and glorious that no man wearies of telling and hearing of him.
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These, whom the good love even to this day and the evil envy, were made so perfect through the care they learned of Cheiron that, when troubles fell upon any state or any king in Greece, they were composed through their influence; or if all Greece was at strife or at war with all the Barbarian powers, these brought victory to the Greeks, so that they made Greece invincible.
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Therefore I charge the young not to despise hunting or any other schooling. For these are the means by which men become good in war and in all things out of which must come excellence in thought and word and deed.

2.
The first pursuit, therefore, that a young man just out of his boyhood should take up is hunting, and afterwards he should go on to the other branches of education, provided he has means. He must look to his means, and, if they are sufficient, spend as much as the benefit to himself is worth; or, if they are insufficient, at least let him supply enthusiasm, in no way coming short of his power.
[2]

I will give a list and a description of the intending hunter’s outfit, and the explanation of each item, in order that he may understand the business before he puts his hand to it. And let no one regard these details as trivial; inasmuch as nothing can be done without them.
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The net-keeper should be a man with a keen interest in the business, one who speaks Greek, about twenty years old, agile and strong, and resolute, that, being well qualified to overcome his tasks, he may take pleasure in the business.
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The purse-nets should be made of fine Phasian or Carthaginian flax, and the road-nets and hayes of the same material.

Let the purse-nets be of nine threads woven in three strands, each strand consisting of three threads. The proper length for these nets is forty-five inches, the proper width of the meshes six inches. The cords that run round them must be without knots, so that they may run easily.
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The road-nets should be of twelve threads, and the hayes of sixteen. The length of the road-nets may be twelve, twenty-four or thirty-feet; that of the hayes sixty, a hundred and twenty, or a hundred and eighty feet. If they are longer, they will be unwieldy. Both kinds should be thirty knots high, and should have meshes of the same width as those of the purse-nets.
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At the elbows at either end let the road-nets have slip-knots of string and the hayes metal rings, and let the cords be attached by loops.
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The stakes for the purse-nets should be thirty inches long, but some should be shorter. Those of unequal length are for use on sloping ground, to make the height of the nets equal, while those of the same length are used on the level. These stakes must be so shaped at the top that the nets will pull off readily and they must be smooth. The stakes for the road-nets should be twice the length of these, and those for the hayes forty-five inches long. The latter should have little forks with shallow grooves, and all should be stout, of a thickness proportioned to the length.
[8]
The number of stakes used for the hayes may be large or small; fewer are required if the nets are strained tight when set up, more if they are slack.
[9]
A calf-skin bag will be wanted for carrying the purse-nets and road-nets and hayes and the bill-hooks for cutting wood and stopping gaps where necessary.

3.
The hounds used are of two kinds, the Castorian and the Vulpine. The Castorian is so called because Castor paid special attention to the breed, making a hobby of the business. The Vulpine is a hybrid between the dog and the fox: hence the name. In the course of time the nature of the parents has become fused.
[2]
Inferior specimens (that is to say, the majority) show one or more of the following defects. They are small, hook-nosed, grey-eyed, blinking, ungainly, stiff, weak, thin-coated, lanky, ill-proportioned, cowardly, dull-scented, unsound in the feet.
[3]
Now small dogs often drop out of the running through their want of size; hook-nosed dogs have no mouth and can’t hold the hare; grey-eyed dogs and blinkers have bad sight; ungainly dogs look ugly; stiff ones are in a bad way at the end of the hunt; no work can be got out of the weak and the thin-coated ones; those that are lanky and ill-proportioned are heavy movers and carry themselves anyhow; cowards leave their work and give up and slink away from the sun into shady places and lie down; dogs with no nose seldom scent the hare and only with difficulty; and those with bad feet, even if they are plucky, can’t stand the hard work, and tire because they are foot-sore.
[4]

Moreover, hounds of the same breed vary much in behaviour when tracking. Some go ahead as soon as they find the line without giving a sign, and there is nothing to show that they are on it. Some move the ears only, but keep the tail still; others keep the ears still and wag the tip of the tail.
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Others prick up the ears and run frowning along the track, dropping their tails and putting them between their legs. Many do none of these things, but rush about madly round the track, and when they happen upon it, stupidly trample out the traces, barking all the time.
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Others again, continually circling and straying, get ahead of the line when clean off it and pass the hare, and every time they run against the line, begin guessing, and if they catch sight of the hare, tremble and never go for her until they see her stir.
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Hounds that run forward and frequently examine the discoveries of the others when they are casting about and pursuing have no confidence in themselves; while those that will not let their cleverer mates go forward, but fuss and keep them back, are confident to a fault. Others will drive ahead, eagerly following false lines and getting wildly excited over anything that turns up, well knowing that they are playing the fool; others will do the same thing in ignorance. Those that stick to game paths and don’t recognise the true line are poor tools.
[8]
A hound that ignores the trail and races over the track of the hare on the run is ill-bred. Some, again, will pursue hotly at first, and then slack off from want of pluck; others will cut in ahead and then get astray; while others foolishly dash into roads and go astray, deaf to all recall.
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Many abandon the pursuit and go back through their hatred of game, and many through their love of man. Others try to mislead by baying on the track, representing false lines as true ones.
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Some, though free from this fault, leave their own work when they hear a shout from another quarter while they are running, and make for it recklessly. When pursuing some are dubious, others are full of assumptions but their notions are wrong. Then there are the skirters, some of whom merely pretend to hunt, while others out of jealousy perpetually scamper about together beside the line.
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Now most of these faults are natural defects, but some by which hounds are spoilt are due to unintelligent training. Anyhow such hounds may well put a keen hunter off the sport. What hounds of the same breed ought to look like and what they should be in other respects I will now explain.

4.
First, then, they should be big. Next, the head should be light, flat and muscular; the lower parts of the forehead sinewy; the eyes prominent, black and sparkling; the forehead broad, with a deep dividing line; the ears small and thin with little hair behind; the neck long, loose and round; the chest broad and fairly fleshy; the shoulder-blades slightly outstanding from the shoulders; the forelegs short, straight, round and firm; the elbows straight; the ribs not low down on the ground, but sloping in an oblique line; the loins fleshy, of medium length, and neither too loose nor too hard; the flanks of medium size; the hips round and fleshy at the back, not close at the top, and smooth on the inside; the under part of the belly itself slim; the tail long, straight and thin; the thighs hard; the shanks long, round and solid; the hind-legs much longer than the fore-legs and slightly bent; the feet round.
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Hounds like these will be strong in appearance, agile, well-proportioned, and speedy; and they will have a jaunty expression and a good mouth.
[3]

When tracking they should get out of the game paths quickly, hold their heads well down and aslant, smiling when they find the scent and lowering their ears; then they should all go forward together along the trail towards the form circling frequently, with eyes continually on the move and tails wagging.
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As soon as they are close on the hare, they should let the huntsman know, quickening the pace and showing more emphatic signs by their excitement, movements of the head and eyes, changes of attitude, by looking up and looking into the covert and returning again and again to the hare’s form, by leaps forward, backward and to the side, displays of unaffected agitation and overpowering delight at being near the hare.
[5]

They should pursue with unremitting vigour, giving tongue and barking freely, dogging the hare’s steps wherever she goes. They should be fast and brilliant in the chase, frequently casting about and giving tongue in the right fashion; and they should not leave the track and go back to the huntsman.
[6]

Along with this appearance and behaviour they should have pluck, keen noses, sound feet and good coats. They will be plucky if they don’t leave the hunting-ground when the heat is oppressive; keen-nosed if they smell the hare on bare, parched and sunny ground in the dog days; sound in the feet if at the same season their feet are not torn to bits during a run in the mountains; they will have a good coat if the hair is fine, thick and soft.
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The colour of the hounds should not be entirely tawny, black or white; for this is not a sign of good breeding: on the contrary, unbroken colour indicates a wild strain.
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So the tawny and the black hounds should show a patch of white about the face, and the white hounds a tawny patch. At the top of the thighs the hair should be straight and thick, and on the loins and at the lower end of the tail, but it should be moderately thick higher up.
[9]

It is advisable to take the hounds to the mountains often, but less frequently to cultivated land. For in the mountains it is possible to track and follow a hare without hindrance, whereas it is impossible to do either in cultivated land owing to the game paths.
[10]

It is also well to take the hounds out into rough ground, whether they find a hare or not; for they get sound in the feet, and hard work in such country is good for their bodies.
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In summer they should be out till midday, in winter at any hour of the day, in autumn at any time except midday, and before evening during the spring; for at these times the temperature is mild.

5.
The scent of the hare lies long in winter owing to the length of the nights, and for a short time in summer for the opposite reason. In the winter, however, there is no scent in the early morning whenever there is a white frost or the earth is frozen hard. For both white and black frost hold heat; since the one draws it out by its own strength, and the other congeals it.
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The hounds’ noses, too, are numbed by the cold, and they cannot smell when the tracks are in such a state until the tracks thaw in the sun or as day advances. Then the dogs can smell and the scent revives.
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A heavy dew, again, obliterates scent by carrying it downwards; and storms, occurring after a long interval, draw smells from the ground and make the earth bad for scent until it dries. South winds spoil scent, because the moisture scatters it, but north winds concentrate and preserve it, if it has not been previously dissolved.
[4]
Heavy showers drown it, and so does light rain, and the moon deadens it by its warmth, especially when at the full. Scent is most irregular at that time, for the hares, enjoying the light, fling themselves high in the air and jump a long way, frolicking with one another; and it becomes confused when foxes have crossed it.
[5]
Spring with its genial temperature yields a clear scent, except where the ground is studded with flowers and hampers the hounds by mingling the odours of the flowers with it. In summer it is thin and faint, for the ground, being baked, obliterates what warmth it possesses, which is thin; and the hounds’ noses are not so good at that season, because their bodies are relaxed. In the autumn it is unimpeded; for the cultivated crops have been harvested and the weeds have withered, so that the odours of the herbage do not cause trouble by mingling with it.
[6]
In winter and summer and autumn the scent lies straight in the main. In spring it is complicated; for though the animal couples at all times, it does so especially at this season; so instinct prompts them to roam about together, and this is the result they produce.
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