Hiero the Tyrant and Other Treatises (Penguin Classics) (22 page)

[1] It is a good idea to track hares when the snow is thick enough to cover the ground, but if there are still patches of bare ground, they will be hard to find. When it is cloudy and the wind is from the north, the traces remain visible on the surface for a long time, because the snow is slow to melt; but when the wind is from the south and the sun is shining, the snow soon melts and the traces quickly disappear. When it is snowing constantly, however, you should not bother to go out hunting, because the snow covers up the traces. The same goes for when there is a strong wind, because the drifting snow covers them up.

[2] The hunter certainly should not go out hunting with hounds under these conditions because the snow blisters their noses and their feet,
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and the extreme cold makes the hare’s scent impossible to find. Instead he should collect his game-nets and go out with an assistant to the mountains, leaving the fields behind, and make his way along any [3] traces he finds. If the traces are confused, he should circle around, following single sets of traces back to a single point, in an attempt to find any which break out of the confusion. Hares often roam around in search of a place to rest, and a life of pursuit has also given them [4] the habit of employing artifice when they are on the move. When, as a result of this kind of search,
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a trace becomes visible, the hunter should press on forward. The trace will take him either to a place with plenty of cover or to a steep slope, because the wind carries the snow over such places and leaves plenty of resting-places there.

[5] Once the traces have led the hunter to this kind of spot, he should not go too near, in case the hare bolts off, but should circle around the area. The chances are that the hare is there, and he will find out
by checking that the traces nowhere emerge from the place. Having [6] determined that the hare is there, he should leave it alone, because the hare will stay there, and look for another one before the traces become indistinct, bearing in mind what season of the year it is, and therefore making sure that, if he does find other hares as well, there will be enough time for him to surround them. In due course he [7] should hang his game-nets around each hare that he has found (the method being no different from that used on ground which is bare of snow), enclosing everything the hare may be near, and once the nets have been set up, he should approach and start the hare moving. If the hare extricates itself from the nets, he should run after it, [8] following its traces. The hare will end up in another similar location, unless it crouches in the actual snow. Wherever the hare ends up, the hunter should investigate the spot and surround it. If it does not stay there, he should continue his pursuit, because he will eventually catch the hare even without the help of the nets, since the depth of the snow and the amount that sticks to the hair on the lower parts of its feet combine to tire the creature out.

The best hounds for hunting fawns and hinds are Indian hounds, [1] because they are strong, large, fast and not lacking in courage – a combination of qualities which makes them capable of hard work.
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New-born fawns should be hunted in spring, which is the season when they are born. The hunter should go out into the meadowland [2] and find out where there are the largest numbers of deer. He should then go to this spot, wherever it may be, before daybreak, with the dog-handler and
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the hounds and javelins. He should tie the hounds to trees some way off, so that they will not catch sight of any deer and bark, and then keep a lookout. At daybreak he will see the hinds [3] taking their fawns to the various places where each of them is going to bed her fawn down. Once they have settled them down and given them milk and looked around to make sure that they are not being observed, each hind moves off to one side to watch over her fawn.

[4] When the hunter sees this happen, he should untie the hounds from the trees, pick up the javelins and approach the place where he saw the nearest fawn bed down, carefully noting all the features of the terrain to avoid making a mistake, because from close at hand their appearance is considerably different from what it was at a distance.
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[5] When he has spotted the fawn, he should approach it; it will flatten itself to the ground and keep still, and will let itself be picked up, bleating loudly, unless it has been exposed to the rain, in which case it will not stay where it is, because the moisture in its own body [6] is quickly congealed by the cold and this makes it set off.
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But it will be caught by the hounds after a hard chase. When he has the fawn, he should give it to the net-keeper. It will bleat, and this sound, as well as what she has seen, will bring the hind running over to whoever [7] has the fawn to see if she can rescue it. This is the time to set the hounds on her and to make use of his javelins. Once he has secured this first fawn, he should make his way to the others and use the same method of hunting on them too.

[8] This is how young fawns are taken. Older ones are not so easy, because they graze with their mothers and with other deer, and when chased they take up a position in the middle of the fleeing herd – [9] occasionally in the front, rarely at the back. Moreover, the hinds lash out with their hoofs against the hounds in defence of their young. All this makes the fawns hard to capture, unless one immediately makes an assault on the herd, scatters the hinds and isolates one of the fawns. [10] Having made this sudden burst, the hounds fall behind in the first run, because the absence of the hinds makes the fawn terrified, and there is nothing to compare with fawns of this age for speed. It will not take long for them to be captured, however, on the second or third run, because they are still too young to be physically capable of sustaining the effort.

[11]Traps are also set for deer in mountainous regions, around meadows, streams and springs, on paths and in any cultivated fields they visit. [12] The traps should be made out of plaited yew (with its bark removed to prevent rotting), with a circular crown and spikes of alternate iron and wood woven into the plaited part; the iron spikes should be longer, because while it is the job of the wooden spikes to yield to
the deer’s foot, the iron ones should stick into it.
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The noose which [13] is to be placed on top of the crown, and the rope itself, should be made out of plaited esparto,
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which is particularly slow to rot. The actual noose, as well as the rope, has to be sturdy, and the log which is tied on to the end of the rope should be oak or holm-oak, three hand-spans long, still with its bark on, and one palm in diameter.

To set the trap, dig a round pit five palms deep, with its rim the [14] same size as the crown of the trap, and gradually narrowing down towards the bottom, and also dig out enough soil to accommodate both the rope and the log. Next, put the trap a little way down in [15] the pit, so that it ends up level with the surface of the ground, and lay the noose on the top ofthe trap. Once the trap and the log have been laid in their respective places, put thistle stalks on the top, without letting them project beyond the trap, and then a layer of light leaves, from whatever plants are in season. Next sprinkle some soil on the [16] leaves, beginning with the topsoil dug out of the pits, and then on top of this lay some clods of earth, which should be taken from some distance away, to make it as difficult as possible for the deer to spot the emplacement. Carry any soil that is left over far away from the trap, because if the deer smells newly turned earth, it will become cautious – something it is always liable to do at short notice.

The hunter should take his hounds and inspect the traps he has set [17] in the mountains at dawn without fail, and at other times of the day as well, and the traps he has set in the fields early in the morning. For in the remoteness of the mountains deer are caught during the daytime, as well as at night, whereas in the cultivated fields they are caught only at night, because during the day they are frightened of the human beings there. When he finds a trap upset, he should let the hounds [18] off their leashes with a word of command and set out at a run along the path left by the log. He should keep an eye out for the direction the deer has taken, which will usually be perfectly clear, because there will be disturbed stones, the marks made by the log will be easy to spot in cultivated fields, and if the deer traverses rugged terrain, there will be bits of bark torn from the log sticking to the rocks, which will make a fairly easy trail to run along.

If it is the deer’s foreleg that has been caught in the trap, it will [19]
soon be taken, because every part of its body, including its face, gets struck by the log as it races along. If it is one of its back legs, its whole body labours under the disadvantage of dragging the log, and it might dash into the forked branches of a shrub and get stuck there, if it does [20] not snap the rope. But whether the hunter catches it in this way or by wearing it out, he must not go near it, because stags butt with their horns and kick with their feet, and hinds use their feet. So he should throw his javelins from some distance away.

In summer deer may also be caught by being chased without the aid of traps, because they get so exhausted that they come to a standstill and can be hit with javelins. They also get so confused when they are cornered that they leap into the sea or into pools. Sometimes they collapse from shortness of breath.

[1]For hunting wild boar, the hunter must have Indian, Cretan, Locrian and Laconian hounds, short nets, javelins, pikes and traps.
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The first point to note is that the hounds of each species must be outstanding [2] enough to be prepared to battle the creature. The short nets should be made out of the same kinds of flax as are used for the hares’ nets; they should be 45-threaded, in three strands, with each strand consisting of fifteen threads, and be ten knots in height, from top to bottom, with each mesh one cubit deep. The surrounds should be one and a half times as thick as the netting, with rings at the corners; they should run under the meshes and project, at the ends, beyond the rings. Fifteen rings are enough.
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[3] He should have a thorough assortment of javelins with broad, razor-sharp heads and sturdy shafts. The pikes should have blades five palms long, with stout bronze barbs halfway down their sockets, and with cornel-wood shafts as thick as the shaft of a spear
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. The traps should be of the same design as those used for deer.
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He should have several fellow hunters, because it is not easy to capture a boar, even for a large number of people. I will now explain how each of these pieces of equipment should be used for hunting.

First, then, they should make their way to a place where they expect [4] the hunt to get started. There they should let one of the Laconian hounds go, and make a circuit of the place along with her, while keeping the rest of the pack on their leashes. When she finds a boar’s [5] traces, they must form up in single file and follow the tracking hound
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as she gives clear signs as to which way the train is to follow. The hunters too will find plenty of evidence of the boar – traces in soft ground, broken branches in any thick undergrowth and, where there are trees, scars made by its tusks. By following the traces, the hound [6] will usually end up at a thicket, because that is the kind of spot generally chosen by boars as resting-places, since they are warm in the winter and cool in the summer.

On reaching the boar’s lair, the hound will bark, but only in [7] exceptional cases will the boar get to its feet. So the hunters should take the hound and tie it up along with the others a good distance away from the lair, and then have the short nets set up at the boar’s places of refuge, by hanging the meshes on forked branches in the undergrowth, and forming out of the net itself a long, extended recess, using sticks to prop it up inside on both sides, so that the maximum amount of daylight can penetrate into the recess through the meshes, and the interior will consequently be as well lit as possible when the boar runs into it. The surround should be attached to a strong tree, not to a shrub, because bushes catch on the threads of the net.
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Use undergrowth to block up even unlikely places of refuge in the case of each net, so that the boar runs straight into the nets.

Once the nets are in place the hunters should go to the hounds and [8] untie them all; then they should take their javelins and pikes in their hands and advance towards the boar’s lair. One man, the most experienced among them, should tell the dogs what to do, while the rest follow in due order, spread out at a considerable distance from one another, to allow the boar enough room to pass between them, because if they are all bunched together and the boar dashes into them as it tries to escape, there is a risk of someone being gored, since it vents its fury on anyone it meets.

When the hounds are close to the lair, they will hurl themselves [9] into the attack. The uproar will make the boar get to its feet. It will
toss aside any of the hounds that attack it face on, and dash off at a run into a net. If it avoids the nets, the hunters must chase it. If the ground where it is held by a net is sloping, it will not be long before it is back on its feet, but on level ground its immediate reaction will

[10] be to stay still, thinking things over within itself. This is the moment for the hounds to attack, and the hunters should carefully let fly with their javelins, and pelt it with stones too, standing in a semicircle around its rear, but a good way off, until it pushes itself forward enough to stretch the surround of the net tight – which is the cue for the most experienced and self-disciplined of the hunters to approach the boar head on and spear it with a pike.

[11] If despite all the javelins and stones the boar refuses to stretch the surround tight, but slows down, wheels round and confronts any hostile approach, in these circumstances a hunter must take his pike in hand and advance, holding the pike with the left hand in front of the right, because it is the job of the left hand to guide the pike while the right hand drives it in. The left foot should accompany the left [12] hand forward, with the right foot following the right hand.
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He should make his approach with the pike held out in front of him, with his legs only a little further apart than in a wrestling stance
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and his left side turned towards the left hand, looking the beast in the eye and assessing what movements it might make by taking note of what it does with its head.
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He should bring the pike to bear, taking care that the boar does not knock it out of his hands with a jerk of its head, [13] because it will follow up the impetus gained from the jerk. If the pike is knocked out of his hand, he should throw himself on his face and cling on to the lower parts of the undergrowth, because if the beast attacks him when he is in this position, the curve of its tusks will prevent it from lifting him up. If he is off the ground when the beast attacks, however, he is bound to be gored. In any case, the boar will try to get him off the ground; if it cannot do so, it will stand over [14] him and trample him. There is only one way out of this desperate situation, and that is for one of the man’s fellow hunters to approach the boar and provoke it by wielding a pike as if he were going to let fly with it; however, he must not in fact throw the pike, in case he [15] hits his companion on the ground. When the boar sees what is going
on, it will leave the man it is standing over and turn all its rage and fury against the person who is provoking it. The man on the ground must waste no time in leaping to his feet, remembering to retain his grip on his pike as he does so, because there is nothing noble about safety unless it is accompanied by victory.
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He must bring the pike to [16] bear once again just as he did before, and plunge the pike within the shoulder-blades, where he can get at the throat, with a firm thrust. The boar will be so enraged that it will press on, and if it were not for the barbs on the blade of the pike, it would impale itself along the shaft until it reached the man wielding the pike.

A boar is so powerful that it has some surprising qualities. For [17] instance, if you put some hairs on one of its tusks just after it has died, they shrivel up. That is how hot its tusks are. The tusks on a live boar which has been provoked become blazing hot; this is the only explanation for the fact that, when it misses in an attempt to gore a hound, the ends of the hairs on the dog’s coat become singed.

This is the least of what one has to go through to capture a male [18] boar. If it is a sow that has dashed into the nets, the hunter must run up and thrust at it, taking care not to be knocked to the ground. If this occurs, he is bound to be trampled and bitten, so he should do all he can to avoid falling in its way. If it happens by accident, the same means for getting to his feet are available as in the case of the male. Once back on his feet, he must lunge at the beast with his pike until he has killed it.

Another method for capturing boars is as follows. Short nets are [19] set up for them on the paths between glens and thickets, at bends, on rocky ground and at the entrances to meadows, marshes and pools. One of the hunters is given the job of guarding the nets, pike in hand, while the rest take the hounds and search for the most likely spots. As soon as a boar is found, it is chased. If it dashes into a net, the [20] net-keeper must take up his pike, go up to the boar and deal with it in the way I have already described; if it avoids the nets, he must run after it.

In stiflingly hot weather, simple pursuit by hounds can lead to a boar’s capture, because for all its enormous strength the creature gets short of breath and tired.

[21] Boar-hunting causes the death of large numbers of hounds, and the hunters themselves are at risk too, or at least they are when during a chase they have no choice but to approach a boar, pikes in hand, when the animal is tired or standing in water or has taken up a position by a cliff or is reluctant to leave a thicket, because under these circumstances there is no net or anything else stopping it from charging anyone who comes near. Still, a hunter does have to approach a boar in these situations; it is time for him to show the courage that led him [22] to choose this way of satisfying his desire to hunt.
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He must wield his pike and thrust his body forward in the way I have described; then, if he does have an accident, it will not be because he was not doing things correctly.

Traps may be set for boar as for deer, and in the same places. The procedure is identical – inspection, chase, approach and use of the pike.
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[23] A new-born boar does not allow itself to be captured easily. It is never alone when young, and when the hounds find it, or it sees something in the distance, it quickly vanishes into the undergrowth; it is usually accompanied by both its parents, which make formidable foes on these occasions, since they are even more aggressive in defence of their young than they are on their own behalf.