V H I-. I' A V V. . '■> 



The imperfect poem of Gratius, the Faliscian, on hunting, Gratii Falisci 



Cyncg. VS.203. 



and the often-cited simile of his contemporary Ovid, afford Ovid, ftictam. 



L. I. vs. 5:{3. ft 



the earhest notice of the canis GaUicus — for he was unknown L. vu. vs.78i, 



to ancient Greece.^ The description of a single-handed course 



by the poet of the Metamorphoses, as it is the first attempt of 



the kind by any classic author, so is it unrivalled in the 



accuracy of its technical phraseology, and the beauty of its 



poetry. Intermediate in point of time between the vivid 



Ovidian sketch, and the full and perfect picture of Arrian, 



are the faint outlines of the epigrammatist Martial : and Martial. L. m. 



Epig. 47. et 



subsequent to the Bithynian's, the somewhat doubtful por- L- xiv. Epig. 



200. 



trait of the philologist Julius Pollux, presented to the Emperor Poiiuc. Ono- 



. mast. L.v.Prffif. 



Commodus ; and yet later, that of Oppian, the Greek poet Oppian. Cyneg. 



L. I. vs. 401. 



of Anazarbus, of the reigns of Severus and Caracalla. — 



1. This statement is limited to classical authors alone ; the Biblical scholar might 

 possibly arraign its accuracy, if made more general ; though it scarce needs qualifi- 

 cation to suit the doubtful interpretation of the Hebrew test of Proverbs ch. xxx. ver. 

 31 . No allusion occurring elsewhere in the sacred volume to dogs of the chase, though 

 many to the earlier varieties of Venation with predatory instruments, it is improbable 

 that the words of Agur to his pupils Ithiel and Ucal should refer to the most uncom- 

 mon of the canine tribe, the canis Leporarius, Gallicus, or Vertragus. The Hebrew- 

 expression, however, for " accinctus lumbis," "girt in the loins," as explained in Bocnarti Hie- 

 the margin of the English version, is understood by Jewish lexicographers to desig- 

 nate the greyhound, and is so rendered in the English text. But with the learned 

 Bochart (Prjefat. ad Lectorem — wherein he corrects a few errors of the body of his 

 work, and gives his latest and most mature opinions on certain Scriptural difficulties 

 — a part of his writings apparently overlooked by modern annotators, to the farther 

 propagation of error) I should rather understand the horse to be the animal alluded 

 to — " equura intelligi malim, qui non solum expedite, sed et superbe, et cum porap^ Ejusdeni Prse- 

 quadam incedit: et lumbos habet cingula vel zonk vere succinctos. Quod an de '^t.adLectorem. 

 cane dici possit valde arabigo." After all, perhaps, no particular animal may have 

 been intended by the son of Jakeh. The term may have a general reference to any 

 animal of the frame alluded to — " substricta gerens — ilia — " The chapter containing Ovid. Metam. 

 the passage in question is not found in the Sepluagiiit; indeed the Greek version of "'• 

 the LXX. terminates with the 29th chapter. 



