74 



ARRIAN 



Chap. III. 



Name. 



Shape, &c. 



Celtic Swift- 

 footed Hounds. 



Vertragi. 



started, they are not inferior to the Carians or Cretans, save in 

 the one point of speed. 



It is good sport, if they kill but a single hare in the winter 

 season, so much resting-time do they give her in the chase ; 

 unless, indeed, by being frightened out of her wits at the 

 tumultuous uproar of the pack, she become an easy prey. 



These dogs are called Segusians, ^ deriving their name from 

 a Celtic people, amongst whom, I suppose, they were first 

 bred, and held in repute. But^ all that can be said about 

 them has been anticipated by the elder Xenophon. For they 

 manifest nothing different from others in their mode of finding, 

 or hunting their game ; — having no peculiarity, unless one 

 were inclined to speak of their shape, which I scarce think 

 worth while, except merely to say, that they are shaggy and 

 ugly ; and such as are most high-bred are most unsightly. 

 So that the comparison of them to mendicants on the high- 

 ways is popular with the Celts. For their voice is dolorous 

 and pitiful ; and they do not bark on scent of their game, as if 

 eager and savage, but as if plaintively whining after it. 



About these, then, I do not think any thing memorable can be 

 written. But the swift-footed Celtic hounds are called in the 

 Celtic tongue ousgrpuyoi ; i — not deriving their name from any 

 particular nation, like the Cretan, Carian, or Spartan dogs : 



Wase's Preface the " accessusque abitusque ferarura " of Gratius (Cyneg. v. 242.) has the same 



to his Transla- n^eaning as these terms of Xenophon. Blane's translation is here, as in almost every 

 tion of Gratius. 



passage of the least dimculty, erroneous. 



Cffisar.DeB.G. 

 L. I. 5. 10. 



5. 'E^ouo-tai. The Segusiani were inhabitants of Gallia Celtica on the western 

 side of the Rhone. " Hi sunt extra provinciam trans Rhodanum prirai." By Cicero 

 they are called Sebusiani (pro P. Quintio). See C. Venatici Class II. in the 

 Appendix. 



6. Xenophon's observations on the mode of hunting of the dogs he has described, 

 (viz. the Casiorian and Foxite hounds of Sparta,) have anticipated all that can be 

 said about these Segusian beagles. See Xenoph. de Venat. c. iii. c. iv. and c. vi. 

 The latter hounds are not mentioned in the Cynegeticus of the elder Xenophon. 



7. Oviprpayoi — Vertragi, Veltrachaj. See the etymology of this Celtic term ex- 

 plained in the Appendix, C. Venatici Class III. Our author is mistaken in deriving 

 the term airh ttjs ojkuttjtos. Its roots are velt campus, and racha canis. 



