A I'lM'.N IllX. 18.J 



by way of introduction to the subject of classic hunting witli tlic 

 ancient varieties of the canine race. 



With seeming accuracy Gratius has described the whole of the 

 antique poaching gear ; ' but it must be confessed that neither 

 Xenophon's, nor the Faliscian's, nor the hunting technicalities of 

 the other Cynegetical writers, can be fully explained to modern 

 comprehension. 



The deities and demi-deities of sylvan life are objects of invoca- 

 tion in the exordium of Gratius : 



His ego praesidibus nostram defendere sortem GraliiCyneg. 



Contra mille feras, et non sine carmine, nisus '^' '■^^' 



Carmine, et arma dabo venandi, et persequar artem 

 Armorum, cassesque, plagarumque ordiar astus. 



and then, under their tutelary aid, the poet begins to handle the 

 " arma venandi ;" which, as recorded in the Cynegetica generally, 

 consisted of the linea or formido, nets of various mesh and size and 

 shape, nooses, springes, and other traps — missile weapons, as darts, 

 arrows, &c. ; and those for standing-defence, as the halberd-like 

 boar-spear, &c. : many of these, however, were not of very remote 

 antiquity. ~ 



1. " We are not sensible of Gratius's great care in the choice and ordering of Certaine 

 speares," in the language of his illustrator, " nor of his provision in sliowing to set ,"* lations, 

 engines, and dig pits, which men prize in those countries where beares and lyons, 



with such ravenous beasts, do abound. We seem to have a different end in our 

 hunting, which hath introduced a diflFerent stile of hunting," &c. 



2. The arts of war and hunting advanced passibus aquis ; both at first equally 

 rude, and destitute of ingenuity of contrivance in their respective instruments of 

 assault ; 



Unguibus et pugnis, dein fustibus, atque ita porro fjor. Sat. L. i. 



Pugnabant armis quae post fabricaverat usus. S'l'- '"• l^^* 



Before the age of Homer, the bow and arrow, " the artillery of ancient heroes," the 

 67X05 or ^6pv, spear or pike, |iiJ)os the sword, and Kopivri the club, constituted the 

 entire armoury of tlie warriors and hunters of semi-barbarous Greece. See Iliad xi. 

 and xvii. Odyss. ix. and xix. How scanty was the furniture of Hercules in his 

 attack of the Nemcan lion ! 



2 A 



