190 APPENDIX. 



gradually contracting their ambit, to force the animals of the district 

 into a narrower compass ; — when at the will of the magister vena- 

 tionis, the work of slaughter commenced. i This mode of hunting is 

 very clearly described, with its usual auxiliaries of noise and flame, 

 in a simile of the Achilleid : 



Statii Achil. sic curva feras indago latentes 



' '• Claudit, et admotis paulatim cassibus arctat. 



Illffi ignem sonitumque pavent, difFusaque liuquunt 

 Avia, tniranturque suum decrescere moutem. 

 Donee in aiigustaiu ceciderunt undique vallem, 

 Inque vicem stupuere greges, socioque tiniore 

 IMansuescunt. Simul hirtus aper, simul ursa, iupusque 

 Cogitur, et captos contemnit cerva leones. 



The Faliscian poet, in the early part of his Cynegeticon, specifies 

 the best materials for the composition of nets, with particular in- 

 structions for their size and shape : 



Gratii Cyneg. Prima jubent tenui nascentem jungere filo 



^^" ^^' Limbum, et quadruplici tormento adstringere limbos. 



Ilia operura patiens, ilia usus linea longi. 

 Tunc ipsum medio cassem qui nascitur ore. 

 Per senos circum usque sinus laqueabis, ut omnem 

 Concipiat tergo, si quisquam est pluriraus, hostem. 

 Et bis vicenos, spatium praetendere passus 

 Rete velira, plenisque decern consurgere nodis. 



Certaine 1. "In Poland, when the king hunts," observes Wase, " his servants are wont to 



lluistrations of surround a wood, though to the space of a mile or better in compasse, with toiles, 

 the Ovneffeti- 

 call Poem of ''^'^ich are pitched upon firme stakes : this being done, the whole town, all sexes and 



Gratius. p. 68, ages, promiscuously rush into the inclosure, and with their loud shouts rear all the 



beasts within that wood, which making forth, are intercepted in the nets. There 



small and great beasts are together intai)gled, after the same manner as when amongst 



us we draw a net over a pond, and after heating it all over with poles, we bring out 



not only pike and carp, but lesser fry : so they enclose at once, dear, and bores, and 



roe-bucks, and hares : for so they order their nets, that the space of those meshes 



which are twisted with greater cords, for the entangling of greater beasts — that 



space, I say, is made up witli smaller whip-cord, for the catching lesser prey." See 



Xenophon de Venatione, c, vi., and Pausanias in Ba;oticis, c. xxi. The latter 



autlior relates that the Celtic hunters surrounded plains and mountain-thickets with 



their toils, so as to be certain of catching all the animals within the circumference 



thereof. 



