CYNEGETICA, IV. 330-357 



someone whose business is the keeping of a vineyard 

 had pressed eleven years before," arid they mix the 

 sweet hquor with the water and leave the purple 

 spring and bivouac not far away, making shift to 

 cover their vaHant bodies ^nth goat skins or merely 

 with the nets, since they can find no shelter either of 

 rock or leafy tree ; for all the land stretches sandy 

 and treeless. The Leopards, smitten by the flaming 

 sun, feel the call both of thirst and of the odour which 

 they love, and they approach the Bromian spring and 

 with widely gaping mouth lap up the ■wine. First 

 they all leap about one another like dancers ; then 

 their hmbs become heavy, and they gently nod their 

 heads do%\'nwards to the goodly earth ; then deep : 

 slumber overcomes them all and casts them here j 

 and there upon the ground. As when at a banquet 

 youths of an age, still boys, still mth the down upon 

 their cheeks, sing sweetly and challenge each other 

 after dinner Anth cup for cup ; and it is late ere they 

 give over, and the strength of the \\"ine is heavy on 

 head and eye and throws them over one upon the 

 other ; even so those ^vild beasts are heaped on one 

 another and become, without mighty toil, the prey 

 of the hunters. 



For Bears an exceeding glorious hunt is made by 

 those who dwell on the Tigris and in Armenia famous 

 for archery. A great crowd go to the shady depths 

 of the thickets,'' skilful men \\'ith keen-scented 



" From Horn. Od. iii. 391 oivov rjSviroToio, rov evdeKdrifi 

 efiain-f (i.e. eleven years after it was made) \ Ssi^ev toliut) /cai 

 diro KprjSenvov i\v<Tt. 



* airroXi'-yoii of most Mss. Seems meaningless. avroXvTon 

 (Schneid. ) means "on a slip-leash." Cf. Hes. s. aiToXvffis' 

 difia €(p' oj d^/ct/Xi; ((prjrrai /cai oi'x fi^i^ta 7e70»'ei'. 



189 



