[33] Or, "throwing his whole weight on the thrust, press home with all his force."
[34] Or, "but for the intervention of the two projecting teeth of the lance-blade." See the account of the passage of arms between Col. Pollock and a boar in his "Incidents of Foreign Sport and Travel." There the man was mounted, but alone.
[35] Lit. "force his heavy bulk along the shaft right up to the holder of the boar-spear."
Nay, so tremendous is the animal's power, that a property which no one ever would suspect belongs to him. Lay a few hairs upon the tusk of a boar just dead, and they will shrivel up instantly,[36] so hot are they, these tusks. Nay, while the creature is living, under fierce excitement they will be all aglow; or else how comes it that though he fail to gore the dogs, yet at the blow the fine hairs of their coats are singed in flecks and patches?[37]
[36] {euthus}, i.e. "for a few seconds after death."
[37] The belief is still current, I am told, in parts of India.
So much and even greater trouble may be loked for from the wild boar before capture; I speak of the male animal. If it should be a sow that falls into the toils, the huntsman should run up and prod her, taking care not to be pushed off his legs and fall, in which case he cannot escape being trampled on and bitten. Ergo, he will not voluntarily get under those feet; but if involuntarily he should come to such a pass, the same means[38] of helping each the other to get up again will serve, as in the case of the male animal; and when he has regained his legs, he must ply the boar-spear vigorously till she too has died the death.
[38] {dianastaseis}, "the same methods of mutual recovery."
Wild pigs may be captured further in the following fashion: The nets are fixed for them at the entrances of woody glens,[39] in coppices and hollows, and on screes, where there are outlets into rank meadow- lands, marshes, and clear pools.[40] The appointed person mounts guard at the nets with his boar-spear, while the others work the dogs, exploring the best and likeliest spots. As soon as the quarry is found the chase commences. If then an animal falls into the net, the net- keeper will grip his boar-spear and[41] advance, when he will ply it as I have described; if he escape the net, then after him full cry. In hot, sultry weather the boar may be run down by the hounds and captured. Though a monster in strength, the creature becomes short of breath and will give in from sheer exhaustion.
[39] Al. "at the passages from woodland lakes into oak-coppices."
[40] {udata}, "waters," lakes, pools, rivers, etc.
[41] Or, "and proceed to tackle him."
It is a form of sport which costs the lives of many hounds and endangers those of the huntsmen themselves. Supposing that the animal has given in from exhaustion at some moment in the chase, and they are forced to come to close quarters;[42] whether he has taken to the water, or stands at bay against some craggy bank, or does not choose to come out from some thicket (since neither net nor anything else hinders him from bearing down like a tornado on whoever approaches); still, even so, advance they must, come what come may, to the attack. And now for a display of that hardihood which first induced them to indulge a passion not fit for carpet knights[43]--in other words, they must ply their boar-spears and assume that poise of body[44] already described, since if one must meet misfortune, let it not be for want of observing the best rules.[45]
[42] Reading {prosienai} [{ta probolia}]. [The last two words are probably a gloss, and should be omitted, since {prosienai} (from {prosiemi}) {ta probolia} = "ply," or "apply their boar-spears," is hardly Greek.] See Schneid. "Add. et Corr." and L. Dind. ad loc.
[43] {ekponein}, "to exercise this passion to the full."
[44] Lit. "assume their boar-spears and that forward attitude of body."
[45] Lit. "it will not be at any rate from behaving correctly."
Foot-traps are also set for the wild boar, similar to those for deer and in the same sort of places; the same inspections and methods of pursuit are needed, with consequent attacks and an appeal to the boar- spear in the end.
Any attempt to capture the young pigs will cost the huntsman some rough work.[46] The young are not left alone, as long as they are small; and when the hounds have hit upon them or they get wind of something wrong, they will disappear like magic, vanishing into the forest. As a rule, both parents attend on their own progeny, and are not pleasant then to meddle with, being more disposed to do battle for their young than for themselves.
[46] Lit. "the piglings will resent it (sc. {to aliskesthai}) strongly"; al. "the adult (sub. {to therion}) will stand anything rather."
XI
Lions, leopards, lynxes, panthers, bears and all other such game are to be captured in foreign countries--about Mount Pangaeus and Cittus beyond Macedonia;[1] or again, in Nysa beyond Syria, and upon other mountains suited to the breeding of large game.
[1] Of these places, Mt. Pangaeus (mod. Pirnari) (see "Hell." V. ii. 17), Cittus (s. Cissus, mod. Khortiatzi), N. W. of the Chalcidice, Mysian Olympus, and Pindus are well known. Nysa has not been verified hitherto, I think. Sturz cf. Bochart, "Hieroz." Part I. lib. iii. c. 1, p. 722. Strabo, 637 (xv. 1. 7), mentions a Mount Nysa in India sacred to Dionysus, and cites Soph. "Frag." 782--
{othen kateidon ton bebakkhiomenen brotoisi kleinon Nusan . . . k.t.l.},
but it is a far cry from Xenophon's Syria to India. Possibly it is to be sought for in the region of Mt. Amanus.
In the mountains, owing to the difficulty of the ground,[2] some of these animals are captured by means of poison--the drug aconite--which the hunters throw down for them,[3] taking care to mix it with the favourite food of the wild best, near pools and drinking-places or wherever else they are likely to pay visits. Others of them, as they descend into the plains at night, may be cut off by parties mounted upon horseback and well armed, and so captured, but not without causing considerable danger to their captors.[4]
[2] Or, "the inaccessibility of their habitats."
[3] "The method is for the trapper to throw it down mixed with the food which the particular creature likes best."
[4] For the poison method see Pollux, v. 82; Plin. "H. N." viii. 27.
In some cases the custom is to construct large circular pits of some depth, leaving a single pillar of earth in the centre, on the top of which at nightfall they set a goat fast-bound, and hedge the pit about with timber, so as to prevent the wild beasts seeing over, and without a portal of admission. What happens then is this: the wild beasts, hearing the bleating in the night, keep scampering round the barrier, and finding no passage, leap over it, and are caught.[5]
[5] See "Tales from the Fjeld," Sir George W. Dasent, "Father Bruin in the Corner."
XII
With regard to methods of procedure in the hunting-field, enough has been said.[1] But there are many benefits which the enthusiastic sportsman may expect to derive from this pursuit.[2] I speak of the health which will thereby accrue to the physical frame, the quickening of the eye and ear, the defiance of old age, and last, but not least, the warlike training which it ensures. To begin with, when some day he has to tramp along rough ways under arms, the heavy infantry soldier will not faint or flag--he will stand the toil from being long accustomed to the same experiences in capturing wild beasts. In the next place, men so trained will be capable of sleeping on hard couches, and prove brave guardians of the posts assigned them. In the actual encounter with the enemy, they will know at once how to attack and to carry out the word of command as it passes along the lines, because it was just so in the old hunting days that they captured the wild game. If posted in the van of battle, they will not desert their ranks, because endurance is engrained in them. In the rout of the enemy their footsteps will not falter nor fail: straight as an arrow they will follow the flying foe, on every kind of ground, through long habituation.[3] Or if their own army encounter a reverse on wooded and precipitous ground beset with difficulties, these will be the men to save themselves with honour and to extricate their friends; since long acquaintance with the business of the chase has widened their intelligence.[4]
[1] Or, "Respecting the methods employed in different forms of the chase, I have said my say." As to the genuineness of this and the following chapter see L. Dind. ad loc.; K. Lincke, "Xenophon's Dialog." {peri oikonomias}, p. 132.
[2] Lit. "this work"; and in reference to the highly Xenophontine argument which follows see "Hellenica Essays," p. 342; cf. "Cyrop." I. vi. 28, 39-41.
[3] "For the sake of 'auld lang syne.'"
[4] Or, "will place them on the vantage-ground of experts."
Nay, even under the worst of circumstances, when a whole mob of fellow-combatants[5] has been put to flight, how often ere now has a handful[6] of such men, by virtue of their bodily health[7] and courage, caught the victorious enemy roaming blindly in some intricacy of ground, renewed the fight, and routed him. Since so it must ever be; to those whose souls and bodies are in happy case success is near at hand.[8]
[5] Or, "allies."
[6] Or, "a forlorn hope."
[7] {euexia}, al. {eutaxia}, "by good discipline."
[8] "Fortune favours the brave," reading {to eutukhesai} (L. D.); or if {tou eutukhesai}, (vulg.) "those whose health of soul and body is established are ipso facto nigh unto good fortune."
It was through knowledge that they owed success against their foes to such a training, that our own forefathers paid so careful a heed to the young.[9] Though they had but a scant supply of fruits, it was an immemorial custom "not to hinder[10] the hunter from hunting any of earth's offspring"; and in addition, "not to hunt by night[11] within many furlongs of the city," in order that the adepts in that art might not rob the young lads of their game. They saw plainly that among the many pleasures to which youth is prone, this one alone is productive of the greatest blessings. In other words, it tends to make them sound of soul and upright, being trained in the real world of actual things[12] [and, as was said before, our ancestors could not but perceive they owed their success in war to such instrumentality[13]]; and the chase alone deprives them of none of the other fair and noble pursuits that they may choose to cultivate, as do those other evil pleasures, which ought never to be learned. Of such stuff are good soldiers and good generals made.[14] Naturally, those from whose souls and bodies the sweat of toil has washed all base and wanton thoughts, who have implanted in them a passion for manly virtue--these, I say, are the true nobles.[15] Not theirs will it be to allow their city or its sacred soil to suffer wrong.
[9] Al. "looked upon the chase as a pursuit incumbent on the young."
[10] {me koluein [dia] to meden ton epi te ge phuomenon agreuein}. The commentators generally omit {dia}, in which case translate as in text. Lenz reads {un koluein dia meden} (see his note ad v. 34), and translates (p. 61), "Dass man die Jager nicht hindern solle, in allem was die Erde hervorbrachte zu jagen," "not to hinder the huntsmen from ranging over any of the crops which spring from earth"; (but if so, we should expect {dia medenos}). Sturz, s.v. {agreuein}, notes "festive," "because the hunter does not hunt vegetable products." So Gail, "parce que le chasseur rien veut pas aux productions de la terre."
[11] Or, "set their face against night-hunting," cf. "Mem." IV. vii. 4; Plat. "Soph." 220 D; "Stranger: There is one mode of striking which is done at night, and by the light of a fire, and is called by the hunters themselves firing, or spearing by firelight" (Jowett); for which see Scott, "Guy Mannering," ch. x. It seems "night hunting was not to be practised within a certain considerable radius, whereby the proficients in that art might deprive it (lit. in order that they might not deprive) them (the young huntsmen) of their game."
[12] Lit. "in truth and reality (not among visionary phantoms)."
[13] These words are commonly regarded as an addition; and what does {te} signify?
[14] Or, "Here you have the making of brave soldiers and generals. Here in embryo are to be found your future soldiers and generals worthy the name."
[15] {outoi aristoi}: these are prima virorum, the true aristocrats.
Some people tell us it is not right to indulge a taste for hunting, lest it lead to neglect of home concerns, not knowing that those who are benefactors of their country and their friends are in proportion all the more devoted to domestic duties. If lovers of the chase pre- eminently fit themselves to be useful to the fatherland, that is as much as to say they will not squander their private means; since with the state itself the domestic fortunes of each are saved or lost. The real fact is, these men are saviours, not of their own fortunes only, but of the private fortunes of the rest, of yours and mine. Yet there are not a few irrational people amongst these cavillers who, out of jealousy, would rather perish, thanks to their own baseness, than owe their lives to the virtue of their neighbours. So true is it that the mass of pleasures are but evil,[16] to which men succumb, and thereby are incited to adopt the worse cause in speech and course in action.[17] And with what result?--from vain and empty arguments they contract emnities, and reap the fruit of evil deeds, diseases, losses, death--to the undoing of themselves, their children, and their friends.[18] Having their senses dulled to things evil, while more than commonly alive to pleasures, how shall these be turned to good account for the salvation of the state? Yet from these evils every one will easily hold aloof, if once enamoured of those joys whose brief I hold, since a chivalrous education teaches obedience to laws, and renders justice familiar to tongue and ear.[19]
[16] See "Hellenica Essays," p. 371.
[17] "To depravity of speech and conduct" (whether as advocates or performers). See Aristoph. "Clouds."
[18] Or, "bring down on themselves, their children, and their friends a spring of misfortunes in the shape of diseases, losses, or even death."
