For the chase of the wild boar,[[758]] at once a manly and a useful sport, somewhat complicated preparations were necessary. In this the dogs of India, of Crete, of Locris, of Sparta, hunted side by side, and the sportsman took the field armed with strong nets, javelins, hunting poles, and snares. The boar-spears of the ancients[[759]] were most carefully fashioned, with a broad sharp head and handle of tough wood. So likewise were their hunting-poles armed with long iron points, fixed in brazen sockets, with a shaft of service wood. Footsnares of great strength were set at intervals. This was not the sport of a solitary hunter. They went out in considerable numbers, and kept close together, finding still, for lack of fire-arms, no small difficulty in coping with the foe. On reaching the spot where they supposed the hog to be ensconced, the dogs were all led carefully in leash with the exception of one Spartan hound, which was let loose and accompanied in all his movements. When he appeared to have found the track, they followed him, and he thus took the lead in the chase. Numerous signs also directed the movements of the hunter; in soft places the track, broken branches in thickets, and in forests the wounds on the bark of trees, given by the boar in sharpening his tusks as he passed.[[760]]
Generally the traces were found leading to some sheltered nook, warm in winter, in summer cool, where the boar made his lair. On discovering him the dog gave tongue, but the animal in general refused to rise. The hound was then withdrawn and put in leash with the others, and every opening, save one, leading to the place, closed with nets, the upper ends of which were passed over the forks of trees. The nets were hung so as to belly outwards, and carefully disposed so that they could be seen through. Bushes cut hastily supported them on either side, and closed every aperture through which the game could attempt to force a way. This done the hounds were all slipped, and the hunters, armed with pikes and spears, entered the netted enclosure. One of the boldest and most experienced led the dogs; the others followed at intervals, leaving an ample space between them for the boar, which if closely hemmed in might have inflicted on his opponents the fate of Adonis. Presently the hounds sprang all at once upon the game, which rising in sudden alarm tossed the first it encountered into the air, and breaking through the pack made away towards the nets, followed by men and dogs in full cry. On finding the unaccustomed opposition, he would, if running down hill, plunge right forward to force his way through; if in a plain he would stand still, glaring fiercely around.
The dogs, however, soon closed upon his track, while the hunters galled him with javelins and stones, approaching closer and closer till he was driven by his own impetuosity into the nets. Upon this the most daring of his pursuers drew near, pike in hand, and sought to put an end to the contest by piercing him in the head. Sometimes, notwithstanding all they could do, instead of plunging into the toils he would turn upon them; in which case some dexterous sportsman, armed with spear or pike, usually presented himself to receive his charge with one foot advanced, impelling the weapon with the right hand, directing it with the left. Instead, however, of rushing on at once the hog would perhaps pause a moment to reconnoitre, when it behoved his antagonist carefully to mark every movement of his head or glance of his eye.[[761]] For in the very moment that a blow was aimed at him, he would sometimes dash the spear aside with tusk or snout, and the next moment be upon his enemy, whose only chance of safety now consisted in throwing himself instantaneously on his face, and holding fast by whatever he could grasp, since, the tusks of the boar curving upwards, he found it difficult to gore his enemy thus lying, and failing to turn him over would in his fury trample on him. A second hunter now rushed forward to deliver his companion, and usually drew off the hog by dexterous attacks in flank. The fallen sportsman, recovering at the same time his feet and his spear, must by the laws of the chase return to the combat, and could only secure his reputation by immolating his foe. By this time, indeed, the task had generally become easier; for, rendered reckless by fury, he would throw himself impetuously on their pikes, which, but for the protecting guards at the head, would have gone through him handle and all. His whole frame now appeared to be kindled with rage, his blood boiling, his eyes flashing, and his tusks so nearly on fire that if brought in contact with hair at the moment of death, they would frizzle it like a red-hot iron.[[762]]
Of the hunting of the bear[[763]] the ancients have left us no exact description. As this animal abounded, however, in most parts of Greece, where it was extremely troublesome and destructive, particularly to the fruit-trees, various expedients were hit upon for taking and destroying it. Sometimes it was pursued as game and brought down by the bow; but the common method appears to have been to make use of traps and snares. They dug, for example, a deep trench round one of those trees in the fruit of which the bear particularly delighted, and covering it with reeds or brittle branches, they sprinkled thereon a thin layer of earth, and concealed the whole apparatus with fresh grass. The bear, proceeding as usual towards the tree on his thievish errand, broke in the roof of the pit with his weight, and was caught. Even in the most civilised times this animal had not been wholly extirpated from Attica,[[764]] but, as well as the boar, was found on Mount Parnes. In Laconia also, through the whole range of Taygetos, it abounded, together with hogs, deer, and wild goats. Bruin was sacrificed in Achaia to Artemis Laphria. In Thrace the white bear was found.[[765]]
Respecting the habits of the Grecian bear the ancients have left us some few facts which may be worth repeating. When it comes forth from the den,[[766]] where it has passed the winter, it is said to chew bits of wood, and to feed on snake-weed, wake-robin, or cuckoo-pint (arum maculatum[[767]]), which has a purgative power. These operations performed, its ravenous appetites immediately awake, and it commences its devastations in the farm-yard, the orchard and the apiary. Delighting greatly in honey it attacks and overthrows the hives which it tears to pieces in order to devour the combs, though Pliny[[768]] adduces another reason for this fact, exceedingly characteristic of that writer. He says that the bear, after his winter sleep, finding his eyes dim and his head heavy, applies to the bees as to skilful oculists, that in revenge for robbing them of their honey, sting him angrily about the face, which by letting much blood relieves him at once from his ophthalmia and his headache[headache]. The bear, it is well known, is omnivorous like man. He accordingly plunders the bean-fields, and feeds on every kind of pulse. In robbing orchards,[[769]] too, his courage and ability are great, being as I have said as complete an adept as a school-boy in climbing trees, out of which when he has satisfied himself he descends, like the aforesaid mischievous beast, feet foremost. When none of the delicacies above enumerated was within his reach, the bear would feed on ants, crabs, or any kind of vermin, but preferred of course the flesh of the larger animals, such as the stag, the wild boar, and the bull. His mode of taking his prey was curious. Upon the boar and stag he probably dropped from his hiding place in the trees, but the stratagem by which he usually got the bull into his power was this.[[770]] Throwing himself on the ground directly in his way he provoked the lord of the herd to gore him, upon which, seizing his horns, and fastening ravenously upon his shoulder, he brought him to the ground, where he fed upon his carcass at leisure. When flying from the more terrible face of man, the female usually drove her young before her, or taking them up in her mouth or on her back, she would endeavour to escape with them into the trees.[[771]]
As the lion was not found in Greece in the civilised periods of its history, the chase of it cannot be said to have formed an Hellenic amusement.[[772]] They might, however, by proceeding a little beyond the borders in their colonies of Thrace and Asia Minor, on Mount Pangæos, on the Mysian Olympos, and in Syria, enjoy this dangerous pastime if they desired it. In all those countries, however, both the lion,[[773]] the panther, the pard, the lynx, and other animals of this destructive class had been confined to the mountains, where, as an acute and experienced observer has remarked, they lose much of their force and ferocity. The expression made use of by Xenophon proves in fact that the dread of man had driven them almost into inaccessible fastnesses, whither they could not be pursued by the hunter, so that they were chiefly taken in their descent to the lowlands by poisoning, with aconite,[[774]] the waters or the baits which they set for them: sometimes, indeed, when want compelled them into the plains, parties of hunters on horseback, and armed to the teeth, would assault and destroy them, not without imminent peril. Pitfalls, too, of ingenious construction were dug for them, having an earthen pillar in the centre on which a goat was tied.[[775]] The encircling moat, like that above described, destined for the bear, was concealed by a covering of slender bushes which, breaking under them, they were precipitated to the bottom and there killed. The wolf, though a sacred animal[[776]] in Attica, had by the laws a price set upon his head, at which Menage[[777]] wonders, though the Egyptians also slaughtered their sacred crocodiles, when they exceeded a certain size.
In the chase of the wild goat the bow, among the mountains of Crete, was made use of, and so skilful as marksmen were the Cretans[[778]] that from the depths of the valleys they would bring down their game from the pinnacles of the loftiest cliffs.[[779]] They were fabled to have been taught the art of hunting by the Curetes, and, practising it constantly in steep and difficult places, they acquired great suppleness and agility of body, and were exceedingly swift of foot.[[780]]
The Macedonians, too, were both practised and enthusiastic sportsmen, and delighted in the amusement even whilst engaged in their most toilsome expeditions. Thus during the campaigns of Alexander in Asia, we find the generals Leonatos and Menelaos or Philotas[[781]] carrying about among their baggage, linen skreens, ten or twelve miles in length, which during their halts they caused to be stretched round a given district, where they hunted as in a park. An anecdote is related strikingly illustrating the high estimation in which the chase was held at the court and among the nobles of Macedonia, where it was customary for the son to sit upright on a chair at his father’s table and not to recline among the guests until he had slain a wild boar out of the toils. Cassander, son of Antipater, continued, it is said,[[782]] up to his thirty-fifth year bolt upright at the regal board, because, though a brave man and a skilful hunter, fortune had constantly denied him the pleasure of despatching the hog after the prescribed fashion.
There is one department of the chase, and that perhaps the most curious and interesting, which was not practised by the Greeks of classical times, though it cannot be said to have been unknown to them; I mean falconry, described by several ancient writers as it was pursued in India and in Thrace. If I give a short description of it, therefore, it must be regarded as a digression introduced for the purpose of completing, as far as possible, the circle of ancient amusements. Ctesias,[[783]] who was contemporary with Socrates, and published his Indian history four hundred years before Christ, seems to be the oldest writer by whom falconry is mentioned. He tells us that among the Hindùs hares and foxes were hunted with kites, ravens, and eagles, and minutely describes the way in which the birds were broken in. Having been caught while young, they were first taught to fly at tame hares and foxes in the following manner. The animals with pieces of flesh tied to them were started in sight of the falcons, which were immediately let loose and sent in pursuit. When they caught and brought back the game the flesh was given them as their reward, and by this bait and allurement they were encouraged to persevere. When sufficiently trained, they were taken to the mountains and flown against wild hares and foxes. The passion for falconry is still kept alive in the East, particularly in Persia, where the shâh-baz, or royal falcon, is flown against hares and antelopes, occasionally invested with leathers, which protect him from being torn asunder.[[784]] But the most daring and dangerous service in which falcons have ever been employed is the chase of the wild horse by the Turcomâns of Khiva on the eastern shores of the Caspian.[[785]] A more detailed description of ancient falconry than that given by Ctesias is found in a work attributed to Aristotle.[[786]] It is said, observes this writer, that the youth of Thrace, who were addicted to hunting, pursued their game by the assistance of hawks. On arriving upon the ground, the falcon, which had evidently been trained for the purpose, obeyed the calls of the sportsmen and chased the birds into the thickets, where they were knocked down with hunting-poles and taken. Even when the falcons themselves captured the game, they brought it to the hunters, who as in modern times gave them, as a reward, some portion of the animal.
In their fowling they made use of great cruelty:—Pigeons and turtle-doves were commonly blinded, to be used as decoys, and in this condition would sometimes live eight years.[[787]] Partridges were employed for the same purpose in a different manner. The male bird having been tamed was put out in the neighbourhood of a covey, upon which the boldest of the wild birds came forward to fight him, and was secured with the net. The challenge was usually accepted by every male bird in the covey until one after another they were all taken. When the female was employed she drew them successively to the nets by her call.[[788]] The first that is deluded is generally the principal cock in the covey, which the others collecting together seek to drive away. To elude their pursuit the leader sometimes drew near the decoy in silence, that he might not have to contend with the other males. Not unfrequently they would descend and allow themselves at such times to be caught on the roofs of the houses.[[789]]