Ducks were kept in ponds, carefully enclosed, and, perhaps, covered over that they might not fly away. In the centre were certain green islets,[[1106]] planted with couch-grass, which the ancients considered as beneficial to ducks as it was hurtful to geese. Their usual food, which was cast in the water encircling the islets, consisted of wheat, millet, barley, sometimes mixed with grape-stones and grape-skins. Occasionally they were indulged with locusts, prawns, shrimps,[[1107]] and whatever else aquatic birds habitually feed on. Persons desirous of possessing tame ducks were accustomed to beat about the lakes and marshes[[1108]] for the nest of the wild bird. Giving the eggs to a hen to sit on, they obtained a brood of ducklings perfectly domesticated.[[1109]] Wild ducks were sometimes caught by pouring red wine, or the lees of wine, into the springs whither they came to drink.
With respect to barn-door fowl, originally introduced from India and Media into Greece, the greatest care appears to have been taken to vary and improve the breeds. For this purpose cocks and hens were imported[[1110]] from the shores of the Adriatic, from Italy, Sicily, Numidia, and Egypt, while those of Attica were occasionally exported to other countries. There appears to have been a prejudice against keeping more than fifty fowls[[1111]] about one farmyard, some traces of which may also be discovered in the practice of the Arabs.[[1112]] The fowl-house furnished with roosts,[[1113]] as with us, was so contrived and situated as to receive from the kitchen a tolerable supply of smoke, which was supposed to be agreeable to these Median strangers. The food of fowls[[1114]] being much the same all the world over, it is unnecessary to observe more than that the green leaves of the Cytisus were supposed to render them prolific. To preserve them from vermin, the juice of rue, by way I suppose of charm, was sprinkled over their feathers.[[1115]] The proportion of male birds was one to six. Hens were usually put to sit about the vernal equinox, during the first quarter of the moon, in nests carefully constructed of boards, and strewed with fresh clean straw, into which, as a sort of talisman against thunder, they threw an iron nail, heads of garlic, and sprigs of laurel.[[1116]] During the period of incubation, the eggs which had previously been kept in bran were turned every day.
The other inhabitants of the farmyard were peacocks,[[1117]] commonly confined in beautiful artificial islands provided with elegant sheds; pheasants[[1118]] from the shores of the Black Sea;[[1119]] guinea-fowls from Numidia,[[1120]] though according to other authors they were originally found in Ætolia;[[1121]] partridges, quails, and the attagas. Thrushes were bred in warm rooms with slight perches projecting from the walls, and laurel boughs or other evergreens fixed in the corners.[[1122]] Over the clean floor was strewed their food, dried figs, which had been steeped in water, and mixed with flour or barley meal, together with the berries of the myrtle; the lentiscus, the ivy, the laurel, and the olive. They were fattened with millet, panic, and pure water.[[1123]] Other still smaller birds were reared, and fattened in like manner. Every farmhouse had, moreover, its columbary and dove-cotes,[[1124]] sometimes so large as to contain five thousand birds. They usually consisted of spacious buildings,[[1125]] roofed over and furnished with windows closed by lattice work, made so close that neither a lizard nor a mouse could creep through them. In the floor were channels and basins of water, in which these delicate birds[[1126]] might wash and plume themselves, and adjoining was a chamber into which such as were required for sale, or the table, were enticed. Even jackdaws were kept about farmyards, and like common fowls had perches set up for them.[[1127]]
Much pains was taken by the ancients to improve the breed of animals.[[1128]] Polycrates, tyrant of Samos, introduced into that island the Molossian and Spartan dogs, goats from Scyros and Naxos, and sheep from Attica and Miletos.[[1129]] The fineness and beauty of Merinos were also known to the ancients, who purchased from Spain rams for breeding at a talent each, that is, about two hundred and forty-one pounds sterling.[[1130]]
Horses were at all times few, and, consequently, dear in Greece; they were, therefore, seldom employed in agriculture, but bred and kept chiefly for the army, for religious pomps and processions, and for the chariot races at Olympia. Originally, no doubt, the horse was introduced from Asia, and, up to a very late period, chargers of great beauty and spirit, continued to be imported from the shores of the Black Sea.[[1131]] Princes, in the Homeric age, appear to have obtained celebrity for the beauty of their steeds, as Laomedon, Tros, and Rhesos; and it was customary for them to possess studs of brood mares in the rich pasture lands on the sea-shore. That of Priam, for example, lay at Abydos, on the Hellespont.[[1132]]
The high estimation in which horses[[1133]] were held in remote antiquity, may be gathered from the numerous fables invented respecting them,—as that of the centaurs in Thessaly, of the winged courser of Bellerophontes, and the Muses, and of the marvellous steeds presented by Poseidon to Peleus on his marriage with Thetis. They were reckoned, likewise, among the most precious victims offered in sacrifice to the gods. Thus we find the Trojans plunging live horses into the whirlpool of the Scamander[[1134]] to deprecate the anger of that divinity. The Romans, likewise, in later times, sacrificed horses to the ocean;[[1135]] and, in many parts of Asia, it appears to have been customary in nearly all ages, to offer up, as anciently in Laconia,[[1136]] this magnificent animal on the altars of the sun.[[1137]] Thus, among the Armenians, whose breed, though smaller than that of the Persians, was far more spirited, this practice prevailed as it still does in Northern India, and Xenophon,[[1138]] a religious man, observes in the Anabasis, that he gave his steed, worn down with the fatigues of the march, to be fed and offered up by the Komarch, with whom he had been for some days a guest. From Homer’s account of Pandarus we may infer, that the possessors of fine horses often submitted to great personal inconvenience rather than hazard the well-being of their favourites. For this wealthy prince,[[1139]] who possessed eleven carriages and twenty-two steeds, came on foot to the assistance of Priam, lest they should not find a plentiful supply of provender at Troy.
Several countries were famous[[1140]] for their breed of horses, as Cyrene, Egypt, Syria, Phrygia, and the Phasis.[[1141]] Thessaly, too, particularly the neighbourhood of Triccæ, abounded in barbs, as did likewise Bœotia. But one of the most remarkable races was that produced in Nisæon,[[1142]] a district of Media, which seems to have been white, or of a bright cream colour,[[1143]] and of extraordinary size and swiftness. On one of these Masistios[[1144]] was mounted during the expedition into Greece. Apollo, in an oracle is said to have spoken of the beauty of mares, alluding, perhaps, to those of Elis, which were remarkable for their lightness and elegance of form; and Aristotle celebrates a particular mare of Pharsatis, called Dicæa, which was famous for bringing colts resembling their sires.[[1145]] Among the Homeric chiefs, Achilles and Eumelos boasted the noblest coursers, as we learn from a picturesque and striking passage in the Catalogue:[[1146]] “And now, O Muse, declare, which of the leaders and their horses were most illustrious. Excepting those of Achilles, the finest steeds before Troy were those of Eumelos from Pheræ, swift as birds, alike in mane, in age, and so equal in size, that a rule would stand level on their backs. They were both bred by Apollo in Pieria, both mares, and they bore with them the dread of battle. Noblest of all, however, were the coursers of Achilles. But he, in his lunar-prowed, sea-passing ships remains incensed against Atreides, the shepherd of his people; his myrmidons amuse themselves on the sea-shore with pitching the quoit, launching the javelin, and drawing the bow; their horses, standing beside the chariots, feed upon lotus, trefoil and marsh parsley; and the chariots themselves, well covered with hangings, are drawn up in the tents of the chiefs, while the soldiers, sighing for the leading of their impetuous general, stroll carelessly through the camp without joining in the war.”
The food of the Homeric horses,[[1147]] was little inferior to that of their masters, since, besides the natural delicacies of the meadows, they were indulged with sifted barley and the finest wheat.[[1148]] The halter with which, while feeding, they were tied to the manger seems usually to have been of leather. Aristotle,[[1149]] remarks, that horses are fattened less by their food than by what they drink, and that, like the camel,[[1150]] they delight in muddy water, on which account they usually trouble the stream before they taste it.
The Greek conception of equine beauty[[1151]] differed but little from our own, since they chiefly loved horses of those colours which are still the objects of admiration: as snow-white, with black eyes like those of Rhesos, which Plato thought the most beautiful; cream-coloured, light bay, chestnut, and smoky grey. They judged of the breeding of a horse by the shortness of its coat and the dusky prominence of its veins. As a fine large mane greatly augments the magnificent appearance of this animal, they were careful after washing to comb and oil it[[1152]] while they gathered up the forelock in a band of gilded leather.[[1153]] The floors of their stables were commonly pitched with round pebbles bound tight together by curbs of iron.[[1154]]
Horses were usually broken[[1155]] by professed grooms, who entered into a written agreement with the owners implicitly to follow their directions.[[1156]] The process was sufficiently simple. They began with the year-and-a-half colts,[[1157]] on which they put a halter when feeding, while a bridle was hung up close to the manger, that they might be accustomed to the touch of it, and not take fright at the jingling of the bit.[[1158]] The next step was to lead them into the midst of noisy and tumultuous crowds in order to discover whether or not they were bold enough to be employed in war.[[1159]] The operation was not completely finished till they were three years old. When, on the course or elsewhere, horses had been well sweated,[[1160]] they were led into a place set apart for the purpose, and, in order to dry themselves, made to roll in the sand. It was customary for owners to mark their horses with the Koppa,[[1161]] or other letter of the alphabet, whence they were sometimes called Koppatias, Samphoras, &c.