Hiero the Tyrant and Other Treatises (Penguin Classics)

by Xenophon

  There are two species of hare. The larger variety is dusky in colour, [22] and the white patch on their foreheads is big; the smaller ones are [23] tawny and have a small white patch. The first kind are dappled all the way around their tails, while the second kind are dappled on either side of their tails. Large ones have bluish-grey eyes, small ones have greyish eyes. Large ones usually have quite a bit of black at the tips [24] of their ears, while small ones have only a little. The smaller variety is to be found on most of the islands, whether uninhabited or inhabited. The reason more of them live on the islands than on the mainland is that on most of the islands there are no foxes to attack and kill the hares and their young, and no eagles either, which keep to the high mountains rather than low ones, and the mountains on the islands are [25] generally smaller than on the mainland. Besides, uninhabited islands are rarely visited by hunters, inhabited islands are only sparsely inhabited, and by people who tend not to be hunters, and one is not allowed to take dogs over to sacred islands.4 So where only a few mature or young hares are killed by hunting, there are, of course, huge numbers of them.

  [26] Hares do not have good eyesight, for a number of reasons. In the first place, their eyes bulge outwards5 and their eyelids are too small to afford them proper protection, with the result that their vision is [27] weak and diffuse. The same features also mean that although the creature spends a great deal of time asleep its eyesight is not helped by this. Its speed also makes a significant contribution towards its poor eyesight, because a hare lets its vision slide rapidly over each object [28] before identifying it. Then its fear of the hounds when it is being chased combines with all these factors to rob the creature of its ability to plan ahead. The upshot is that it accidentally collides with all sorts of things and dashes into the net.

  [24] If hares took a straight line when trying to escape, they would be very hard to catch. As things are, however, they double back around and stick close to the places where they were born and raised, and so they get caught. They are invariably fast enough to outrun hounds, and if they are caught, it is because they have met with an accident that has cancelled out their natural physical abilities, because there is nothing in the world of their size which can match them in terms of their construction. A hare’s body consists of the following components. A head which is light, small, downward-pointing and narrow at [30] the front;* a neck that is narrow, rounded, supple and quite long; shoulder-blades that are upright and not compact at the top; front legs which are light and close set; a narrow chest; light, symmetrical ribs; rounded loins; a fleshy rump; sides that are supple and quite loose; haunches which are round, well covered with flesh all around, and the right distance apart at the top; small, solid thighs, with taut muscles on the outside, and not too much of a bulge on the inside; lower legs that are long and firm; forefeet which are especially supple, as well as being narrow and straight; hard, broad hind feet; feet that can endure any kind of rough terrain; hind legs that are much longer than the forelegs and are bent slightly outwards; and a coat that is short and light. Since its frame consists of these elements, there is no [31] way for it not to be strong, agile and very light on its feet.

  Evidence to show how light hares are on their feet is given by the fact that their normal quiet progress involves taking off from the ground. No one has seen or ever will see a hare walking. It brings its hind feet up beyond its forefeet, and to the outside of them: that is how it runs along. This is unmistakable in the snow.

  A hare’s tail is too short to be able to guide its body, and so plays [32] no part when the hare is running. It uses one or the other of its ears for this function. When it is started into flight by the hounds, it lets one of its ears droop and hang at an angle – whichever ear is on the side where the threat is coming from – and then it quickly swivels round, using this ear to guide it, and before long has left its assailant far behind. A hare makes such a charming spectacle that the sight of [33] one being tracked, found, chased and caught would make anyone forget all his passions.6

  If the hunter is hunting on cultivated land, he should avoid any [34] fields with crops in them, and leave springs and streams alone. It is wrong and bad to tamper with them, and encourages onlookers to contravene normal practice.7 On days when hunting is forbidden,8 he should suspend all hunting-related activities.

  CHAPTER 6

  [1] The dogs’ equipment consists of collars, leashes and girths. A collar should be soft and broad, so as not to spoil the hound’s coat. A leash should have a noose to hold on to, but nothing else: people who have their leashes double up as collars are not looking after their hounds correctly. Girths should have broad straps so as not to chafe the dog’s sides, and should have spikes sewn on to them, to safeguard one’s breeding programme.

  [2] Hounds should not be taken out hunting when they are off their food, since this is a sign that they are not well, nor when a strong wind is blowing, because this disperses the traces, making it impossible for the hounds to pick up the scent, and blows over the short nets [3] and game-nets. If neither of these obstacles exists, one should take the dogs out every other day. Do not let them get used to chasing foxes: there is nothing worse for them, and they are never there when [4] you need them. They should be taken out to a variety of different hunting-grounds, to enable them to become experienced hunters, and to familiarize the hunter with the land. Go out early in the morning, to give the dogs an opportunity for proper tracking; the scent is by nature tenuous, and does not last all day, so a late start robs the hounds of the chance of coming across a hare, and the hunter himself of his benefit.

  [5] The net-keeper should wear light clothing when he goes out hunting. He should set up his short nets at bends, in overgrown thickets, on hillsides, in hollows, shady places, streams, gullies and watercourses with permanent streams, because these are the places [6] where a hare is most likely to try to take refuge. A list of all the other possible places would be endless. <He should block up>* the approaches to these places and the pathways through them, whether open or faint, and should do so in the morning, but not too early, so that if the net-station is near the places to be beaten, the hare does not take fright at hearing the noise close at hand; however, if there is quite a distance between the places to be beaten and the net-station, [7] it does not matter so much if this job is done early. He must clear the net-stations of anything that might get in the way, and fix the stakes at an incline, so that they can take the strain when pulled. He is to loop an equal number of meshes over the top of each pair of stakes and provide them with a corresponding degree of support, in order to raise the belly of the net in the middle. A long, heavy stone is to [8] be attached to the net’s surround, to stop the net straining in the opposite direction once there is a hare inside. He must set the stakes in a long row, and high enough to stop the hare jumping over the top of the net.*

  The net-keeper is to set up the game-nets on level ground, and [9] the road-nets on roads and at suitable points on beaten paths. The procedure is to attach the surround to the ground, bring the corners together, fix the stakes between the guys, put the surrounds on the tips of the stakes and block up any gaps on either side of the nets.

  Then he should go around checking the nets. If the short net is [10] pulling the row of stakes out of line, he should re-establish them. When a hare is being chased into a net, he is to let it carry on forward,* and then race after it, shouting out loud. When a hare has been trapped in a net, he is to calm the hounds’ frenzy; he should do so without touching them, just with soothing words. He should also call out to the hunter, to let him know what is going on – that a hare has been caught or has run past on one side or the other of the net, or that he has not seen a hare, or at least not had a clear sighting.**

  When he goes out hunting, the hunter should wear unpretentious, [11] light clothing and footwear, and carry a club; the net-keeper should accompany him. He should not bide his time when tracking a hare; true hunters do not delay, and to do one’s utmost to
capture a hare quickly shows determination.* The hunting-ground should be approached in silence, in case any hare that happens to be near by bolts off at the noise. The hounds should be tied to the undergrowth, [12] each one to a separate shrub, so that they are easy to set free, and the short nets and game-nets should be set up according to the directions I have given. Next the net-keeper should go and check the nets, while the hunter should take the hounds and go to the point from where he will initiate the hunt. After praying to Apollo and Artemis [13] the Huntress,1 and pledging a share of the catch to them, he is to unleash a single hound. She should be the most skilful tracker of the pack, and should be released at sunrise in winter, before daybreak in [14] summer and some time in between in spring and autumn. When the hound has picked up a true scent from among all the confusion of smells, he should let slip another hound. If the trace carries on, he should let the rest of the hounds go as well, one by one, at short intervals. He should then follow them, but without urging them on, and once in a while call out to each of them by name, to stop them [15] getting worked up too soon. On they go, out of sheer enjoyment and will, separating out their quarry’s traces – which may be double or treble, intersecting* past or over the same spots, confused, roundabout, straight or crooked, concentrated or tenuous, distinct or indistinct – running past one another, with tails wagging fast, ears down and eyes flashing.

  [16] When they have closed in on a hare, they will let the hunter know by the shaking of the whole of their bodies (not just their tails), by their aggressive forward surges, by trying to outrun one another, by determinedly running along together and by quickly forming up as a pack and then separating, only to charge forward again. Finally they [17] will reach the hare’s form and make a rush for the creature. The hare will dart up and away, making the hounds bark and bay at the sight. Now, with the dogs in pursuit, the hunter should call out, ‘Good dogs! Good! Well done! Clever dogs!’ He should wrap his cloak around his arm, pick up his club and run with the pack after the hare, [18] without trying to head it off, which is impossible. In its hasty flight, the hare vanishes from sight, but then it invariably doubles back to where it was discovered. At this point, with the hare still on the move,* he should call out to the net-keeper, ‘Hit it, slave! Go on, hit it!’2 And the net-keeper is to let the hunter know whether or not the hare has been caught.

  [19] If the hare is caught on its first run, the hunter ought to recall his hounds and start looking for another hare. If not, he should keep on running with the pack at top speed, without giving up on the hare, but determinedly carrying right on after it. If the chase leads the hounds to make contact with the hare again, the hunter should call out, ‘Well done! Well done, dogs! Go on! After it, dogs!’

  Suppose the pack gets such a long way ahead of him that not only is it impossible for him to run and catch up with them, but he has actually gone off course, and cannot see whether they are wandering about somewhere near by or have stopped or are keeping on the hare’s traces, he can still ask anyone he meets by calling out as he runs past, ‘Hello there! Have you seen my dogs?’ Once he has found out [20] where they are, if they are on the trace, he should rejoin them and give them encouragement, speaking to each of them in turn by name, and using as many variations in pitch and tone of voice as he can manage – high and low, soft and loud. Whatever other kinds of encouragement he gives, if the chase is taking place in the mountains he should call out, ‘Good dogs! Well done, dogs!’* If they are not on the trace, but have run on too far, he should call out, ‘Come back, come back here, dogs!’

  If they have got ahead of the trace,* the hunter should wheel them [21] round and get them to describe numerous circles; wherever the scent is indistinct for them, he should plant a stake as a marker for himself, and should use this as a starting-point from which to send the pack out in a line, with cries of encouragement and reassurance, until they come across a distinct trace. As soon as the trace is unmistakable, the [22] hounds will set off in pursuit, hurling themselves at it, leaping along beside it, clustering together, picking up false scents, pointing them out to one another and orienting themselves against familiar landmarks. When they are racing like this along the trace, all bunched together, the hunter should run with them at full stretch, to stop them overshooting the scent in their eager rivalry.

  Once the hounds have closed in on a hare, and show the hunter [23] plainly that they have, what he has to watch out for is the hare being so frightened of them that it bolts off ahead. With their tails waving to and fro, with their collisions and frequent leaps over one another, with their constant baying, as they raise their heads and look at the hunter to let him know that now this is the real thing, they will start the hare off by themselves and run baying after it. Whatever happens [24] – whether the hare dashes into the nets or runs past them to one side or the other – the net-keeper must call out to let the hunter know. If the hare has been caught, moreover, the hunter should go and look for another one; if not, he should carry on running after it, while employing the same methods of encouragement for his hounds.

  [25] When the hounds are tired from their pursuit and it is getting late in the day, the hunter must go in search of the hare, which by now will be suffering from exhaustion. He should search every plant and feature of the terrain, often retracing his steps to make sure that he has not missed anything, because the hare does not take up much space when it is lying down, and it is too tired and frightened to get to its feet. He should bring his hounds along with him, keeping their spirits up with frequent words of encouragement to any that are fawning on him, few to the independent ones and a moderate number to those which fall between these two states, until he has either killed the hare on the run or driven it into the nets.

  [26] Then he should collect his short nets and his game-nets, rub down the dogs, and leave the hunting-ground, after waiting a while, if it is a summer afternoon, in case the dogs’ feet get blistered as they make their way home.

  CHAPTER 7

  [1] He should let his hounds off work during the winter and mate them, so that they can have the leisure to produce a thoroughbred litter towards spring, which is the best season for dogs to develop in.1 There [2] are fourteen days during which the mating frenzy grips them.* He should introduce them to good male dogs towards the end of this period, because they are more likely to conceive quickly then. When they are close to term, it is best not to take them out hunting all the time, but only once in a while, or else their determination might cause a miscarriage. The period of gestation is sixty days.

  [3] He should leave the new-born puppies in the care of the mother rather than any other bitch, because the attentions of a bitch which is not their mother do not promote growth, whereas the mother’s milk and breath are good for them, and her protection is welcome to [4] them. Continue to give the puppies milk for a year after they start to walk, and the food which is going to form their regular diet, but nothing else, because overfeeding deforms a puppy’s legs, makes its body liable to disease and impairs its insides.

  Give them short names which are easy to call out, such as, for [5] instance: Spirit, Pluck, Handle, Spike, Lance, Raider, Guard, Picket, Trooper, Sword, Killer, Blaze, Butch, Battler, Ringwood, Wily, Striker, Hasty, Fury, Growler, Upstart, Peppy, Brawn, Bloomer, Prime, Happy, Joy, Sharpeyes, Brighteyes, Rover, Force, Soldier, Earnest, Glory, Bryony, Steadfast, Barker, Slayer, Merry, Mighty, Sky, Sunbeam, Spearhead, Crafty, Prudence, Tracker, Dasher.

  The hunter should introduce female puppies to hunting at eight [6] months and males at ten months. He should not let them loose on the trace of a couching hare, but keep them on a long leash, following hounds which are on the scent, and let them run to and fro over the trace. If they are physically well formed for running, he should not [7] let them go as soon as a hare is sighted, but should wait until the hare is so far ahead that they can no longer see it. For if he releases dogs [8] which are both physically and temperamentally well adapted for running when they are close to the hare, the s
ight of it will make them strain and rupture themselves, since their bodies are still unformed. So this is something for the hunter to be careful about. If they are not [9] so well built for running,* however, there is nothing to stop the hunter letting them loose, because they have no chance of catching the hare, and so will not come to the kind of harm the others would.

  When the hare is on the run, however, he should let them chase it as long as they are prepared to stay on the trace,** and if they succeed in catching it he should give them it to tear apart. If after a [10] while they prove reluctant to stay together, but scatter instead, he should call them back, until they have got used to finding a hare by running after it, because if there is never any discipline2 to the way they look for a hare, they will eventually become conditioned to the bad habit of sniffing around off the trace.

  While the hounds are young, they should be fed in the vicinity of [11] the nets, at the time when the nets are being taken up, so that any hounds which have wandered off during the hunt as a result of their inexperience will return for their meal and can be safely recovered. This practice can be discontinued once the hare has become their firm enemy, because then they will be more concerned with the hare [12] than worried about their food. The hunter should generally feed them himself when they ask for it, because even though they do not know the cause of their hunger,* when they are hungry and they get food they feel affection for the person who gives it to them.