Page:The history of silk, cotton, linen, wool, and other fibrous substances 2.djvu/493

 which the beasts of chase, such as the boar, the wild goat, the deer, the hare, the lion, and the bear might be driven through the opening left on one side. Tibullus (iv. 3. 12) speaks of inclosing woody hills for this purpose:—

densos indagine colles Claudentem.

The following lines of Virgil show, that the animals were driven into the toils from a distance by the barking of dogs and the shouts of men:

Thy hound the wild-ass in the sylvan chase, Or hare, or hart, with faithful speed will trace; Assail the muddy cave with eager cries, Where the rough boar in secret ambush lies; Press the tall stag with clamors echoing shrill To secret toils, along the aërial hill.

Georg. iii. 411-413.—Warton's Translation.

In another splendid passage the boar is described as coming into the midst of the nets after he has been driven to them from a mountain or a marsh at a great distance:

And as a savage boar on mountains bred, With forest mast and fattening marshes fed; When once he sees himself in toils inclosed, By huntsmen and their eager hounds opposed; He whets his tusks, and turns and dares the war: The invaders dart their javelins from afar: All keep aloof and safely shout around, But none presumes to give a nearer wound. He frets and froths, erects his bristled hide, And shakes a grove of lances from his side.

Æn. x. 707-715.—Dryden's Translation.

Even in a case where the same poet introduces an equivalent expression to that of Tibullus, already quoted, viz. "saltus indagine cingunt" (Æn. iv. 121), he represents the hunting-*party as going over a large extent of country to collect the animals out of it:

Postquam altos ventum in montes atque invia lustra, Ecce feræ saxi dejectæ vertice capræ Decurrere jugis; alia de parte patentes Transmittunt cursu campos, atque agmina cervi Pulverulenta fuga glomerant, montesque relinquunt.