Page:Xenophon by Alexander Grant.djvu/175

Rh her out and run her down in the open. The dramatis personæ in the hunt are the master, who manages the dogs himself, and his net-setter, who must he an active young slave keen for the sport, and, as Xenophon adds, implying his own ignorance of foreign tongues, "he must be able to speak Greek." The dogs to be used are two breeds of the Spartan hound; and Xenophon first says what they ought not to be and what they ought not to do, giving an elaborate and amusing catalogue of the bad styles of hunting which a dog may exhibit. Afterwards he describes the shape and action of a perfect hound. His conception, however, is different from that which Shakespeare had in describing the dogs of Theseus in the "Midsummer Night's Dream":—

Xenophon thinks that the ears should be "small, thin, and without hair at the back," that the neck should be "long, flexible, and round," and the knees "straight." But he does not expect great speed in his dogs, for he says that the hare can hardly ever be caught by the dogs by pure coursing. He gives many directions for breeding and training hounds, and adds a capital list of names for them, all dissyllables, such as Psyché, Thymus, Phylax, Rhomé, Porpax, Æther, Actis, Hybris, Augo, Nöes, &c. (Spirit, Courage, War-