Page:Xenophon by Alexander Grant.djvu/178

168 the voice to be used. When the hare has been caught, either by hunting or by driving it into the nets, the huntsman takes up his snares, and having rubbed down the dogs, quits the hunting-field, stopping occasionally, if it be noon-tide in summer, that the dogs' feet may not become sore on the way.

The element of nets in Xenophon's hare-hunting may be considered by some to give it a poaching character, which consists in having too great an eye to the pot—that is, to the actual capture of the animal by whatever means, instead of considering the pursuit itself, conducted in noble form and under honourable restrictions, to be the truer end in the sportsman's mind. But, on the other hand, Xenophon's genuine interest in the working of the dogs is a sportsmanlike feature. It is to be feared that no point so favourable can be found in his account of hunting the deer or antelope. One plan that he recommends is to lie in wait before daybreak, and watch the hinds bringing back their suckling fawns into the grassy glades. Then to seize up a fawn from its bed, on which the hind, its mother, hearing its cries, will rush upon the man that holds it and try to take it horn him, when she may easily be worried by the hunter's dogs and despatched with his spear. Another plan is, when the fawns are grown older, to separate one of them from the herd of deer, and run down it with fleet and strong Indian dogs. A third is to set snares in the deers' path, consisting each of a noose with a clog attached. When a deer puts its foot into one of these, the clog