In the first place, this true type of hound should be of large build; and, in the next place, furnished with a light small head, broad and flat in the snout,[1] well knit and sinewy, the lower part of the forehead puckered into strong wrinkles; eyes set well up[2] in the head, black and bright; forehead large and broad; the depression between the eyes pronounced;[3] ears long[4] and thin, without hair on the under side; neck long and flexible, freely moving on its pivot;[5] chest broad and fairly fleshy; shoulder-blades detached a little from the shoulders;[6] the shin-bones of the fore-legs should be small, straight, round, stout and strong; the elbows straight; ribs[7] not deep all along, but sloped away obliquely; the loins muscular, in size a mean between long and short, neither too flexible nor too stiff;[8] flanks, a mean between large and small; the hips (or "couples") rounded, fleshy behind, not tied together above, but firmly knitted on the inside;[9] the lower or under part of the belly[10] slack, and the belly itself the same, that is, hollow and sunken; tail long, straight, and pointed;[11] thighs (i.e. hams) stout and compact; shanks (i.e. lower thighs) long, round, and solid; hind-legs much longer than the fore-legs, and relatively lean; feet round and cat- like.[12]
[1] Pollux, v. 7; Arrian, "Cyn." iv.
[2] {meteora}, prominent. ?See Sturz, s.v.
[3] {tas diakriseis batheias}, lit. "with a deep frontal sinus." [4] Reading {makra}, or if {mikra}, "small."[5] Al. "well rounded."
[6] "Shoulder blades standing out a little from the shoulders"; i.e. "free."[7] i.e. "not wholly given up to depth, but well curved"; depth is not everything unless the ribs be also curved. Schneid. cf. Ov. "Met."iii. 216, "et substricta gerens Sicyonius ilia Ladon," where the poet is perhaps describing a greyhound, "chyned like a bream." See Stonehenge, pp. 21, 22. Xenophon's "Castorians" were more like the Welsh harrier in build, I presume.
[8] Or, "neither soft and spongy nor unyielding." See Stoneh., p. 23.
[9] "Drawn up underneath it," lit. "tucked up." [10] Al. "flank," "flanks themselves."[11] Or, as we should say, "stern." See Pollux, v. 59; Arrian, v. 9. [12] See Stonehenge, p. 24 foll.
Hounds possessed of these points will be strong in build, and at the same time light and active; they will have symmetry at once and pace; a bright, beaming expression; and good mouths.
In following up scent,[13] see how they show their mettle by rapidly quitting beaten paths, keeping their heads sloping to the ground, smiling, as it were to greet the trail; see how they let their ears drop, how they keep moving their eyes to and fro quickly, flourishing their sterns.[14] Forwards they should go with many a circle towards the hare's form,[15] steadily guided by the line, all together. When they are close to the hare itself, they will make the fact plain to the huntsman by the quickened pace at which they run, as if they would let him know by their fury, by the motion of head and eyes, by rapid changes of gait and gesture,[16] now casting a glance back and now fixing their gaze steadily forward to the creature's hiding-place,[17] by twistings and turnings of the body, flinging themselves backwards, forwards, and sideways, and lastly, by the genuine exaltation of spirits, visible enough now, and the ecstasy of their pleasure, that they are close upon the quarry.
