52
Courſing,
merely to ſay that they are very ſhaggy and ugly, and thoſe moſt ſo that are the beſt bred; therefore, it is a common thing in Gallia to compare thoſe who beg by the highway ſide to theſe dogs, for their voice is mournful and plaintive, and they do not open on the ſcent as if they were eager and angry with the game, but in a whining and miſerable voice, and of theſe nothing has been written worthy of notice. But the ſwifter dogs of the Gauls are called, in the Celtic language [1], Vertragi, not from any particular country, as the Cretan, the Carian, or the [2] Laconian, but, as among the
- ↑ Ὁὔετραγοι, Vetragi. I ſuppoſe the omiſſion of the firſt ρ muſt be a miſtake, as both Blancard and Hen. Stephens write it Vertragi. Martial mentions a ſort of dog, called Vertagus, which brought the Hare to his maſter without tearing it, which many greyhounds will do. Grotius calls it Vertrahus; Ainfworth renders it a tumbler, (i. e. a ſort of dog ſo called,) from the Latin word verto, to turn. But Arrian puts the matter beyond diſpute, by ſaying it is derived from a Celtic word, denoting ſwiftneſs; and he takes particular pains to explain this by the analogy of Greek derivations. There can be no doubt of its being a greyhound.
- ↑ The Spartan dogs were in particular eſteem. So Shakeſpear: "My hounds are bred out of the Spartan kind," &tc.
Cretan
