To cope with the wild boar the huntsman needs to have a variety of dogs, Indian, Cretan, Locrian, and Laconian,1 along with a stock of nets, javelins, boar-spears, and foot-traps.
To begin with, the hounds must be no ordinary specimens of the species named,2 in order to do battle with the beast in question.
The nets should be made of the same flaxen cord3 as those for hares above described. They should be forty-five threaded in three strands, each strand consisting of fifteen threads. The height from the upper rim4 (i.e. from top to bottom) should be ten meshes, and the depth of the nooses or pockets one elbow-length (say fifteen inches).5 The ropes running round the net should be half as thick again as the cords of the net; and at the extremities6 they should be fitted with rings, and should be inserted (in and out) under the nooses, with the end passing out through the rings. Fifteen nets will be sufficient.7
The javelins should be of all sorts,8 having blades of a good breadth and razor-sharpness, and stout shafts.
The boar-spears should in the first place have blades fifteen inches long, and in the middle of the socket two solid projecting teeth of wrought metal,9 and shafts of cornel-wood a spear-shaft’s thickness.
The foot-traps should resemble those used for deer.
These hunts should be conducted not singly,10 but in parties, since the wild boar can be captured only by the collective energy of several men, and that not easily.
I will now explain how each part of the gear is to be used in hunting.
The company being come to some place where a boar is thought to lie, the first step is to bring up the pack,11 which done, they will loose a single Laconian bitch, and keeping the rest in leash, beat about with this one hound.12 As soon as she has got on the boar’s track, let them follow in order, one after another, close on the tracking hound, who gives the lead to the whole company.13 Even to the huntsmen themselves many a mark of the creature will be plain, such as his footprints on soft portions of the ground, and in the thick undergrowth of forests broken twigs; and, where there are single trees, the scars made by his tusks.14 As she follows up the trail the hound will, as a general rule, finally arrive at some well-wooded spot; since, as a general rule, the boar lies ensconced in places of the sort, that are warm in winter and cool in summer.
As soon as she has reached his lair she will give tongue; but the boar will not get up, not he, in nine cases out of ten. The huntsman will thereupon recover the hound, and tie her up also with the rest at a good distance from the lair.15 He will then launch his toils into the wild boar’s harbourage,16 placing the nooses upon any forked branches of wood to hand. Out of the net itself he must construct a deep forward-jutting gulf or bosom, posting young shoots on this side and that within, as stays or beams,17 so that the rays of light may penetrate as freely as possible through the nooses into the bosom,18 and the interior be as fully lit up as possible when the creature makes his charge. The string round the top of the net must be attached to some stout tree, and not to any mere shrub or thorn-bush, since these light-bending branches will give way to strain on open ground.19 All about each net it will be well to stop with timber even places20 “where harbrough nis to see,” so that the hulking brute may drive a straight course21 into the toils without tacking.
As soon as the nets are fixed, the party will come back and let the hounds slip one and all; then each will snatch up his javelin22 and boar-spear, and advance. Some one man, the most practised hand, will cheer on the hounds, and the rest will follow in good order at some considerable distance from one another, so as to leave the animal a free passage; since if he falls into the thick of them as he makes off, there is a fair chance of being wounded, for he will certainly vent his fury on the first creature he falls foul of.
As soon as the hounds are near his lair, they will make their onslaught. The boar, bewildered by the uproar, will rise up and toss the first hound that ventures to attack him in front. He will then run and fall into the toils; or if not, then after him full cry.23 Even if the ground on which the toils environ him be sloping, he will recover himself promptly;24 but if level, he will at once plant himself firm as a rock, as if deliberating with himself.25 At that conjuncture the hounds will press hard upon him, while their masters had best keep a narrow eye upon the boar and let fly their javelins and a pelt of stones, being planted in a ring behind him and a good way off, until the instant when with a forward heave of his body he stretches the net tight and strains the skirting-rope. Thereupon he who is most skilful of the company and of the stoutest nerve will advance from the front and deliver a home thrust with his hunting-spear.
Should the animal for all that rain of javelins and stones refuse to stretch the skirting-rope, should he rather relax26 in that direction and make a right-about-face turn bearing down on his assailant, there is nothing for it, under these circumstances, but to seize a boar-spear, and advance; firmly clutching it with the left hand forward and with the right behind; the left is to steady it, and the right to gi............