The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1880-11-18
Sport In Ancient Egypt.

geners, the Egyptians were ardent fol-
lowers of the chase. Lion hunting, we
are told by Sir Gardner Wilkinson,
speaking from the representations on the
tombs, was frequent occupation of the
kings, who were proud to have their sue.
cess on such occasions recorded. ANU.
noph the Third boasts ofhaving destroyed
no less than 1O2 heads in one battue.-
Ethiopia, in which lions abounded, was
the principal scene of this sport, but
lions were also to be found in the deserts
of Egypt. Atheneus mentions one
having been killed by the Emperor
Hadrian when hunting in the neighbor!-
hood of Alexandria According to Sir
Gardner Wilkinson, tie kings sometimes
went far to the south in pursuit of ele.
plants. He does not mention whether
any representation of an elephant hunt
is to be found on the monuments. The
taste for hunting, sir Gardner tells us,
was general with all classes. The aris-
tocracy had their parks for preserving
game in the valley Of the Nile, which,
though ON q less extensive scale than
those of their Asiatic neighbors, were
still sufficiently large to enable them full
ly to enjoy the sport.
The animals they chiefly hunted were
the hare, the gazelle, the stag and
other deer, the wild goat or ibex, the
oryx. the wild OK. the kebsh or wild
sheep and the porcupine. The ostrich,
too, was pursued for the .sake OF its
plumes, which were highly valued by
the Egyptians: -,
One form of sport in which, they in-
dulged was that of pursuing the game
:. with dogs, which, however, do not ap'
pear to have been used on such occasions
for the purpose of finding the game, but
were kept in slips ready to be let go as
soon rs the game was started: II the
dogs succeeded in catching their animal,
we'll and good. But generally their
speed was not trusted to alone, though
this might sometimes be done. Usually
the sportsman followed in his chariot,
and urging his horses to their utmost
speed endeavored to intercept the object
of pursuit or to get sufficiently near to it to
be enabled to use his bow with effect.
When the nature of the locality prevent
ed the use of the chariot, the hunter,
taking advantage Of the sinuosities of the
ground, endeavored to get within reach
of the game as it doubled and to bring it
down With an arrow. The horned ami
mails of the larger kind, such as the ibez,
oryx or wild OK, if wounded only, some
times turned ON the hounds and required
the spear Of the hunter to despatch them.
Sometimes, especially when they
wished to take the animals alive for the
purpose Of placing them in the parks,
they caught them with the lasso or moose,
in the use of which the Egyptian hunts
men appear to have been extremely
skillful, throwing the moose round the
neck of the gazelle or deer or over the
horns of the wild OK.
It may not be uninteresting I'd observe
while the Egyptians had several varie-
ties of dogsSsome of them choser,. Sir
Gardner Wilkinson silly observes, as at
the present day, for their peculiar ugli.
nessa-probably the pet dogs of the
Egyptian ladies-the hound, as e. g.,
exhibited in drawing 236 of Sir Gardner
Wilkinson's work, has, as with. US, its
peculiar and unmistakable characters
tics. The hounds in the Egyptian paint
ing would give one the idea of cross
between the English harrier and fox
hound, though perhaps little
taller and longer than the former
and lighter than the latter. The
head is unmistakably that Of the
hound. The kings and great men some
times hunted with lions tanned and train
ed, as the cheetahs are in India, express.
ly for hunting. In No. 240 of Six Gard
ner Wilkinson's drawings is the repre-.
sentation offs lion, with which the chas-
seur is hunting and which has just
seized an ibex.
When sport was desired on a. larger
scale than could be had in the immedi-
ate vicinity of the Nile, where the land
was cultivated and thickly peopled,
1T was sought in the neighboring deserts.
When this was to be done considerable
extent of ground was inclosed by nets,
into which the animals were driven by
beaters, the place chosen for fixing the
nets being, if possible, across narrow
valleys, or torrent beds, lying between
rocky hills. In the Egyptian paintings
these long nets are represented as sur
rounding the space in which the hunt is
to be carried on. The net used for this
purpose is thus described by Gardner
Wilkinson, and the description, cores
ponding as IL does with that given by
Xenophon, may be taken as correctly
describing the nets in universal use in
the ancient world. "The long net was
furnished with several ropes, and was
supported on forked poles, varying in
length to correspond with the inequali-
ties of the ground, and was so contriyed
rs to inclose any space by crossing hills.
valleys or streams and cncirciing woods,
or whatever might present itself. Small
er nets for stopping gaps we're also used,
and a circular snare, set round with
wooden ormetal nails and attached by
rope to log of wood and used for catch
ing deer, resembled one still made by
the Arabs. Being thus inclosed the
game was started by beaters with dogs,
the sportsmen being SO placed as to
waylay the the animals or to get within
reach of them with the bow. A spirited
sketch of chase in the desert of The
bald, copied by Sir Gardner Wilkinson
from a tomb at Thebes, gives a vivid
representations of such hunting scene.
Hares deers, gazelles, wild oxen, the
ibex, the oryx and ostriches, together
with foxes and hyeuas, pursued by
hounds, are dashing at full speed across
the plain, while in the midst of them is
porcupine who is taking things very
coolly, as if conscious that his rate of
speed was by no means equal to that of
his nimbler associates, and that any at
tempt to keep up with them would be
vain. The slaughter on such occasions
would appear to have been very great.
In one respect the Egyptians were
sportsmen in the sense in which we
should use that term. Except in these
battues in the desert, they appear to
have killed and taken the animals which
could properly be called game only in
open pursuit. They employed no snares