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NETS BY THE ANCIENTS. 447
the wild boar, nine lines went to a strand instead of three
(X. 2).
It remains to be noticed, tliat, when the long range of nets, set
up in the manner which has been now represented, was designed
to catch the stag {ccrvus), it was Hanked by cords, to which, as
well as to the nets themselves, feathers di/ed scarlet, and of
other bright colors intermixed with their native white, and
sometimes probably birds' wings, were tied so as to flare and
flutter in the wind*. This appendage to the nets was called
the mctus or formido (Virg. jEn. xii. 750), because it fright-
ened these timid quadrupeds so as to mge them onwards into
the toils. Hence Virgil, speaking of the method of taking
stags in Scythia, says,
Nor toils their flight impede, nor hounds o'ertake,
Nor plumes of purple dye their fears awake.
Georg. iii. 371, 372.
—
Sotheby's Translation.
The following passages likewise allude to the use of this con-
trivance in the stag-hunt
:
Nee fonnidatiB cervos includite penuis.—Ovid. Met. xv. 475.
Vagos dumeta per avia cervos
Circumdat maculis et multa indagine pinnce.
Auson. Epist. iv. 27.
Nemesianus, in the following passage, asserts that the cord
{linea) carrying feathers of this description had the effect of
terrifying not the stag only, but the bear, the boar, the fox and
the wolf
:
Linea qumetiam, magnos circumdare saltus
QuBB possit, volucresque metu concludere praedas,
Digerat innexas non ima ex alite pinnas.
Namque ursos, magnosque sues, cervosque fugaces
Et vulpes, acresque lupos, ceu fulgura cobH
Terrificaut, Unique vetant transcendere septum.
Has igitur vario semper fucare veneno
Cura tibi, neveisque alios miscere colores,
Altemosque metus subtemine tendere longo.
Cyneg. 303-311.
The same fact is asserted in a striking passage, which has
* Dum trepidant alee.—Virg. JBn. iv. 121.