HUNTING. The pursuit and capture of beasts of the field was the first means of sustenance which the human race had recourse to, this mode of gaining a livelihood having naturally preceded the engagements of agriculture, as it presented food already provided, requiring only to be taken and slaughtered ; whereas tillage must have been an afterthought, and a later resource, since it implies accumulated knowledge, skill, and such provision aforehand of subsistence as would enable a clan or a family to wait till the fruits of the earth were matured. Hunting was, therefore, a business long ere it was a sport. And originally, before man had established his empire on the earth, it must have been not only a serious but a dangerous pur suit. In process of time, however, when civiliza tion had made some progress, when cities were built and lands cultivated, hunting was carried on not so much for the food which it brought as for the recreation it gave and its conduciveness to health.
The East—the cradle of civilization—presents us with hunting in both the characters now spoken of, originally as a means of support, then as a manly amusement. In the early records of his tory we find hunting held in high repute, partly, no.doubt, from its costliness, its dangers, its simi litude to war, its capability of combining the ener gies of many, and also from the relief which it afforded to the stagnant monotony of a court, in the high and bounding spirits that it called forth. Hunting has always borne somewhat of a regal character, and down to the present hour has worn an aristocratic air. ln Babylon and Persia this attribute is presented in bold relief. Immense parks (rapdacw-oL) were enclosed for nurturing and preserving beasts of the chase. The monarch him self led the way to the sport, not only in these pre serves, but also over the wide surface of the coun try, being attended by his nobles, especially by the younger aspirants to fame and warlike renown (Xen., Cyr. viii. r. 38).
In the Bible—our chief storehouse of primitive history and customs—we find hunting connected with royalty so early as in Gen. x. The great founder of Babel was in general repute as 'a mighty hunter before the Lord.' The patriarchs,
however, are to be regarded rather as herdsmen than hunters, if respect is had to their habitual mode of life. The condition of the herdsman erbues next to that of the hunter in the early stages of civilization ; and so we find that even Cain was a keeper of sheep. This and the fact that Abel is designated a tiller of the ground,' would seem to indicate a very rapid progress in the arts and pur suits of social life. The same contrast and similar hostility we find somewhat later, in the case of Jacob and Esau ; the first, 'a plain man dwelling in tents ;' the second, a cunning hunter, a man of the field' (Gen. xxv. 27). The account given of Esau in connection with his father seems to show that hunting was, conjointly with tillage, pursued at that time as a means of subsistence, and that hunting had not then passed into its secondary state, and become an amusement.
In Egypt the children of Israel would be specta tors of hunting carried on extensively and pursued in different manners, but chiefly, as appears pro bable, with a view rather to recreation than sub sistence (Wilkinson's Anc. Epp., vol. iii.) That the land of promise into which the Hebrews were conducted on leaving Egypt was plentifully sup plied with beasts of the chase, appears clear from Exod. xxiii. 29, I will not drive them out in one year, lest the land become desolate and the beast of the field multiply against thee' (comp. Deut. vii. 22). And from the regulation given in Lev. xvii. 15, it is manifest that hunting was practised after the settlement in Canaan, and was pursued with the view of obtaining food. Prov. xii. 27 proves that hunting animals for their flesh was an estab lished custom among the Hebrews, though the tum of the passage may serve to show that at the time it was penned sport was the chief aim. If hunting was not forbidden in the 'year of rest,' special provision was made that not only the cattle, but the beast of the field' should be allowed to enjoy and flourish on the uncropped spontaneous produce of the land (Exod. xxiii. ; Lev. xxv.