From the chase of the hare and rabbit we pass on to that of the fawn and the stag, in which they made use of Indian dogs,[752] animals of great strength, size, speed, and courage. Fawns[753] were hunted in spring, the season of their birth. The first step was for the sportsman to beat up the woods to discover where the deer were numerous; and having found a proper place he returned thither before day, armed with javelins, and accompanied by a game-keeper with a pack of hounds. The dogs were kept in leash afar off, lest they should give tongue at the sight of the deer. He himself took his station on the look-out. At break of day[754] the does, with their yellowish and richly-speckled skins, were seen issuing from the thickets, followed by their still more delicately-spotted fawns, which they led to the places[755] where they usually suckled them, while the stags stationed themselves at a distance, as an advanced guard, to defend them from all intruders. The graceful creatures then lay down to perform their matronly office, looking round watchfully the while to observe whether they were discovered. This pleasing task completed, they, like the stags, posted themselves in a circle about their fawns to protect them. Sportsmen have no sentiment. At the very moment when this most beautiful exhibition of mute affection would have warmed with sympathy the heart of the philosopher or the poet, the dogs were let loose, while their master and his companions, armed with javelins, closed upon the game. The fawn itself, unless chilled and drenched by the dew—in which case it frisked about—would remain still in its place and be taken. But on hearing its cries the doe rushed forward to deliver it, and was smitten down by the javelins or torn to pieces by the dogs. The chase of the female elephant in Africa exhibits the same traits of affection in the brute and ferocity in man. In this case the young will fight for his mother, or the mother for her young till death. Footnote 752: Xen. Cyneg. ix. 1. Footnote 753: The terms by which, in our old hunting vocabulary, the stag was known at the different periods of his life are as follow:—1. a fawn; 2. a pricket; 3. a sourell; 4. a soure; 5. a buck of the first head; 6. a buck. Wase. Pref. to Gratius, p. 12. Footnote 754: Xen. Cyneg. ix. 3. Footnote 755: That is on the ὀργάδες or lawns, which, according to Pollux they chiefly frequented, v. 15. Cf. Schneid. ad Xen. Cyneg. ix. § 1.