WTF huntsman Caesar!?
Caius Iulius Caesar (yes, the trigger-happy dude who fooled around with Cleopatra - amongst others - and finally got stabbed by his ‘colleagues’) is known as a tough and clever guy. Yet, as cunning as he might have been, he surely was no huntsman. We can even be sure he has never seen an elk in his life (they were quite common at his time in the woods of central Europe). That doesn’t keep him from giving a lecture on how Germanic tribes hunted them, though. His own hilarious account in his ‘Gallic War’ reads as follows:
There are also elks so-called. Their shape and dappled skin are like unto goats, but the are somewhat larger in size and have blunted horns. They have legs without nodes or joints, and they do not lie down to sleep, nor, if any shock has caused them to fall, can they raise or uplift themselves. Trees serve them as couches; they bear against them, and thus, leaning but a little, take their rest. When hunters have marked by their tracks the spot to which they are wont to betake themselves, they either undermine all the trees in that spot at the roots or cut them so far through as to leave them just standing to outward appearance. When the elks lean against them after their fashion, their weight bears down the weakened trees and they themselves fall along with them. (Gallic War, VI 27; transl. H. J. Edwards)
Nice and convenient method, Caesar. You get the elk and firewood to cook it.
lit: Caesar's 'Gallic War'