We will briefly run back through the historical records. The materials are
remarkably deficient between the fourteenth century and the Roman classical
period. (1/3. Berjeau 'The Varieties of the Dog; in old Sculptures and
Pictures' 1863. 'Der Hund' von Dr. F.L. Walther, Giessen 1817 s. 48: this
author seems carefully to have studied all classical works on the subject.
See also Volz 'Beitrage zur Kulturgeschichte' Leipzig 1852 s. 115, 'Youatt
on the Dog' 1845 page 6. A very full history is given by De Blainville in
his 'Osteographie, Canidae.') At this latter period various breeds, namely
hounds, house-dogs, lapdogs, etc, existed; but, as Dr. Walther has
remarked, it is impossible to recognise the greater number with any
certainty. Youatt, however, gives a drawing of a beautiful sculpture of two
greyhound puppies from the Villa of Antoninus. On an Assyrian monument,
about 640 B.C.,an enormous mastiff (1/4. I have seen drawings of this dog
from the tomb of the son of Esar Haddon, and clay models in the British
Museum. Nott and Gliddon, in their 'Types of Mankind' 1854 page 393, give a
copy of these drawings. This dog has been called a Thibetan mastiff, but
Mr. H.A. Oldfield, who is familiar with the so-called Thibet mastiff, and
has examined the drawings in the British Museum, informs me that he
considers them different.) is figured; and according to Sir H. Rawlinson
(as I was informed at the British Museum), similar dogs are still imported
into this same country. I have looked through the magnificent works of
Lepsius and Rosellini, and on the Egyptian monuments from the fourth to the
twelfth dynasties (i.e. from about 3400 B.C. to 2100 B.C.) several
varieties of the dog are represented; most of them are allied to
greyhounds; at the later of these periods a dog resembling a hound is
figured, with drooping ears, but with a longer back and more pointed head
than in our hounds. There is, also, a turnspit, with short and crooked
legs, closely resembling the existing variety; but this kind of monstrosity
is so common with various animals, as with the ancon sheep, and even,
according to Rengger, with jaguars in Paraguay, that it would be rash to
look at the monumental animal as the parent of all our turnspits: Colonel
Sykes (1/5. 'Proc. Zoolog. Soc.' July 12, 1831.) also has described an
Indian pariah dog as presenting the same monstrous character. The most
ancient dog represented on the Egyptian monuments is one of the most
singular; it resembles a greyhound, but has long pointed ears and a short
curled tail: a closely allied variety still exists in Northern Africa; for
Mr. E. Vernon Harcourt (1/6. 'Sporting in Algeria' page 51.) states that
the Arab boar-hound is "an eccentric hieroglyphic animal, such as Cheops
once hunted with, somewhat resembling the rough Scotch deer-hound; their
tails are curled tight round on their backs, and their ears stick out at
right angles." With this most ancient variety a pariah-like dog coexisted.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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