The Dog | Page 8

of greyhounds]
The Greeks, in the earlier periods of their history, depended too much
on their nets; and it was not until later times that they pursued their
prey with dogs, and then not with dogs that ran by sight, or succeeded
by their swiftness of foot, but by beagles very little superior to those of
modern days [12]. Of the stronger and more ferocious dogs there is,
however, occasional mention. The bull-dog of modern date does not
excel the one (possibly of nearly the same race) that was presented to
Alexander the Great, and that boldly seized a ferocious lion, or another
that would not quit his hold, although one leg and then another was cut
off.
It would be difficult and foreign to the object of this work fully to trace
the early history of the dog. Both in Greece and in Rome he was highly
estimated. Alexander built a city in honour of a dog; and the Emperor
Hadrian decreed the most solemn rites of sepulture to another on
account of his sagacity and fidelity.

The translator of Arrian imagines that the use of the 'pugnaces'
(fighting) and the 'sagaces' (intelligent)--the more ferocious dogs, and
those who artfully circumvented and caught their prey--was known in
the earlier periods of Greek and Roman history, but that the 'celeres',
the dogs of speed, the greyhounds of every kind, were peculiar to the
British islands, or to the western and northern continents of Europe, the
interior and the produce of which were in those days unknown to the
Greeks and Romans. By most authors who have inquired into the origin
of these varieties of the dog, the 'sagaces' have been generally assigned
to Greece--the 'pugnaces' to Asia--and the 'celeres' to the Celtic nations.
[The vertragi, 'canes celeres', or dogs that hunted by sight alone, were
not known to the ancients previous to the time of the younger
Xenophon, who then describes them as novelties just introduced into
Greece:
"But the swift-footed Celtic hounds are called in the Celtic tongue
[Greek: ouéztragoi]; not deriving their name from any particular nation,
like the Cretan, Carian, or Spartan dogs, but, as some of the Cretans are
named [Greek: diaponoi] from working hard, [Greek: itamai] from their
keenness, and mongrels from their being compounded of both, so these
Celts are named from their swiftness. In figure, the most high-bred are
a prodigy of beauty; their eyes, their hair, their colour, and bodily shape
throughout. Such brilliancy of gloss is there about the spottiness of the
parti-coloured, and in those of uniform colour, such glistening over the
sameness of tint, as to afford a most delightful spectacle to an amateur
of coursing."
It is probable these dogs were carried, about this time, into the southern
parts of Europe by the various tribes of Celts who over-ran the
continent, and also occupied Ireland, Britain, and the other western
islands, and ultimately took possession of Gaul.--L.]
Of the aboriginal country of the latter there can be little doubt; but the
accounts that are given of the English mastiff at the invasion of Britain
by the Romans, and the early history of the English hound, which was
once peculiar to this country, and at the present day degenerates in
every other, would go far to prove that these breeds also are indigenous

to our island.
Oppian thus describes the hunting dog as he finds him in Britain:
"There is, besides, an excellent kind of scenting dogs, though small, yet
worthy of estimation. They are fed by the fierce nation of painted
Britons, who call them 'agasoei'. In size they resemble worthless greedy
house-dogs that gape under tables. They are crooked, lean,
coarse-haired, and heavy-eyed, but armed with powerful claws and
deadly teeth. The 'agasoeus' is of good nose and most excellent in
following scent [13]."
Among the savage dogs of ancient times were the Hyrcanian, said, on
account of their extreme ferocity, to have been crossed with the tiger
[14],--the Locrian, chiefly employed in hunting the boar,--the
Pannonian, used in war as well as in the chase, and by whom the first
charge on the enemy was always made,--and the Molossian, of Epirus,
likewise trained to war as well as to the honours of the amphitheatre
and the dangers of the chase. This last breed had one redeeming
quality--an inviolable attachment to their owners. This attachment was
reciprocal; for it is said that the Molossi used to weep over their faithful
quadruped companions slain in war.
[Of all the dogs of the ancients, those bred on the continent of Epirus
were the most esteemed, and more particularly those from a southern
district called Molossia, from which they received their name.
These animals are described as being of enormous size, great courage
and powerful make, and were considered worthy not only