84 The Irish Naturalist. August, 



hound, for Miss Byrne gave me two references in which it 

 is mentioned as being led on a silver chain. It is also quoted 

 among a list of Irish dogs in an old manuscript. 



Another dog which is referred to in the list of dogs 

 known in ancient Ireland is the archu, of which the 

 literal meaning, according to Miss Byrne, is slaughter- 

 hound. The contexts suggest that it was a large and iierce 

 watch-dog. From these and other considerations we may 

 assume for the present that it was the English Bloodhound. 

 Dalziel quotes a second century description of a hound 

 which seems to correspond with the modern Bloodhound. 

 The latter is always considered as endemic in Britain. 

 Like the Beagle, Foxhound and Harrier, it has large drooping 

 ears and a smooth coat. All these dogs hunt by scent. 

 In early Britain the ancestor of the Bloodhound or Sleuth- 

 hound was known as the " Lymer " or " Lymehound." 

 It was often employed in tracking wounded deer and 

 deer-stealers, on account of which the name of Bloodhound 

 was given to it. There is no reason to suppose that it was 

 at all common in Ireland, or that it was ever used in the 

 chase. 



In ancient Ireland pet-dogs w^ere also knov/n. Miss 

 Byrne tells me that they were called messdn. and more 

 recently mess-chu, both meaning a little dog. Although 

 the word ore was generally applied to the young of 

 various animals, it seems to have been used occasionally 

 in the sense of pet-dog or lap-dog, instead of the words 

 referred to. We cannot determine the actual breed and 

 nature of this dog, for now-a-days w^e possess quite a number 

 of them. Pet-dogs were already well-known in Roman 

 times. A minute dog was imported both into Greece and 

 Rome which has been identified with the modern " Maltese " 

 dog, but it is not at all certain that it came originally from 

 Malta. Some authorities hold that it was reared in Sicily. 

 That small pet Spaniels were first introduced in King 

 Charles's time is not authentic. They are probably much 

 older. There are reasons for the belief in fact that the 

 earliest pet-dogs were of the Spaniel type, and it is probable, 

 therefore, that this was the kind of dog that found its way 

 to Ireland long ago. 



