Ancient Tibetan hunting dog pursuing wild horses. [After Kraemer] 



Hunting Dogs of the Ancients 



By CHARLES R. EASTMAN 



"W 



■ HEN Alexander the Gi'eat was on 

 his Indian expedition, he was 

 presented by the King of Al- 

 bania with a dog of iniusual 

 size; being greatly delighted with its noble 

 appearance, he ordered bears, and after them 

 wild boars, and then deer, to be let loose before 

 it; but the dog lay down and regarded them 

 with a kind of immovable contempt. The 

 noble spirit of the general became irritated 

 by the sluggishness thus manifested by an 

 animal of such vast bulk, and he ordered it 

 to be killed. The report of this reached the 

 king, who accordingly sent another dog, and 

 at the same time sent word that its powers 

 were to be tried, not upon small animals 

 but upon a lion or elephant; adding that he 

 had had originally but two, and that if this 

 one were put to death, the race would be 

 extinct." 



"Alexander, without delay, procured a 

 lion, which in his presence was immediately 

 torn to pieces. He then ordered an elephant 

 to be brought, and never was he more de- 

 lighted with any spectacle; for the dog, 

 bristling up its hair all over the body, began 

 by thundering forth a loud barking, and then 

 attacked the animal, leaping at it first on 

 one side and then on the other, attacking it 

 in the most skilfid manner, and then again 

 retreating at the opportune moment, until at 

 last the elephant, being rendered quite giddj^ 

 by turning round and round, fell to the earth, 

 and made it quite resound with its fall." 



In the narrative just related, which is 

 found in the eighth book of Pliny's Natural 



History, written in the first century of our 

 era, we find mention of a fierce race of hunting 

 dog bred by the Albanians. Questions of 

 no little scientific and historical interest arise, 

 namely, whence came this powerful variety 

 of dog of the East? And how was it related 

 to other canine breeds that were used in 

 ancient times in the chase of great animals, 

 or to the greyhound, used in coursing for 

 hares? 



For an answer to these questions we must 

 interrogate those monuments which have 

 come down to us from remote antiquity, and 

 represent for us the very earliest glimmerings 

 of light that appear — after the long night of 

 prehistoric darkness — in Babylonia, Assyria 

 and Egypt. Here we find an interesting tale 

 unfolded. 



Directing our attention as far backward as 

 the earliest culture strata in Turkestan, which 

 correspond to the metal periods in Europe, 

 we find several varieties of Canidse abim- 

 dantly represented, among them the so-called 

 "dog of Anau," brought to light in the exca- 

 vations of the citadel of that name. This 

 was a domesticated canine of moderate size, 

 standing with respect to its cranial structure 

 very near to the primitive dingo, and also to 

 a small wild dog of the palaeolithic period 

 (C poutiatini Studer), which latter is re- 

 garded as the probable ancestor of the 

 shepherd dog. 



In vain do we search the Assyro-Baby- 

 lonian monuments for indications of the 

 shepherd dog of the East; in them are repre- 

 sented only the huge Tibetan mastiff and 



403 



