EARLY DOGS 



As well as the huge dogs just described, there existed a variety 

 that was its very antithesis in conformation a Greyhound-like dog. 

 This was employed for coursing the hare, or it may be for hunting 

 the timid deer. However, to judge by the records, it does not 

 appear to have found anything like the favour with the Assyrians 

 that we are led to believe was the case with the more savage and 

 bulkier dog already noted. 



Students of ancient Grecian history are aware that several 



FIG. 8. ASSYRIAN HUNTING DOG, AS USED BY THE KING. 



varieties of dogs were identified with the different races ; while 

 even the schoolboy struggling with his Odyssey or his Virgil has 

 at least a faint idea of the fearful dogs that tradition has handed 

 down. Cerberus, the many-headed dog that Hesiod 

 named, and whose existence Homer hinted at, is 

 undoubtedly the most noteworthy of these latter. 

 Of the former, some were used in the more peace- 

 ful pursuit of the chase, and others in the arts of 

 war. The war dogs, which were also big game 

 dogs, were alike formidable in appearance (Fig. 9) 

 and fierce as to temperament ; added to which 

 they were provided with spiked collars and not 

 infrequently armour-clad, so that their capture or 

 their despatch was not easy of accomplishment. 

 They were divided into two groups Pugnaces and Sagaces. Apart 

 from the coursing dog proper, or Gallic Greyhound, there was a 

 long-legged Bull-terrier-like animal occasionally used against the 

 hare ; but to judge from the methods employed to circumvent 



FIG. -9. 



