INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 101 



since it was held by a limme, or thong, and, guided 

 by the nose, led the hunter on to the game 



Sic cum feras vestigat, et longo sagax 

 Loro tenetur umber, ac presso vias 

 Scrutatur ore, dum procullente suem 

 Odore sentit ; paret & tacito locum 

 Rostro per errat, &c. 



SENECA IN THYESTE. 



In Persia, where the ruling dynasties were in 

 general descended from conquering tribes of central 

 Asia, and the princes possessed vast hunting packs, 

 as is attested by Xenophon, we find Megasthenes 

 first noticing true mastiffs with drooping ears ; these 

 were most likely known among the Greeks by the 

 name of Candarides and Seri.* The East had also, 

 as we have seen, powerful cattle-dogs and true 

 greyhounds. A race of this kind is likewise re- 

 presented in the hunting scenes depicted in the 

 catacombs of the Egyptian Pharaohs, attesting the 

 remote antiquity of the breed ; and we find them 

 again in the Persian sculptures at Takhti Boustan, 

 which belong to the Parthian era. But with regard 

 to lapdogs, none are noticed in Asia, nor does it 

 appear they attracted much attention among the 



* The Seri were not the Chinese, but the inhabitants of 

 the present Afghanistan, where the mulberry is a principal 

 article of food, consequently, where the silk- worm was reared, 

 and certainly the country whence the silk trade of Europe ob- 

 tained the supply of that article. Candahar is the same 

 country, or a province of tt. 



