106 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 



Persia, attest, as far as they go, similarly a want of 

 the drooping ears in dogs ; and the Indian carvings, 

 paintings, and manuscripts, are equally destitute of 

 hounds and mastiffs, excepting in the decorations 

 of the Budha temples of Ceylon, where an incar- 

 nation of the god Mattalee, in the form of a fierce 

 dog, occurs ; and another, where Jutaka is attacked 

 by a hunter with his dog. In both representations 

 the animals resemble a Lycaon (Canis pictus, or an 

 Hyoena crocuta) ; in the distribution of colours and 

 spots only, the hunter's dog is smaller, with the 

 ears pointed ; and the incarnate god is larger, and 

 has them rounded, though erect. In the middle 

 ages, the northern invaders of the Roman empire 

 brought with them their own fierce races of rugged 

 and huge coursing and cattle dogs, whose descen- 

 dants may still be traced in Russia, Scotland, Ire- 

 land, Spain, and even America. From the time of 

 the Goths, hounds, before not common, seem to 

 disappear altogether for some ages. The bronze 

 animal of the time of Charlemagne, at Aix-la-Cha- 

 pelle, is not clearly a dog. The oldest, therefore, we 

 have found, is the embellishment of a seal, where 

 two dogs, with dropped ears, we take to be brachet- 

 hounds, are figured beneath a horseman blowing a 

 horn. It is the image of Errard of Orange, about 

 the year 1174 ; the family arms of that house being 

 originally a hunting-horn. The next is on the seal 

 of Alberic de Yere, 1214; and the third, a stained 

 glass of Ferdinand, King of Castile, 1230; after 

 which they become gradually more common. 



