THE MASTIFFS. 221 



these animals, and draws a complete portrait of a 

 modern mastiff of Tibet, which, in his time, seems 

 to have been found in Hircania; although it is 

 probable that, as at present, the huge mastiff was 

 the rare breed, and the bull-dog the more common 

 below the mountains. A few centuries, later, we 

 find them again noticed by Marco Polo, who de- 

 scribes these dogs as little less than asses in size ; 

 an account not exaggerated, when we recal to mind 

 the enormous cross breed of Epirus already men- 

 tioned. The high mountain breed of Asia is, we 

 hear, in general black, or very dark in fur, with 

 only a few tan- coloured marks about the face and 

 limbs. A race of dogs allied to the bull breed was 

 anciently ochre-coloured, with a dark muzzle, such 

 as the British mastiffs are mostly at present ; but 

 in former times, when the bull-dog was a larger 

 animal than now, and the mastiff more frequent in 

 Great Britain, as well as through the northern 

 parts of Europe, they were almost invariably yel- 

 lowish with black brindles, and more or less white 

 about the throat, belly, and inside of the limbs. 

 White and black species would naturally occur,- from 

 the tendency to these colours existing in most car- 

 nivora, and indeed in nearly all mammalia. 



The mastiff* is often reckoned an indigenous 



. * We have pointed out the probability that this word is a 

 mere mutation of the French Matin. Old writers Latinized 

 the Mastiff into Mastinus, and more rarely into Mastivus. Mr. 

 Pennant, however, upon the authority of Manwood (Forest 

 Laws), mentions the word Masetkeefe, because it frightened 



