196 THOUS ANTHUS. 



Dr Ruppel obtained specimens about Bahar el 

 Azrak. It is not common in Egypt. The same 

 traveller observed a head taken from the catacombs 

 of Syout or Lycopolis, which he concluded to be of 

 this species. It may be also the animal the ancient 

 Egyptians employed to typify the southern hemi- 

 sphere, as perhaps the Syrian chaon designated the 

 northern. Professor Kretschmer, in Ruppel's Atlas, 

 after remarking upon his unwillingness to view all 

 the races of dogs as descended from one stock, al- 

 though it be difficult, even in those the most 

 decidedly marked and possessed of the greatest 

 purity of descent, to decide from which of the ori- 

 ginal species they may be derived, is nevertheless 

 disposed to consider the Thous anihus as the abori- 

 ginal species whence the Egyptians obtained their 

 domestic dogs; and in support of this opinion, he 

 appeals to the similarity existing between that 

 species and the smaller breed of wolf-dogs (the 

 Pomeranian dog) still abundant in the vicinity of 

 Frankfort. But he appears to overlook the ques- 

 tion, even if it were decided, that the mummy dogs 

 of Egypt were embalmed from their domestic race, 

 whether those of Lycopolis, or the wolf city, be- 

 longed to it. The probability, we think, would be 

 that they were entombed one degree lower down 

 the river at Cynopolis, or the dog city, on the island 

 opposite Co, where Anubis was the presiding divi- 

 nity, and the attendant priests ate their food out of 

 the same dish with the sacred dogs. Although it 

 is not unlikely that this race also produced a breed 



